Louise Linton’s Conspicuous Consumption
It is not possible to be even remotely connected with the Trump administration without getting criticized for something–he has that toxic effect, sort of a reverse Midas touch. Even poor Barron, his son, got lambasted for his choice of T-shirt–as if kids are supposed to care about how they dress! Personally, I found his attire the most hopeful sign that he might survive his father’s presidency as a normal boy.
Now we have Louise Linton, newlywed wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. Her crime was that she married a multi-millionaire and felt the need to flaunt it. She posted a picture of herself accompanied by this message: “GREAT #DAYTRIP TO #KENTUCKY! #NICEST #PEOPLE #BEAUTIFUL #COUNTRYSIDE #ROLANDMOURET PANTS #TOMFORD SUNNIIES, #HERMESSCARF #VALENTINOROCKSTUDHEELS #VALENTINO #USA.” And this garnered her some derogatory comments which resulted in a brief Instagram war.
Though I don’t do social media, I’m savvy enough to know that those pound signs are called hashtags. The rest required interpretation, and fortunately some one doctored the photo with price tags. I did the arithmetic, and yes, she really is wearing clothing and accessories worth $14,540, or about half my yearly income. Apparently she felt the need to point out the high-priced and now hashtagged designer labels.
Let me be the thousandth and first person to admit, yeah, that’s really tacky. Okay, she’s rich, she’s rolling in it like a dog that just found a bloated corpse, and maybe she really is too naïve to see how it might affect people who are struggling to pay the rent and raise a family on a low-end paycheck. However, she is not the first to suffer from this social malady. It is called conspicuous consumption, when you buy something not because you need it or even want it all that much, but because you want to show off the fact that you can afford it. It is a rather sad type of pride based on possessions rather than achievement or inner worth, and it’s been around since the first tribal chieftains began showing off their feathers and colored stones.
David Sloan Wilson, author of Evolution for Everyone, writes, “Status is a relative concept. A status-conscious person will love his car if it is the best in town but hate the very same car if others are driving better ones.” However, you don’t have to be that status-conscious prisoner who can only judge your worth though other’s eyes. You can love your car because it starts up first time, every time, and then gets you where you want to go, regardless of what other cars are on the road.
I will admit that I am not naturally immune to this disease. While I see nothing in Linton’s outfit that is particularly enticing, and hate to pay more than $30 for a pair of jeans–which I will then wear until they are falling off of me to get my money’s worth–I too have my designer label, The Mountain. This year alone I squandered $163 on eight T-shirts just so I could adorn my upper torso with dragons, cats, wolves and butterflies. There are no doubt people, including the ghost of my thrifty mother, who would find that extravagant.
I am reminded of something else. I visited a friend, and noticed that my entire house would fit inside his living room. But instead of becoming discontented with my own smaller and shabbier home, I reflected that at least I have a house, my own haven of peace to which I can retreat each day, something that must be envied by the people I see living under bridges and sleeping on park benches. And because it is MY house instead of rented, there’s no one to say that I can’t share it with my feline friends, Aaron, Jess and Abby.
That’s real wealth, price tag not needed.
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Conspicuous consumption is also a theme in my novel, In the Midst of Death . . . . Grace Collins spent a fortune on silver settings and gold brocade. On the other hand, when her son Aaron Collins took over, the first things he ditched were the fancy frock coats and horsehair wigs.