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Conspicuous consumption started with the invention of Santa Claus. Rolex and Mercedes leverage the snob effect. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snob_effect ht

• mumblemumble 5y ago
  It's way older than that. There are ancient Greek philosophers who seemingly devoted their careers to criticizing the phenomenon. I would guess it goes even further back, but, past some point, writing down one's thoughts on the subject wouldn't have been available to anyone who might want to write down their thoughts on the subject.