> According to a recent analysis from Moody’s Analytics for the Wall Street Journal, households with the top 10% of incomes, making about $250,000 or more a year, now account for nearly half of all consumer spending — the highest share since they’ve been collecting data on this stuff.
And there are many other references. Add to that bitcoin mining, and the all-consuming needs of "AI" both of which really benefit a minority in a zero-sum energy commons until lots of new energy sources are available.
Arguably, less consumption of excess items, IMO, like megayachts, private jets, and islands would conserve vast amounts of energy. Watts Wacker argued for "downward nobility"[1], but extreme ostentation still seems to rule.
> Downward nobility
> Want to show off? Walk into a room and say you’re a happy person. Better yet, announce that you’ve been happily married for 25 years. Satisfaction and domestic contentment are the status symbols of the future. The market is supersaturated with physical stuff, so instead of depending on conspicuous consumption, status will hinge on what’s scarce – spiritual experiences. That’s downward nobility, and it will become a fundamental organizing premise of the desires of humanity.
Who will invent the Richgasmatron, so that extremely wealthy people can become extremely happy at a much lower cost to themselves and the environment? Or convince people that happiness can be achieved less the mansions, yachts, jets and islands. And "trophy wives". Do people realize that "owning" people demeans both the owner and the "owned"? IMO, that's really sick.
[0] https://www.marketplace.org/story/2025/02/24/higher-income-a...
anovikov•6mo ago
rawgabbit•6mo ago
Because it was political, it was not necessary logical or beneficial. Some good came out of it such as maybe we should stop spraying pesticides everywhere and take another look if these pesticides were safe for human contact. Some of it was self-defeating. The left claimed they supported working people but some of their policies hurt working people like NIMBY.