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Conspicuous consumption persists today. But just as the patricians of classical times changed their habits once the masses gained the ability to copy them, so too have modern American elites recoiled from accumulating mere goods now that globalisation has made them affordable to the middle class. Instead, argues Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, a professor at the University of Southern California, in "The Sum of Small Things", they have begun consuming the fruits of "conspicuous production": socially worthy things like fair-trade coffee. They also emphasise "inconspicuous consumption", of services like education. Far from making the world more egalitarian, this shift, in particular, threatens to entrench modern elites' privileged position more effectively than the habits of their predecessors ever did.
[...] Rather than filling garages with flashy cars, the data show, today's rich devote their budgets to less visible but more valuable ends. Chief among them is education for their children: the top 10% now allocate almost four times as much of their spending to school and university as they did in 1996, whereas for other groups the figure has hardly budged. They also invest heavily in domestic services such as housekeepers, freeing up time that the less fortunate must spend on chores.
Rather than frittering away that precious leisure time on frivolities, as Veblen's leisure class did, they devote it to enriching experiences, like attending the opera, holidaying in far-off lands and working out at fancy gyms. Their children, by tagging along and thus absorbing this "cultural capital", develop the sophistication needed to win admission to selective universities, vastly increasing the odds that they will form the next generation's elite.
The rich also throw lavish birthday parties for their dogs.
(Score: 1) by crafoo on Tuesday August 08 2017, @04:57PM
Too many people are going to college. Most of the people I met at university shouldn't have been there. They were too immature, not prepared, and not motivated to do the work. Fewer people should be going into higher education. This will reduce the demand for student loans, reduce the demand for classroom space, and reduce the cost (lower demand).
Universities need to cut all the BS classes. You know what they are. Everyone does. If It's not a science or math class it needs to be firmly grounded in the classics and HARD AS HELL. No more BS easy rides through a poly-sci or anthropology program and into 80k+ of debt. Students are ripping themselves off and it's sickening to watch.
As far as your assessment of earlier education; I disagree with pretty much every assertion you make. It needs to be harder. It needs to be more competitive. Students should be allowed to fail and feel the consequences. There needs to be less inclusiveness and a more realistic worldview taught. Cultural Marxism is a real thing corrupting our primary education system. We as a society must recognize it and methodically confront it, stamped it out, and impart a more usable, realistic, and ethical worldview to young students. Something that will not cripple them mentally before they have even begun.