How the leisure class has been replaced by a new elite, and how
their consumer habits affect us all In today's world, the leisure
class has been replaced by a new elite. Highly educated and defined
by cultural capital rather than income bracket, these individuals
earnestly buy organic, carry NPR tote bags, and breast-feed their
babies. They care about discreet, inconspicuous consumption--like
eating free-range chicken and heirloom tomatoes, wearing organic
cotton shirts and TOMS shoes, and listening to the Serial podcast.
They use their purchasing power to hire nannies and housekeepers,
to cultivate their children's growth, and to practice yoga and
Pilates. In The Sum of Small Things, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett dubs
this segment of society "the aspirational class" and discusses how,
through deft decisions about education, health, parenting, and
retirement, the aspirational class reproduces wealth and upward
mobility, deepening the ever-wider class divide. Exploring the rise
of the aspirational class, Currid-Halkett considers how much has
changed since the 1899 publication of Thorstein Veblen's Theory of
the Leisure Class. In that inflammatory classic, which coined the
phrase "conspicuous consumption," Veblen described upper-class
frivolities: men who used walking sticks for show, and women who
bought silver flatware despite the effectiveness of cheaper
aluminum utensils. Now, Currid-Halkett argues, the power of
material goods as symbols of social position has diminished due to
their accessibility. As a result, the aspirational class has
altered its consumer habits away from overt materialism to more
subtle expenditures that reveal status and knowledge. And these
transformations influence how we all make choices. With a rich
narrative and extensive interviews and research, The Sum of Small
Things illustrates how cultural capital leads to lifestyle shifts
and what this forecasts, not just for the aspirational class but
for everyone.
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