WotD: Conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption is all around us.
Even if you don’t know what it is, you automatically notice it every day.
First, to understand the term, you must know what conspicuous means.
Conspicuous means that something is easily noticeable.
If you were to wear a yellow suit to a funeral in Japan, you would be conspicuous because everyone wears black to a funeral.
Next, we have consumption.
In the case that we have today, consumption means to buy things.
This is why shoppers are also called consumers.
In the retail world, we consume by making purchases.
Finally, when we combine the two, we have conspicuous consumption, which means purchasing expensive things so that other people will see them and admire the owner.
As I said earlier, conspicuous consumption is all around us.
When I first came to Japan, I was surprised to see young women riding the subway and holding what looked to be expensive handbags on their laps.
Initially, I couldn’t understand why they would do that.
In my naivety, It didn’t make sense to have an expensive handbag but have to ride the subway.
Then, I realized it was an example of conspicuous consumption.
These handbags gave the ladies an aura of glamour, or at least that’s what they thought.
Back in the early 1990s, General Motors began selling the Hummer, a civilian version of a military vehicle.
The Hummer was big and highly conspicuous on the road.
These Hummers became the ultimate symbol of conspicuous consumption.
Moneybags who lived in cities and didn’t need a four-wheel-drive vehicle purchased them as a symbol of their wealth and importance.
I suppose the idea is that important people drive big cars.
Now and then, even in the countryside of Japan, I still see Hummers on the road.
They are still the ultimate symbol of conspicuous consumption.
Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test
This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).
On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 66.
The easier a passage is to read, the higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100.