Commodities mediate social prestige despite being essentially social not economic

Evidence

Adorno maintains that consumers desire things not for their inherent worth, but rather because they are viewed as valuable (in a noneconomic sense) by the general public. However, this has an effect on the economyof things,whichiswhycommoditiesdoinfacthaveamediatingfunction between individuals. Although essentially social rather than economic by nature, this function appears to belong to commodities themselves: a particular commodity confers a particular prestige which can be acquired through its purchase. — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 470

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Veblen’s conspicuous consumption and to Bourdieu’s later work on distinction and taste. — connects to: Commodity fetishism in mass production dictates conventional human behavior — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 46; Prestige seeking replaces genuine enjoyment in cultural consumption; Commodity fetishism presents social labour relations as properties of things — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 410 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Commodity fetishism presents social labour relations as properties of things #expands (0.85) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 410
• Color gradation within colonized families encodes a hierarchy of social worth. #exemplifies (0.82)
• Market relations are real yet structurally unable to express the underlying social labor #expands (0.80)
• Wealth accumulation shifted social valuation from actual ability to prestige. #corroborates (0.80) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 438
• The money economy makes social action approach pure objectivity #qualifies (0.75) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 180