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Notes -
Thoughts on Consumption, Ethical and Otherwise
TLDR: As costs have changed with automation/globalization/etc the status implications attached to items or forms of consumption have changed, despite the costs reflecting less or even opposite directions of status. Why have the implications persisted beyond the mechanical reasons for it?
A discussion elsewhere since lost, and that acid-trip TEMU ad at the Super Bowl, had me thinking about a statistic I saw in a WSJ article that has really stuck with me.
American’s average spending on apparel has declined from 14% of expenditures in 1901 to 10% in 1960 to 4% in 2002. For the most part, we can see that as early industrialization in 1901, when many things were still tailored, to full factory industrialization in 1960, to early globalization in 2002. In 2023, with full globalization, expenditure on clothing declined all the way to 2%.*
My wife and I are probably a little fancier and more enthusiastic about clothing than the average on the Motte, if asked I would say that I spend more on clothing than I need to and own too much and too expensive of clothing, but we were absolutely blown away by the idea of spending 10% of our annual income on clothing. We agreed that we could probably do it, and have fun doing so!, for one or maybe two years, but after that the budget that would create would just be insane. The idea, as an upper-middle class professional couple, of spending something like $30k-$40k on clothing per year every year is insanity! Buying the best and starting with nothing, I don’t really see how a man in my position could spend more than $10k on clothing, once, with less than $1k/yr spending after that to maintain/freshen, unless one gets deep into really truly strange and expensive frivolities. Yet we still talk about clothing items as status symbols in the same way, despite clothing making up a decreasing percentage of spending, despite the obvious fact that if a lower income American spent like a 1960 American they could easily afford to look like a modern upper class American. Clothing just isn’t actually expensive anymore.
And this got me thinking of how many status symbols have changed so thoroughly in their cost, while remaining essentially the same in their perception. I own a 25 year old BMW 3 Series, which had a $27,000 msrp when new, which I like driving around casually; I also have a 2008 Chevrolet Avalanche which I drive for work, which had an MSRP of $48,000 new. ((For those of you following along at home, I never got around to actually buying a new-er manual car to replace it)) Persistently, people will give me “rich kid” jokes about the BMW, while the Chevy is treated as working class. Not only that, guys driving new pickups that retail north of $60k will give me the same guff about the BMW! The branding still gives credibility or prestige, even long after the relationship of cost has evaporated or reversed. Small “sporty” BMW = rich, pickup truck = blue collar.
I’m utterly confused as to how people around me spend their money, and I’m fairly certain they are equally confused by how I spend mine. I have friends with similar incomes to mine, who are in credit card debt, but also don’t have the things I would expect a person with my income who is also in credit card debt to have. The money seems to evaporate into nights out, travel, concerts, and house renovations. They look at things I “waste" money on, and I can’t say they don’t have a point: I could probably reduce my clothing budget significantly, I own too much expensive assorted strength training and fitness crap, I could reduce my grocery/food budget considerably if I cooked more from scratch. But then I equally look at their spending, and they invite me to go on a trip, or out to a bar, and I look at the price and say I’m not spending $2k on travel, or $100 on a night out. Though I’ll equally admit that my own travel habits are extremely cheap, and my own tastes in food and especially alcohol relatively light and plebeian.
We’re factually in the same social class, we make similar money in similar positions, but our consumption patterns are different. And what fascinates me is that one set of consumption patterns is judged as normal, even blue collar, while another is judged as fancy, bougie, aristocratic. And the meanings of these symbols of upper-class taste have endured beyond and transcended the actual cost-balance of the activities. The expensive microbrewery play-acts as industrial space. Expensive travel is normal, even treated as normative. Housing, education, healthcare are ruinously expensive but treated as normal, invisible even. I’m not sure I know who is right and who is wrong, or even if someone is right or wrong, in terms of what form of spending will lead to The Good Life. But I’m sure we’re both going wrong in reading into status symbols in the way people once did, when the meanings are so twisted and confused.
Really? I'm not saying it's advisable, but it's pretty easy to spend a couple grand per suit, a couple hundred per shirt, and hundreds each on sweaters. Throw in some expensive jeans and fancy socks. Spend another couple grand on Tracksmith running gear. If we're counting shoes, I go through like $500/year in running shoes alone. Don't get me wrong, I don't personally spend all that much on clothes in aggregate, but it's pretty easy to spend a lot as soon as you're into bespoke clothing or just high-end materials.
Yeah, I remain persistently puzzled by how people making anything north of six-figures wind up broke. It is just not very hard at all to look at how much money you're taking in and elect to spend less than that.
I have literally never in my life seen a shirt or sweater that costs $200+. The most expensive shirts I can get cost $100 each, and those are dress shirts (which most people will only ever need one or two of). Everything else is less, often significantly less. The most expensive jeans I have ever seen are Levi's that sometimes cost upwards of $100/pair, but you don't need many and they last years and years. Most people only need one suit, two if they're really feeling fancy and want different colors (and again, those last for years and years).
