Track 17

Unit 3

Sociology

Social status; flaunting your success

Page 28

Talk about the topic

Parts A and B

So based on the lecture I guess you could say I’ve got status check on my designer’s purse.

No, Molly. It’s limitation status since your bag is done a knock off.

Who cares? It’s gorgeous. Where did you get it?

Oh, no, no, hey, can we please focus on the lecture, alright? We have a lot to review. So alright, here’s one key idea, conspicuous consumption. Can anyone give some examples of some conspicuous consumption that they’ve seen?

Yeah, a couple summers ago I worked for a family in Chicago as a nanny and they had this brand-new bright red Mercedes-Benz and the husband would wash it in the driveway, like every single weekend.

Well, at least he did it himself.

No, no, that’s not my point. My point is that he wanted everyone to see that it was his. So he polish it for like an hour.

So the car was his status symbol.

Exactly. I have another example too which is a little bit different. So I went to this wedding reception last June as friends of my sister’s and it was this beautiful outdoor event, but they just served us so much food like steak and lobster and chocolate tart and Italian sorbet.

I’m so jealous of you.

No, it was gross because it was more food than any person could possibly eat, you know? And it just all went to waste. It was just dumped straight into the garbage.

So you’re saying they were trying to show their guests how wealthy they were, right?

Exactly and you don’t even want to ask how much the bride’s dress costs.

No we don’t. So…