Conspicuous Consumption

Have you ever heard of the word Conspicuous Consumption? It is a pretty common thing we all notice every day when we go out of our house. It is the practice of purchasing goods or services to publicly display wealth rather than covering basic needs. This kind of spending is generally made by people who have a considerable amount of disposable income to spend on goods and services which are not necessary but are more luxurious.

The concept has been developing for ages. It was first practised by the Kings and Nobels, then rich businessmen and now mostly everyone does.

Conspicuous consumption was an idea first noticed by the early 19-century economist, Thorstein Veblen. He observed how the affluent spent money on things to publicly display their wealth using as a way to boost their social power and prestige.

If we have to look at our society, we can find many examples of conspicuous consumption. Many people are possessing expensive jewellery, designer clothes, or branded apparel, expensive gadgets, luxury cars, and what else, there are a lot of examples. In this generation, the kids are also practising conspicuous consumption to display to their friends how rich they are. It's pretty common.

In this era of upgrades, people are getting attracted to different types of gadgets— speakers, laptops, phones, etc. Their demands are increasing rapidly and getting possessed with unnecessary things. For example- one year ago you bought an iPhone 10, and now after the release of the new iPhone 11, your over-willingness forced you to buy the new iPhone while your previous one was still working brilliantly. You brought the new iPhone to show it off to your friend and family, to display your wealth and that’s conspicuous consumption.

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