> There are interesting cases - like why someone who really can't afford a particular thing buys it anyway - but usually that sort of thing, in my experience, c

> There are interesting cases - like why someone who really can't afford a particular thing buys it anyway - but usually that sort of thing, in my experience, comes down to a type of stress that has them making suboptimal decisions all over (e.g. if you're poor, everything is harder, because everything is stressful, and...) In Fussell's Class he diagnoses this as a deeply "middle class" (in terms of socialization, not necessarily income) behavior. Especially if the "luxury" things they're buying but can't afford are also actually kind of bad and not something someone socialized into upper-middle or upper-class attitudes would want (one notable category as an example: just about anything with a conspicuous brand logo on it).