Extravagant life style

Extravagant use of wealth
Decadent standard of living
Conspicuous consumption

Nature

The extravagant use of expensive goods or services in order to demonstrate status and wealth leads to a large proportion of a country's economic resources being allocated to the production of luxury goods and consumer durables which need to be periodically replaced.

Background

The problem of extravagant lifestyles gained global attention during the late 20th century, as rapid economic growth and media proliferation exposed stark contrasts between conspicuous consumption and widespread poverty. High-profile scandals involving lavish spending by elites, from the 1980s onwards, intensified scrutiny of the social and environmental costs of excess. Academic and policy debates increasingly recognized extravagant lifestyles as symptomatic of deeper systemic inequalities and unsustainable resource use, prompting calls for greater accountability and moderation.

Incidence

This term was heavily used by Thorstein Veblen in his Theory of the Leisure Class, published in 1899. According to a 1991 Forbes magazine report, there were 71 billionaires in the USA listed out of the 400 richest people in America, whose net worth reached $288 billion.

Claim

Men are dehumanized not only by the work situation but also by the ends for which society uses work, chiefly consumption for its own sake. The unproductive acquisition of goods has become the primary means of achieving social status in the community. The yearning for achievement and the instinct for workmanship tends more and more to shape itself into a straining to excel others in pecuniary achievement. If consumption then becomes "conspicuous", it is because in an increasingly heterogeneous and differentiated society, there is no ready means of acquiring status except by spending money and acquiring goods. The industrial revolution has thus replaced all workmanship with labour and the result has been that products have become objects for consumption rather than things which are there to be used.

Counter-claim

The so-called “problem” of an extravagant lifestyle is vastly overstated. People have the right to spend their hard-earned money as they wish, and their choices often fuel economic growth and innovation. Criticizing extravagance distracts from real societal issues like poverty and inequality. Instead of policing personal preferences, we should focus on creating opportunities for everyone, not shaming those who enjoy the fruits of their labor. Extravagance is simply not an important problem.