Modern mobility makes portability the chief virtue of status symbols.
Evidence
But now with modern society requiring constant signaling to strangers, the most effective status symbols are portable or transportable: luxurious cars, clothing, jewelry, accessories, and fragrances. To impress “transient observers,” economist Thorstein Veblen advises, “the signature of one’s pecuniary strength should be written in characters which he who runs may read.” — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 206
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Classic citizenship privileges settlement and frames mobility as exceptional — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 142; Mobility has become the central axis of stratification in late modernity — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 653; Status symbols derive prestige from money, time, and exclusive access costs. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 215 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Tech status symbols favor functional goods framed as work necessities
#exemplifies(0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 188 - Mobility has become the central axis of stratification in late modernity
#expands(0.82) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 653 - A status symbol must plausibly serve an everyday function to be convincing.
#expands(0.80) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 207 - Classic citizenship privileges settlement and frames mobility as exceptional
#complicates(0.78) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 142 - Status symbols derive prestige from money, time, and exclusive access costs.
#qualifies(0.72) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 215