O Brave New World
In a
book published in 1899, the social scientist, Thorsten Veblen, put forward a
mini-theory he called conspicuous
consumption. To quote from the indispensible Wikipedia article, it
concerned “the men, women, and families of the upper class who applied their
great wealth as a means of publicly manifesting their social power and
prestige.” I want here to look at a considerable variety of conspicuous
consumers and conclude by identifying a class of consumers of particularly
expensive luxuries most inconspiculously.
The
kind of examples that Veblen surely had in mind are twinkling diamond rings the
size of an
olive on the fingers of the wife or a triple chain of
gorgeously matched pearls, large ones. For the husband (at least some years
later) a “modest” Bentley or a more showy Rolls Royce, membership in the most
exclusive (and expensive) golf club and much much more. Needless to say, there
has to be a splendid house, a veritable villa, in an exclusive neighborhood and
at least a cabin at a fashionable beach.
These
purchases and many more like it are of course visibly enjoyed by their owners.
But to be enjoyed also—perhaps even more—is the fact that the members of their
class could see and admire what they could afford, while the much larger
population of the merely washed would envy them. No satisfaction was to be
gained from the jealousy of the unwashed.
The
conspicuous consumption phenomenon is very widespread, based as it is on
virtually universal psychological, perhaps even biological, traits. What varies
from culture to culture and (and even sub-culture) and from era to era are the
acquisitions that are effectively
conspicuous. In part, the reader has surely noted, this kind of consumption is
a branch of show biz.
Now, as
every follower of the news knows (via internet or perusing printed sources) the
rich are getting ever richer and there are ever more of them (while the merely
washed are making no headway.) Looking just at the chief executives of large
American corporations, we find that the 2014 compensation of two hundred of
them went from the “low” of 12.6 million dollars to the top of 156.1 million.1
If we move on to another category we also move into a much higher region of the
stratosphere. That same year, the top five Hedge Fund managers brought home
from a mere 900 million dollars to 1.3 billion (yes, $1,300,000,000).2
Mind you, in all of the above we are speaking of the “earnings” of a single
year,
What
these folks brought home in 2014 we know, because the companies they lead are
required by law to publish that information. I don’t want to say that this
group constitutes a drop in the bucket, but there are many more super-earners in America, whose main income does not
come from publicly held corporations, so that it does not have to be
revealed—though I have no idea how many such there are. However, there is Forbes’ most visible enterprise: listing
the world’s billionaires. There were 1,826 of them in 2015, with wealth adding
up to $7.05 trillion, written, I think, as $7,000,500,000,000. The largest
number on that list, by a good bit, are Americans, but there is also a sizeable
crew that is Chinese and not far behind a cadre of Russians.
I
am sure that many of these rich and super-rich consume conspicuously in the
manner described, while some, mostly those whose wealth is older, do not so
flaunt their huge capacity to consume. There is, however, another way of
exhibiting great wealth conspicuously. Bill Gates, the richest of them all (in
2015), is doing so by funding and heading a mega-foundation that engages in
good work around the globe, following in the footsteps of Andrew Carnegie and
the Rockefellers. Carlos Slim Helu, number two, has created two art museums in
Mexico City, stocked with works he has collected, while Alice Walton, number
eight, had a world-renowned architect design a museum built in Bentonville,
Arkansas, in a region not otherwise blessed with exhibitions of art. None of
these three museums charges admission fees.
These
are not cases of consumption, but of philanthropy. And there are very many
such. To point to just three New York City examples, there is the building with
two lions in front on Fifth Avenue, there is the theater that is the home of
the New York City Ballet, and there is the medical school on York Avenue. But
note, that building on Fifth now carries the name of Stephen A. Schwarzman,
that ballet company is at home in the David H. Koch Theater, and those
physicians are trained at the Weill Cornell Medical College. Philanthropy for
sure, but emphatically conspicuous.
Now,
finally, let us look at the denizens of that brave new world. On May 11, 2015, Picasso’s Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ‘O’) set a
record for a work of art sold at auction, a tidy $179.4 million dollars. That
same evening, Giacometti’s bronze sculpture, L’homme au doigt, cost its buyer $141.3 million, the highest sum
ever reached by a work of sculpture at an auction. The art market is clearly
booming.
But so
is that of New York real estate. New buildings are going up in Manhattan,
skyscrapers affording views, with condominiums costing sums that are breaking
all records. Here is a sample:
“Last December a long-anticipated threshold was crossed
when a duplex penthouse atop the . . . new One57 condominium, on
Manhattan’s West 57th Street . . . sold for an unprecedented $100,471,452.77.
In 2014 seven more apartments at that address . . . changed hands for between
$32 million and $56 million each . . . . This January, another duplex there
fetched $90 million.”3 And it is only a sample; older New York
condominiums are being bought for unheard of sums. But why do I bring this up?
In an examination by the New York Times,
it was revealed that “Nearly half of the most expensive residential properties
in the United States are now purchased anonymously through shell companies.”4
So we
don’t know who owns these luxury condominiums nor does the public know who
successfully bid on that Picasso or on the Giacometti sculpture. Indeed the new
owners of many other expensive works of art sold during last few years are not
known. As is the case with those condominiums, it is likely that only a small
circle of friends and acquaintances of those owners will know what they have
purchased.
This is
the new class of people that is being created, a class of people who consume
very costly commodities—if not altogether in secret, certainly not
conspicuously. While Miranda had quite different creatures in mind, we can
exclaim with her
How many goodly creatures are
there here! . . .
O brave new world,
That has such people in it!
Your
comments, positive or negative, are much appreciated.
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4 http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/nyregion/the-hidden-money-buying-up-new-york-real-estate.html
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