David Graeber’s new book Bullshit Jobs strongly recalls Thorstein Veblen’s classic The Theory of the Leisure Class. In the latter book, the concept of conspicuous consumption was first brought out ...

Explore consumerism's role in driving economic growth, its benefits, drawbacks, and impact on society, economy, and the ...

It’s sometimes said that people buy products they don’t really need, with money they don’t really have, to impress people they don’t really like. This behaviour is known as conspicuous consumption ...

In this time of extreme climate crisis, it is critical that we all reduce our consumption. But should all the responsibility lie on individual consumers? Is it a policy issue for regulatory agencies ...

Get any of our free daily email newsletters — news headlines, opinion, e-edition, obituaries and more. Other than trophy homes and big box stores, large SUVs and pickups are the most blatant examples ...

Ask a Filipino millennial or Gen Z-er what “Black Friday” is, and they will probably say that it is practically synonymous with shopping. Black Friday is indeed tied to shopping. It falls on the day ...

When George W. Bush took office in January 2001, the economy was producing roughly $10 trillion worth of output annually. This year, it looks like production will be in the neighborhood of $13.5 ...

Last week, people at Target nearly bloodied each other as they fought to get one of the new, special-edition Valentine's Day cups from Stanley, a company known for its TikTok-famous tumblers. Stanley ...

Buckle up, everyone; this post is going to be a long one. Today, I wanted to discuss the matter of conspicuous consumption: the art of spending relatively large sums of money on luxury goods. When you ...