LUXURY FEVER.

• Author: de Neufville, Robert
• Position: Review

LUXURY FEVER Why Money Fails to Satisfy in an Era of Success By Robert Frank The Free Press, $25.00

If Robert Frank had his way, we would have spent a lot less over the last holiday season. According to Frank, we are in the grip of "luxury fever," a kind of mania for fancy things we don't need. Echoing Juliet Schor's recent book The Overspent American, Frank argues that we are driven by a need to keep up with our neighbors, sacrificing time better spent with friends and family to work long hours, just so we can buy an impressive car or house which does little to make us happier. The sad consequence is that our unprecedented wealth has not brought us unprecedented happiness.

Although it has a puritanical edge, Luxury Fever is not a moralizing In fact, Frank's use of the word "luxury" suggests an indulgence he doesn't intend. The real subject of his book is not luxury, but rather what Thorstein Veblen famously called "conspicuous consumption"--anything we buy primarily because of the status owning it confers. By "luxury," then, Frank means not only Patek Philippe watches and $5,000 gas grills, but also less extravagant items like wide-screen TVs, Nike sneakers, and gourmet coffee beans. What matters is not how much something costs, but whether we are more interested in the thing itself or in what owning it says about us.

Conspicuous consumption seems superficial, but may not be something we can so easily do without. As Frank points out, our concern with status is not necessarily selfish or shallow, but often sensible: What we own helps determine what social worlds we can enter, what jobs we can get, who we can marry, and so on. An expensive suit, for example, is hardly frivolous if it makes the wearer look more professional or competent in a job interview. Indeed, this is precisely the problem. While certain kinds of ostentation make sense from the individual's perspective, they may be tremendously wasteful from the perspective of society as a whole. The reason is that conspicuous consumption is not productive, but competitive. No matter how hard we compete, the same number of people come out on top.

The real problem with conspicuous consumption is not that it is selfish, but that it is ultimately unsatisfying. Because the Joneses are trying to keep up with us as much as we are with them, it is fruitless to expect any lasting satisfaction from gold watches and expensive gas grills. Nevertheless, Frank estimates--although it is hard to imagine...