| Description |
326 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Contents |
1. Money Well Spent? -- 2. The Luxury Spending Boom -- 3. Why Now? -- 4. The Price of Luxury -- 5. Does Money Buy Happiness? -- 6. Gains That Endure -- 7. Our Forgotten Future -- 8. Excellent, Relatively Speaking -- 9. Why Context and Position Are So Important -- 10. Smart for One, Dumb for All -- 11. Understanding Conspicuous Consumption -- 12. Self Help? -- 13. Other Failed Remedies -- 14. Luxury Without Apology -- 15. Equity Versus Efficiency: The Great Trade-Off? -- 16. We Can't Afford It? -- 17. Cash on the Table |
| Summary |
Robert Frank caused a national debate in 1995 when he and co-author Philip Cook described the poisonous spread of "winner-take-all" markets. Now he takes a thought-provoking look at the flip side of spreading inequality: as the super-rich set the pace, everyone else spends furiously in a competitive echo of wastefulness. Frank offers the first comprehensive and accessible summary of scientific evidence that our spending choices are not making us as happy and healthy as they could. Furthermore, he argues that human frailty is not at fault. The good news is that we can do something about it. We can make it harder for the super-rich to overspend, and capture our own competitive energy for the public good. Luxury Fever boldly offers a way to curb the excess and restore the true value of money |
| Analysis |
Consumer behaviour |
|
Consumption |
|
Elites |
|
Luxury goods |
|
Overseas item |
|
United States |
|
Wealth |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 295-316) and index |
| Subject |
Competition -- United States.
|
|
Consumption (Economics) -- United States.
|
|
Luxury.
|
|
Wealth -- United States.
|
| LC no. |
98045030 |
| ISBN |
0684842343 |
|