I'm definitely with @FiveHourMarathon on this one. I can imagine someone who is trying to spend massive amounts of money might spend $10k+/year, for sure. But I can't imagine how someone might have normal clothing habits where they spend that kind of money without even meaning to.
Walk into a Brunello Cucinelli, a Hermes, a Thom Browne, or similar and you'll find hundreds of pretty normal looking clothes selling at 1k+ prices each.
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To be fair, there’s a brigade of women who buy entirely new wardrobes every year to keep up with fashion. That crowd might spend 10% of income on clothes- I’m doubting they all have 6 figure incomes, so maybe more like $6k/yr on average. That seems like a thing that could be true.
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You've never seen a $200 sweater? Take a trip to the mall today.
https://www.nordstrom.com/s/7542724
I confess that while I've been in a Nordstrom (and other mall stores), I haven't actually been shopping there. I am normally just sitting in the husband area while we all dick around on our phones waiting for our respective wives to finish shopping.
This is a human rights issue that needs to be improved upon: the lingerie section at Nordstrom needs a better husband waiting area. My wife always takes a million fucking hours while she gets fitted, is upset that her rib cage didn't get any bigger so the size is still so weird they'll only carry it in three bras, the sales woman digs through the back to find the one weirdo Barbie doll size, then tries all three on until she settles on the one that looks least orthopedic. But the waiting with my credit card area is too exposed! I want somewhere no one sees me!
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I have vintage cashmere sweaters that cost $500+ new, but once again though expensive they lasted the original owners some period of time, and have lasted me years and years since. You can buy several of them but you can't do that every year without amassing a ridiculous collection.
Buying nice "vintage" clothing at thrift stores, both living near the sort of thrift store that regularly has nice things, and having the knowledge and patience to find the nice things also comes across as extremely bougie, with a bit of hipster thrown in. More so than just buying the sweater new, something someone who makes a lot less might be proud of, and see as an accomplishment. I remember someone commenting about how she bought nice boots once, and realizing she was an adult now, and could buy a $200 pair of boots she had always wanted now! Which was empowering for her.
Very true. Second hand shopping is a true High-Low barber pole activity. The Boston Cracked Shoe. The middle class is defined by discomfort with their status, which comes out as a sense of discomfort with buying second hand clothing. Where the poor have no pride to harm, and the rich are comfortable enough with their status that they feel no threat from telling someone they bought a suit at Goodwill. My father in law could not stop laughing about how, in a wedding of two one percenter families, we had a tiny wedding and my wife thrifted her gown while I had an old tux from Goodwill I dusted off for the occasion (though I did buy a pair of new pants for the occasion.
Though I do think more sanitized, online operations like Poshmark and TheRealReal might be changing things around.
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There are definitely people who do just that, though, and they sell their old clothes or donate to thrift stores.
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Or you can sell the old ones to you and buy nice fresh ones!
People do do this; seems crazy to me as well but it's a thing.
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I'm someone who's both fairly frugal and has no issue purchasing clothing/items second hand with the plan to wear them until they fall apart. This, combined with being patient, means I've acquired some choice deals over time.
It's also lead to moments where I realize that I'm out and about for outdoor chores while wearing clothing(shirt, pants, shoes, watch) that, had I bought new, would be edging toward a thousand dollars. So... shrugs helplessly
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The first result on Google for the query "how many dress shirts own":
Yes, and most people don't wear dress shirts every day for work. There's a reason I said "most people".
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I've seen literal brain surgeons be very financially clueless.
If you're not educated in how to manage and invest, that sort of thing can get away from you very quickly.
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Really. Though it may be that my definition of "strange and expensive frivolities" is doing a lot of work there. The tough thing isn't spending money once, it's spending money every year. I've always been a big second hand shopper, and I fell for the BIFL/Heritage Fashion/Investment Piece trend of the early 2010s, and the problem is you buy all this great stuff and it doesn't wear out. I like Allen Edmonds shoes, they can easily run $500-600, and those are quality American made leather shoes. But I really liked them, and pretty soon I had five or six pairs from picking them up at thrift stores, and I still have them all eight to ten years later. Same with suits, same with quality shirts (albeit less so). I'm wearing a lot of the same stuff I bought years ago.
If I were to budget $10k+, for a year or maybe two, I could buy a lot of the things I bought second hand brand new, which would be fun. I can easily go buy a few $900 suits, and a few really great $1k winter jackets, and some $500 pairs of shoes to match. But then I'd have all that the next year! And the year after that! The cost of that high-quality wardrobe is high to start, but the maintenance cost is low, you can't just keep buying suits every year or you're going need impractically large closet.
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