A Lexus in Every Garage by George F Will of the Washington Post was an intriguing article. In the article Will analyzes the upper class in the United States. His main point in simple words is that rich people in America are running out of things to spend their wealth on.
One fact that Will cites in the article that I thought was very interesting was that America’s richest 1 percent of households own more than half of the nation’s stocks and control more wealth (16 trillion) than the bottom 90 percent. This column was written back in 2007 when we had increased oil prices and Will explains how when the richest 20 percent account for 60 percent of the consumption in the United States gas prices have very little effect on how much gas someone buys.
Later, Will introduced positional goods. According to Will, positional goods are enjoyments such as “elite education” or “exclusive” vacations or properties as well as certain clothes, jewelry, and cars. Will explained that now there is so much money “sloshing” around that almost anyone can buy these goods. Because so many of these people can afford these so called positional goods the positional value of the good is significantly decreased. For example, 94.3 % of Japanese women in their 20s own a Louis Vuitton item. Obviously since such a large percentage of Japanese women own one of these items it is not as luxurious to own of these items and therefore the positional value goes down.
In closing, Will says that philanthropy may be the new thing to do among the wealthy. He explains that because of the increased consumption of “positional goods” is resulting in declining enjoyment of vast wealth, then giving the wealth away may be the best “revenge”.
