> In the past, upper-class Americans used to display their social status with luxury goods. And they still do, even moreso today. The greater the inequality in

> In the past, upper-class Americans used to display their social status with luxury goods. And they still do, even moreso today. The greater the inequality in a society, the greater the drive to public displays identifying onesself with the upper class. > The upper classes have found a clever solution to this problem: luxury beliefs. These are ideas and opinions that confer status on the rich at very little cost The whole point of luxury signaling is the cost. If it's not costing you, it's not a luxury signal. > One example of luxury belief is that all family structures are equal. No, that's an example of liberal social progress in action. It's a result of decades of championing those who were being discriminated against due to their nonstandard family arrangements (single mothers, in particular). It's not even a definitive belief of the rich; you have plenty rich folk with conservative family beliefs. > Another luxury belief is that religion is irrational or harmful. Members of the upper class are most likely to be atheists or non-religious. Religion is something we will have to get over eventually. Unfortunately it's complicated in America due to their massive inequality (1/5 of Americans don't even have enough food). So yeah, religious centers fill the gap for social cohesion that poverty exacerbates, and so in America it is still a net benefit (that's not a compliment). This doesn't change the fact that religion is something the world is better off on the whole without. > Then there’s the luxury belief that individual decisions don’t matter much compared to random social forces, including luck. This is a result of another attempt to level the playing field, by making the rich understand that their riches are largely due to luck (usually from being born to affluence). As inequality rises, the chances of transcending strata diminishes severely. Of course, the rich completely missed the point because they don't understand what it's like to struggle. > In other words, upper-class whites gain status by talking about their high status. How is this any different from the time of Marie Antoinette? And yet even during those times you had outward symbols of affluence that were pushed at every opportunity.