Conspicuous Consumption free essay sample

It is the patterns of some of these social factors that I am going to explore in this paper. My main focus, however, will be that of class; the effect ones class has on an individual’s conspicuous spending, as well as an individuals’ perceived method of social stratification in response to other individuals’ class and spending habits. I will also scrutinize said classes’ opinion of the state of the modern day family, and how it relates to trends in spending. I. )Background My main reference point while gathering background information was, naturally, Thorstein Veblen’s book The Theory of the Leisure Class. Written in 1899, â€Å"Theory† is a socio-economic work that discusses a so-called â€Å"Leisure class†, and its relation to the working class and social stratification. According to this sociological theory, Veblen believes there is a separate working and leisure class, with the working class manufacturing goods, and the leisure class, by way of business, consuming them. We will write a custom essay sample on Conspicuous Consumption or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Consequently, my vital concurrent idea in the crafting of this papers sociological structure, and in turn my interview questions, is as follows: in our current day and age, the increase and overall affectedness of business (compared to the year 1899) is monumental. Due to this advancement in business, the â€Å"leisure class† consumer structure has spread to unprecedented classes and walks of life, causing its participants to vary in their overall economic situations. It is for this reason I decided to focus my interviews primarily on the issue of class, which is a stratification entirely participating and vital to the existence of said leisure class. It is obvious that business could not thrive with only one economic group actively consuming, but what is it that makes these separate classes, with all of their differences and stigmas towards each other, participate in the same overall pattern of spending? According to Velben, there is one primary theme tying together leisure consumption. When speaking on the topic, he explains â€Å"†¦the emergence of a leisure class coincides with the beginning of ownership†¦From the ownership of women, the concept of ownership extends itself to include the products of their industry, and so there arises the ownership of things as well as of persons. † 1 While this seems like a reasonable explanation, (being that the amount we own, and the meaning our purchases hold to us, is greater than ever) I believed the overall cause of one’s leisure spending to be more developed. As a society, we are rarely self-sufficient beings, and as a whole advance our lives, jobs, and education primarily for the purpose of ownership and consumption. But what do we wish to gain from all of this? The answer is clearly status; we have been socialized into administrating hierarchal views and methods of economic stratification upon others, and wish for these judgments to be projected on ourselves by others in a positive manner. According to Erving Goffman’s (1959) â€Å"Theory of Impression Management†, life is a theatre in which we are all actors performing our perceived roles, and â€Å"when an individual appears before others he will have many motives for trying to control the impression they receive of the situation. †2 This theory has also been described as â€Å"the ways in which the individual guides and controls the impressions others form of him or her†3 However, it is going to be ones culture (or more specifically their values, beliefs and norms) that personifies these perceptions, and in turn their socialization (i. . how they are taught culture) that is predominantly responsible for this perceived stratification. For this reason, the theme of family was a main influence when conducting my interview. The third and last predominant theme in conducting my interviews is that of â€Å"face† and perception, and what it means to consumer society and the so-called â₠¬Å"luxury fever†. In Robert H. Frank’s book â€Å"Luxury Fever†4, he explains how the nation is being bombarded with a flurry of marketing of similar â€Å"luxury† products, as well as a titanic increase in the average cost of them. In my opinion, this is a strategic play on the perceptions of the leisure class, so that they are apt to spend more money. In an excerpt from â€Å"luxury fever†, Frank illustrates this dramatic increase of price with the example of the company Vikings’ line of â€Å"professional grills†. By pricing their foremost model at an absurd five thousand dollars, they not only create the illusion that their lesser-priced models are more reasonable to purchase at one-three thousand dollars, but also set up a form of social stratification and objective of prestige in the purchase of something as simple as a home grill. In addition, my objective of gaining insight on a subjects perception entails gathering said subjects views and opinions of individuals in both the same or lesser economic situations as themselves, and how they would perceive that individuals action of irresponsible spending. II. )Interview Background I wanted to make sure my subjects met a set of coherent, unchanged factors, so that my results were as effective as possible in answering my topics. The most operative constant I decided to incorporate in my interviews was the elimination of gender differences. It’s not uncommon for men and women’s spending habits and opinions to be drastically different, and I felt that that conflict would take away from my overall aim in this study. I also felt that middle-aged mothers (over thirty) would provide me with the most interesting and honest answers due to the fact that I wanted a fair amount of life experience, and exposure to economic transition (particularly in the prices of things). It was also important that the subjects were head (or primary contributors) of their family dynamics. I interviewed five subjects in three separate environments. All of my subjects were with their families at the time, but I took steps to try to conduct my interviews at time that seemed convenient, so that our conversation was not rushed. I would ask if I could have five to ten minutes of their time, and then asked them a couple of preceding demographic questions: their age, occupation, education, salary, and current family structure. I did this so I could not only infer the subject’s class, but recognize any familial patterns in relation to their â€Å"demographic† and answers/opinions.