New Money status symbols have very low symbolic complexity

Evidence

Conspicuous consumption is a universal language: it’s obvious evidence of wealth. No cultural capital is needed to read its codes. Any uninformed, impoverished child from any region on earth would be able to assess the scale of Drake’s fortune. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 318

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Veblen’s conspicuous consumption plus Bourdieu’s distinction — the low-vs-high cultural capital axis. — connects to: Ambiguity in a symbol’s meaning weakens its status signal. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 228; New Money universally signals status through conspicuous consumption across eras and cultures — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 309; Power flows when coded, like money, transmitting reduced complexity

Broader Connections

• Power flows when coded, like money, transmitting reduced complexity #corroborates (0.78)