atoast2toast.com

I learned about this in college. There was a lot going on in Ireland lately:

The term conspicuous consumption was introduced by economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in his 1899 book The Theory of the Leisure Class. Veblen used the term to depict the behavioral characteristic of the nouveau riche, a class emerging in the 19th century as a result of the accumulation of wealth during the Second Industrial Revolution. In this context, the application of the term should be narrowed to the elements of the upper class who use their enormous wealth to manifest social power, whether real or perceived.

With significant improvement of living standards and the emergence of the middle class in the 20th century, the term conspicuous consumption is now broadly applied to individuals and households with expendable incomes whose consumption patterns are prompted by the utility of goods to show their status rather than any intrinsic utility of such goods. In the 1920s, economists such as Paul Nystrom theorized that lifestyle changes brought on by the industrial age were inducing a “philosophy of futility” in the masses, which would increase fashionable consumption. Thus, the concept of conspicuous consumption has been discussed in the context of addictive or narcissistic behaviors induced by consumerism, the desire for immediate gratification, and hedonic expectations.

Whereas previously, conspicuous consumption was thought to be something engaged in primarily by the rich, recent research by economists Kerwin Kofi Charles, Erik Hurst, and professor of finance Nikolai Roussanov points to a different understanding, that conspicuous consumption is more common among poorer groups of people and emerging economies. Displays of wealth in these groups serve to combat the impression that a person is poor, often because they are a member of a group perceived by society as poor.

wikipedia.com