Global status signaling favors easily readable wealth over obscure cultural codes.

Evidence

Individuals always signal with their most valuable assets, and when local Dubaian or Tuvan customs mean nothing to global audiences, the most obvious approach is to emphasize economic capital. Conspicuous consumption requires few secret codes, just the brute force of large expenditure. Milan Kundera was prescient when he wrote, “The brotherhood of man on earth will be possible only on a base of kitsch.” He was off by one word: unity requires luxury kitsch. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 727

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Ties to the immodesty/complaint essay’s theme of globalized status signaling via overt display — a cosmopolitan parallel to how dress norms mediated class and identity.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Involuntary cues reveal class more reliably than purchasable signals do — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 201; Easy access to information destroys its power as a status signal. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 707; Status is zero-sum and cannot rise for everyone at once — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 73 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Media cultures measure human worth by wealth and political access. #corroborates (0.80)
• Global scale renders subtle status signals invisible and favors blatant ones. #expands (0.80) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 733
• Mastery of a society’s codes enables successful passage through its culture #complicates (0.72)
• Wealth is pursued as a status marker within an elite circle. #exemplifies (0.70) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1471