Conspicuous giving makes guests serve as witnesses to a host’s wealth

Evidence

Conspicuous consumption of valuable goods is a means of reputability to the gentleman of leisure. As wealth accumulates on his hands, his own unaided effort will not avail to sufficiently put his opulence in evidence by this method. The aid of friends and competitors is therefore brought in by resorting to the giving of valuable presents and expensive feasts and entertainments. … The competitor with whom the entertainer wishes to institute a comparison is, by this method, made to serve as a means to the end. He consumes vicariously for his host at the same time that he is witness to the consumption of that excess of good things which his host is unable to dispose of single-handed, and he is also made to witness his host’s facility in etiquette. — Grant Bollmer, Katherine Guinness, The Influencer Factory, 239

Categorization

• XREF: Feeds directly into the Corpocene analysis of the influencer as spending on image built through invited witnesses — guests consuming vicariously for the host maps onto audiences consuming lifestyle content.
• SEED: The guest-as-vicarious-consumer structure is a clean lens for why creatives stage expensive collaborations and events rather than privately enjoying wealth.