Class signaling via Apple products

[firecat]

"A Macbook Pro is just as much of a status marker as a Louis Vuitton purse or a BMW."

I recoil at the notion because I think Vuitton purses and BMWs signal a different class than ones I identify with. (At least I tend to have prejudices about people who have those things—I'll assume "not like me" unless I get evidence to the contrary.) But I do think that, in California at least, there's a class I might call "hi-tech professionals" and having Mac products can signal identification with it.

FWIW, I think I'm kind of clueless about class.

Anyway, it's interesting to contemplate. What do you think?

Comments

[graymalkin13.livejournal.com]

I mean, there's a point where you can look at any of those things and say that the cost per marginal value is so high that you must be looking at spending for the sake of spending, rather than at what the person's decision would be if all of the available options cost the same, but I don't know that that's an objectively determinable point.

Use Donald Trump as a yardstick...

I feel weirdly like I'm defending the existence of high-end luxury goods.

Most high-end luxury goods don't interest me, but if someone got upset because they exist, I suppose I would "defend" them too. I would point out that people have always made and desired fine things. Until fairly recently, only the very, very wealthy had any access to luxury goods. These days they are available to a much larger segment of the population. If no one is harmed in the making or consumption of the things, I don't see a problem.

[firecat]

Until fairly recently, only the very, very wealthy had any access to luxury goods. These days they are available to a much larger segment of the population.

Good point.

[dr-brat.livejournal.com]

Which struck me as strange until I, given that there is a greater division of income now than ever. But then I remembered how much debt many people incur in order to access those luxury goods. It's a strange world we live in.

[firecat]

But then I remembered how much debt many people incur in order to access those luxury goods.

True. Some of the debt is in service of maintaining a lifestyle suitable to one's profession or the class one aspires to.