Conspicuous Consumption

I live in a state where an Oil boom came right on the coat tails of a land run and statehood.
This created a large number of OIL BARONS at a time when the industrial age was changing us from a agrarian nation to one of industries, factories, and Laissez-faire capitalism.   We had steel barons and mining barons and cotton and cattle and lumber barons.  And in each place that a single man or family dominated that industry in a place, we ended up with a monstrous, castle-like home and a group of larger and more ornate homes that belonged to any others profiting well from parts of that particular area's natural resources and a whole bunch of worker homes--houses both smaller and plainer and and more cheaply made.  
The neighborhood in the city where this oil boom centered (oil capital of the world for years) was a absolutely beautiful area of well-made homes, that between 1912 and 1932 was the home of the richest of the oil and banking world that grew up from the oil boom.

It contained 700 homes.

Today, they are protected as an historical area and range from 1,000 square feet for a couple of hundred thousand dollars to 10,000 square feet for several million dollars.  Not bad in the USA, but, a house in this area that is the the same age is closer to $50 to $150 thousand if in a  traditional worker neighborhood about 5 miles away--depending on size ranging from 1000 to 2000 square foot and how badly it is falling apart. 

One thing has always been true---people buy the best house they can, but if they don't stay healthy and working, they can't pay to maintain it.

The old Barons of industry have now become Wall Street warlords and Bankers and retail magnates and Tech billionaires and in my state at least , still quite a few oil men.  (don't scoff--it's keeping Saudi Arabian royals richer than god.

The newer neighborhoods they have created are even more opulent than the old.

The people working for them that are making better money have enough for cookie cutter McMansions on postage stamp lots.  Their homes costing a quarter of million to get a lot and put up a house (in about a month) that has a lot of covenants and a mandatory home owners association to prevent the rapid decline of the area---or not.  These neighborhoods, planned and thrown up tend to start looking dated and deteriorating in less than 20 years.
The less well paid get to go buy or rent the worker homes constructed over the last hundred years and either live in it till it falls down or spend their spare time trying to maintain it.  Workers are people too.

So why does a family of four need to get a 3 bedroom home unless they are rich, in which case they need multiple homes with enough rooms that they might never make it into some of those rooms during a week, or a month, or a year.  Why do some people have to have a car that cost $100,000 dollars or more when most people drive everywhere they need to go in a car that cost less than $30,000.  Why are there $10 t-shirts and $1,000 dollar t-shirts, $20 dollar shoes and $10,000 dollar shoes, and diamond rings from a few hundred to millions.

Why?

We know that the value of a thing is determined by how much someone is willing to pay for it. 

I prefer an economical car to an economy car, well made jeans to badly made jeans, shoes with good support more than shoes so flimsy they fall apart.

But truly, explain conspicuous consumption.  Explain buying something because everyone knows its higher than it should be just be, so most can't afford it. 

How tragically superficially can we be.