Often, sure, that’s the reason many people buy high-end products. And luxury cars are a prime example because nobody really needs a luxury car.
But instead, say, let’s look at mountain bikes. A midrange mountain bike will be much better than a Walmart special ‘mountain bike’. And a high-end mountain bike will be slightly better than the midrange one. And it’s true, a lot of the people buying high-end mountain bikes don’t really need that extra 10% of performance and maybe aren’t even really capable of using it. A lot of them are buying it just to flex on the poors, or because they have more money than they know what to do with and feel like they just have to have ‘the best’. But there are real enthusiast mountain bikers out there who actually do ‘need’ that extra 10% performance – expert riders taking on some of the worst terrain possible, people stretching the limits of what’s possible, and competitive athletes for whom a 10% performance difference means the difference between first place and last place.
Or, say, look at a tool like a power drill. A midrange drill will be significantly better than some Harbor Freight discount garbage. (Though, actually, HF’s midrange stuff is fairly decent.) And a high-end drill will be only slightly better than the midrange one. Here, there’s even less of a chance of people buying an expensive drill just as a flex. Because who cares what kind of drill you have? The only people buying it who don’t need it are those idiots with more money than sense who have to have the best of everything. But these high-end drills still get sold in fair numbers, because there are professionals out there using them every day. People who use the tool frequently for work can really benefit from one that’s just a little bit more reliable, a little bit faster and more powerful, etc. It allows them to get their work done a bit faster and more reliably, and for someone using it that much, the extra cost of a high-end tool can pay for itself over time by making them able to get more work done in less time and make more money.
At least some high-end products actually do have a purpose beyond just conspicuous consumption.
The majority of consumers for those products a middle aged dads. They simple have a lot of money to burn and it makes them feel good about themselves to blow $15,000 on a mountain bike they ride green trails on or $2000 on a drill they use to hang pictures. It’s pure vanity. But those folks are also living in 5000sq ft homes and driving 80K cars.
Working professionals aren’t consumers. They are producers. There are very few of them, compared to the 100,000s of vanity consumers who are buying luxury goods of which they will only ever use like 10% of the product.
Often, sure, that’s the reason many people buy high-end products. And luxury cars are a prime example because nobody really needs a luxury car.
But instead, say, let’s look at mountain bikes. A midrange mountain bike will be much better than a Walmart special ‘mountain bike’. And a high-end mountain bike will be slightly better than the midrange one. And it’s true, a lot of the people buying high-end mountain bikes don’t really need that extra 10% of performance and maybe aren’t even really capable of using it. A lot of them are buying it just to flex on the poors, or because they have more money than they know what to do with and feel like they just have to have ‘the best’. But there are real enthusiast mountain bikers out there who actually do ‘need’ that extra 10% performance – expert riders taking on some of the worst terrain possible, people stretching the limits of what’s possible, and competitive athletes for whom a 10% performance difference means the difference between first place and last place.
Or, say, look at a tool like a power drill. A midrange drill will be significantly better than some Harbor Freight discount garbage. (Though, actually, HF’s midrange stuff is fairly decent.) And a high-end drill will be only slightly better than the midrange one. Here, there’s even less of a chance of people buying an expensive drill just as a flex. Because who cares what kind of drill you have? The only people buying it who don’t need it are those idiots with more money than sense who have to have the best of everything. But these high-end drills still get sold in fair numbers, because there are professionals out there using them every day. People who use the tool frequently for work can really benefit from one that’s just a little bit more reliable, a little bit faster and more powerful, etc. It allows them to get their work done a bit faster and more reliably, and for someone using it that much, the extra cost of a high-end tool can pay for itself over time by making them able to get more work done in less time and make more money.
At least some high-end products actually do have a purpose beyond just conspicuous consumption.
The majority of consumers for those products a middle aged dads. They simple have a lot of money to burn and it makes them feel good about themselves to blow $15,000 on a mountain bike they ride green trails on or $2000 on a drill they use to hang pictures. It’s pure vanity. But those folks are also living in 5000sq ft homes and driving 80K cars.
Working professionals aren’t consumers. They are producers. There are very few of them, compared to the 100,000s of vanity consumers who are buying luxury goods of which they will only ever use like 10% of the product.