top | item 23578025

(no title)

scottishcow | 5 years ago

Never said it does, was it confusing? Maybe my English needs more work.

discuss

order

pdonis|5 years ago

> Never said it does

Then I don't understand who this question is supposed to be directed at:

> Are there any activities left that doesn’t function as a form of conspicuous consumption?

My answer would be that none of the activities you list (with the possible exception of the kind of wannabe entrepreneurship the paper is talking about) are conspicuous consumption. But it seemed like you were directing the question at the authors of the paper, not me.

scottishcow|5 years ago

> Then I don't understand who this question is supposed to be directed at:

To the HN community of course.

> My answer would be that none of the activities you list (with the possible exception of the kind of wannabe entrepreneurship the paper is talking about) are conspicuous consumption.

That’s a valid response, although I don’t agree. Note that I’m not regarding these activities to be entirely about conspicuous consumption, just like the paper doesn’t claim all of entrepreneurship is veblenian. Fwiw the paper does cite another work that claims some internships can be viewed as a form of conspicuous consumption.

dnautics|5 years ago

I think it was a rhetorical question directed at me. I got a chuckle out of it, it made me go 'hum...', and brightened my day about one micromort's worth.