[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."