[lbo-talk] Is Iphone mostly white?

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Sun Sep 23 15:02:12 PDT 2012


John G: "> OK. I'll grant you that, if you grant me the unsubstantiated claim that the segment
> of the white working class which still enjoys disposable income, still has access to
> consumer credit, is not drowning in an underwater mortgage, etcetera "do not mind
> spending considerable amounts on expensive" toys with electrical motors,"

[WS:] I am not sure what you are trying to argue here. My point was rather simple - that people spend some nontrivial amounts on the so-called "status items" pretty much regardless of their income level.

That is rather obvious and trivial. What I find more interesting is how different social groups go for different types of status items - different types of electronic gadgets, different ways of spending free time, different types of vehicles, etc.

Bourdieu talked about this in his book "Distinctions" - he argued that different types of aesthetic preferences become markers of class or rather class fractions within the same socio-economic class. Much more so than income level. I find it interesting to observe how this phenomenon keeps manifesting itself with the arrival of new gadgets, such as smart phone - and how different classes or class fractions adopt different types of gadgets.

-- Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."



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