Don't hate on spenders.
"What, like those folks who brag about taking the entire family to Disney World?"
Yeah. Them. Those status-signalling conspicuous-consuming early-adopting aspirational arrivistes. They wanna flex buying SUVs on credit rather than a used station wagon with cash? Let 'em.
"Dude! You're the one always kvetching about people throwing money around. This is you: 'Myeh myeh myeh, could have bought ETFs with those private school fees'. You having a change of heart?"
Kinda. Maybe.
Wanna know how Disney makes money?
Disney Parks, Experiences and Products is the second highest segment in operating income terms (13%). It rebounded to USD$356M in Q3 FY 2021. The pandemic clearly didn't stop people flooding socials with Disneyland vacay selfies.
Am I suffering from sour grapes because my folks didn't think I was worth a U.S. holiday?
I'll be the first to admit that I wanted to go to Disneyland when I was a kid. But even then, I kind of knew that Disney was kind of a status thing.
And since I'm no longer a kid, and I don't have any, every year brings less pressure to book a trip.
I do love me some high-production-value motion pictures though.
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| "The Manda-Loss-Leader" |
Na'ear'dis!
Disney's Direct-to-Consumer streaming services like Disney+ have brought me so much joy with amazing shows like Black Widow.
It recorded a USD$293M loss in the same quarter.
Extra points because they just signed up to kick in more to my bank dividends. Ooh, and they bought a Baby Yoda Funko Pop, so Season 3 ... fully funded.
The least I can do is listen to them gush about how you can't put a price on cherished memories. (Sure you can. Show me the receipts.)
They the real MVP.Free Ride Mechanics
What eldritch sorcery is afoot?
In the Disney case, it seems that I am playing off two horizontal divisions of a multinational. I enjoy the branding exercise of the shows but refrain from buying the merch. Others buy both, thus paying my way as well as theirs.
There are other instances where others appear to foot my bill.
Business class folks kicked in for my economy flight.
Early adopters of rooftop solar pushed my power prices down.
Tesla Roadster buyers make it easier to afford a Model S.
What am I exploiting? I'm no longer inclined to say that I am capitalising on others' desire for status or exceptionality.
It's more about me preferring to buy stuff with the following characteristics:
- Easy to mass produce
- Easy to distribute
- Easy to substitute
... and then waiting for someone else to fund that low margin stuff by buying high margin stuff, and not competing with their spending firepower.
I'm not ripping anyone off. Still, it feels like using a cheat code. Or choosing being miserly over being pro-social.
Wait. I'm a psychopath because I don't pamper moi?
Because I don't partake in ...
[Americanism:] Using money you haven’t earned to buy things you don’t need to impress people you don’t like.
-- Robert Quillen, 1928
If we were to be perfectly honest with ourselves, we'd admit that a lot of our behaviour and therefore a lot of our spending is not for ourselves or our families, but to belong. We are obliged to demonstrate the memetic (learned) desires according with our station.
That's not to dismiss it as fakery. Turning up in the right clothes with the right stories helps people to quickly categorise you, saving them the brainpower they would otherwise burn ascertaining your standing. Conspicuous consumption can be widely beneficial social lubricant.
Whoa. So being stingy doesn't just feel like I'm cheating. I am cheating?
Get what you pay for
Free riding means that I am getting something for nothing, like someone who gets to enjoy democracy without expending the effort to vote.
That is too simplistic. Consumer purchases are multi-layered. There is the positional aspect of the good. But let's not forget about the good itself.
So if I don't buy premium, and I don't receive the corresponding bragging rights then ... nothing to see here. And if I pay for a basic substitute and receive it ... all's right with the world.
And it's not as if I am selfishly jamming up society by refraining from status signalling.
Whatever I do, I fly a flag, and I'm conscious that I more often mark myself as a cost-cutter rather than a go-getter.
So ... not cheating?
What about the opposite of cheating consumption norms? No, not being cheated, but enforcing them?
Ought Police
Back to the idea that the 'stuff' we buy comes with a whole lot of extras. We also buy what it signals.
This widens the circle of participants in a transaction. It's no longer me the buyer versus a faceless market. There's also sellers, and others being signalled to.
Specifically, a seller like Disney may be using my transaction to signal to other buyers.
Whether I only saw the streaming shows or whether I shelled out for the rides, I can still make small talk about the Avengers with the proud fan who pre-ordered their replica Mjolnir. We both get an oxytocin hit and I affirm their decision by rewarding them with common conversational ground, if not approval.
From Nasrullah Mambrol:
[Michel] Foucault’s concept of the ‘microphysics of power’ suggests that modern disciplinary methods are internalized and produce subjects that are constituted via a network of relations. The traditional ‘top down’ notion of power is thus replaced with one that is horizontal, not vertical.
While gentler than authoritarian jackboot, control by peer pressure means that even marginal me can be co-opted into reinforcing desires that powerful players wish to be memetic.
I'm not a parasite. (Nothing rare about that. Around 40 percent of animal species are parasites.) I'm working for the Man ...
... dalorian. (ba-Dum🥁 Tsh!)
Beyond the Sale
Zooming out lets us see markets not purely as forums for adversarial transactions, and more like ecosystems which cater to diversity. This means that there is no universally optimal way to participate. Someone else's 'bargain' may be my 'waste of money'. My idea of a great deal would symptomise to others a repellent cheapness. My parasitism may actually be symbiosis.
Furthermore, strategies to exploit this diversity mean that markets would not work if everyone was like me. They would also work less smoothly if no one was.
This would be trivial if consumerism and its side effects were not so impactful.
As consumption becomes the dominant form of self-expression, those who will not consume a particular product can be more easily used to nudge those who may.
What else they gonna do? Make their own merch?
Fine. Challenge accepted. First step for parts: AliExpress ... wait a minute ...
We cannot conceive of alternatives to consumption.
If producers and purveyors play their cards right, me parroting environmentalist slogans will sway you to outlet your green leanings towards buying solar panels or a Tesla, rather than - god forbid - simply buying less.
So blessed be the buyers for feeding the engines of consumerism.
Blessed be the 'free riders' like me for encouraging them.
But heaven help all of us.
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