my final sample piece for the upcoming Fleet Store project:
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'yes, the wealthy can strut around in more foo foo Jimmy Choos and Harry Winston pendants, but so what? that's all they've got left. being envious of someone's nice outfit is no way to go through life. last i checked, envy is noted above gluttony on the list of deadly sins. and by the way, i think Larry Page drives a Prius, a different type of fashion.
medical care? thanks to the market, you can afford a hip replacement and extracapsular cataract extraction and a defibrillator — the costs have all come down with volume. arthroscopic, endoscopic, laparoscopic, drug-eluting stents — these are all mainstream and engineered to get you up and around in days. they wouldn't have been invented to service only the 1%.
i admit that a private jet beats the TSA rub-a-dub. along with his Prius, Larry Page has a 767. but thanks to guys like Richard Branson and airline overbuild, you can fly almost anywhere in the world for under $1,000. and most places worth seeing are geared to a mass of visitors.
spot the pattern here? just about every product or service that makes our lives better requires a mass market or it's not economic to bother offering. those who invent and produce for the mass market get rich. and the more these innovators better the rest of our lives, the richer they get but the less they can differentiate themselves from the masses whose wants they serve. it's the Pages and Bransons and Zuckerbergs who have made the unequal equal: so, sure, income equality may widen, but consumption equality will become more the norm.
to me, being rich means covering the basic necessities, and then having a challenging career, fun and fulfilling leisure time, and the love of family and friends. compared to 20 years ago, or even five years ago, chances are that you're richer. try to enjoy it.'
- The Rise of Consumption Equality, Andy Keller
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'yes, the wealthy can strut around in more foo foo Jimmy Choos and Harry Winston pendants, but so what? that's all they've got left. being envious of someone's nice outfit is no way to go through life. last i checked, envy is noted above gluttony on the list of deadly sins. and by the way, i think Larry Page drives a Prius, a different type of fashion.
medical care? thanks to the market, you can afford a hip replacement and extracapsular cataract extraction and a defibrillator — the costs have all come down with volume. arthroscopic, endoscopic, laparoscopic, drug-eluting stents — these are all mainstream and engineered to get you up and around in days. they wouldn't have been invented to service only the 1%.
i admit that a private jet beats the TSA rub-a-dub. along with his Prius, Larry Page has a 767. but thanks to guys like Richard Branson and airline overbuild, you can fly almost anywhere in the world for under $1,000. and most places worth seeing are geared to a mass of visitors.
spot the pattern here? just about every product or service that makes our lives better requires a mass market or it's not economic to bother offering. those who invent and produce for the mass market get rich. and the more these innovators better the rest of our lives, the richer they get but the less they can differentiate themselves from the masses whose wants they serve. it's the Pages and Bransons and Zuckerbergs who have made the unequal equal: so, sure, income equality may widen, but consumption equality will become more the norm.
to me, being rich means covering the basic necessities, and then having a challenging career, fun and fulfilling leisure time, and the love of family and friends. compared to 20 years ago, or even five years ago, chances are that you're richer. try to enjoy it.'
- The Rise of Consumption Equality, Andy Keller
ahhh! such a great top, what is the print on the sleeves? can't wait to get a closer look at this. And that consumption quote is really interesting, it makes me think more about participating in an industry like fashion. I've always had a weird sort of guilt writing about material goods all the time but I try to counteract that by focusing on the person behind the product..
ReplyDeleteps. for some reason this reminds me of Kanye West and his new song Devil in a new dress. I'm thinking i might have to continue our consumption discussion via a kanye themed consumption post! haha
ReplyDelete"Stretch limousine, sippin' Rose all along / Double-headed monster with a mind of his own / Cherry red chariot, excess is just my character"
eg. he would be excessive whether he is rich or poor, we are a new breed of humans obsessed with different kinds of excess and luxury.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the quote I had to go and read the full article. Thought provoking stuff. Reminiscent of the growing rhetoric that tomorrow's true luxury will be the handmade and the rare.
ReplyDelete