Luxury Status Symbols
Comments discuss why people buy expensive luxury items like diamonds, cars, gadgets, and designer goods primarily as status symbols or Veblen goods for signaling wealth rather than for utility or functionality.
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It's just a status symbol / veblen good.
It's a status symbol. People pay lots of money for status symbols even though other products which provide similar levels of service are a lot cheaper.
People don't buy prestige items for value, they buy them to show off the fact they can drop x amount on items with no utilitarian value
It's a status thing. Same reason why people buy expensive cars.
It doesn't just pertain to diamonds. It's the same thing with expensive clothes, bags, shoes, wines, cars, gadgets, etc. It's just a way to flaunt one's wealth. It's unfortunately a side effect of our consumption-oriented society.
People will really pay anything for status over functionality.
It's seen as a status symbol, of youngish successful tech people with disposable income. It's conspicuous, so people see it as typical conspicuous consumption, with the feelings that come with that. I think that's it, though I'm not entirely certain.
Most likely some kind of signalling behaviour.Status signalling is what a particular kind of "rich" person does to indicate they are rich or high value. Often also used to bolster social capital. You see it when women buy extraordinarily expensive designer brand hand bags. Men buying sports cars but have no clue what is under the hood. The key element is not the actual product but the visible cost involved in actually purchasing it - expense as a feature.
I think you are correct. It's a status symbol at this point. It's the digital version of "inconspicuous consumption" [1].[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/inconsp...
What's the issue with people bragging? That's what luxury items are for. It's just a modern status symbol.