The Lure of Luxury
&gt; Why would anyone spend thousands of dollars on a Prada handbag, an Armani suit, or a Rolex watch? If you really need to know the time, buy a cheap Timex or just look at your phone and send the money you have saved to Oxfam.<p>One issue is there&#x27;s a kind of missing middle in many goods markets. There&#x27;s cheap shit, and overpriced &quot;luxury&quot; signaling goods that may or may not be much better. Personally I often find sorting the actually-good from the faux-good on the (lower end of the) luxury side, then catching it used or on sale, easier than trying to find then assess the quality of mid-level products (if they exist at all—often they do not) or suss out unusually good cheap products.<p>So far as signaling goes, until people stop being biased in favor of folks who look well-off (or at least &quot;proper&quot; for whatever setting), even when they think they&#x27;re not, that won&#x27;t stop being a thing worth considering.<p>EDIT: nb. there&#x27;s a lot more to this article, for those who haven&#x27;t read it yet, and I&#x27;m in no way intending to <i>dismiss</i> it.