#1: 咱们来看看美国的正宗小资！！the members of the lucky sperm club. (938 reads) 作者: ceo/cfo, 时间: 2007-6-23 周六, 04:00 — 作者：ceo/cfo 在 海归茶馆 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
Wealthy Mimic Old Elite
-- Or Do the Opposite;
'The Lucky Sperm Club'
June 22, 2007; Page W2
To be an official member of the American "upper class"
you used to have to follow a clear set of rules.
In his 1899 classic, "The Theory of the Leisure
Class," sociologist Thorstein Veblen wrote that the
Gilded Age rich were defined by their excess leisure
and cultivation: "Refined tastes, manners, and habits
of life are a useful evidence of gentility, because
good breeding requires time."
WEALTH REPORT
Check daily posts on Robert Frank's blog, The Wealth
Report.Paul Fussell, the cultural historian, updated
these rules in his satiric 1983 book, "Class: A Guide
Through the American Status System." The upper crust,
he said, was distinguishable from the middle class and
"proles" by their tweed jackets, aristocratic chins
and aversion to bowling. "If you want to have status,
it's important that you never, never go bowling," he
wrote. Billiards were fine, as long as your house had
a "rather large" billiards room.
Even "The Preppy Handbook," Lisa Birnbach's 1980
parody of the prep-school set, served as a useful
field guide for blue bloods. Going to Harvard,
Princeton or Yale was acceptable; Columbia and Cornell
were "out of the league."
Yet today, the rules for high society are breaking
down. There are simply so many new millionaires and
billionaires -- from diverse backgrounds and
lifestyles -- that the old signifiers of status have
become obsolete. The guy in jeans at the Sotheby's
auction is more likely to buy a $40 million Picasso
than the guy in the suit, who is probably just an art
dealer. And the vast majority of today's richest
Americans didn't go to Ivy League schools; others,
like Bill Gates, even dropped out. As for Veblen's
"breeding" and "manners?" One look at the
all-you-can-eat Sunday brunch buffet at Donald Trump's
Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach will tell you that
manners no longer maketh the rich man (or woman).
So what are the new rules? While there is no longer a
unified culture of the elite, today's moneyed class is
following certain patterns that sometimes mimic the
ways of the old elite -- and sometimes turn them on
their head:
鈥?INHERITANCE -- In Veblen's day, those with
inherited wealth had higher status than the self-made
rich. "Wealth acquired passively by transmission from
ancestors or other antecedents presently becomes more
honorific than wealth acquired by the possessor's own
effort," he wrote. Most of the upper class, Mr.
Fussell said, "owe it all to their ancestors."
Today, most of America's rich are self-made, and
inherited wealth counts for less than 10% of the
fortunes of current multimillionaires, according to a
study by Prince & Associates, a Connecticut-based
wealth-research firm. Entrepreneurs are the new kings
of affluence. The inherited wealthy are looked down
upon as, in the words of billionaire Warren Buffett,
"members of the lucky sperm club."
鈥?SPENDING -- In Veblen's era, conspicuous
consumption was the order of the day (he coined the
term). The basis for status, he wrote, was wealth, and
the proof of your wealth was in the things you
purchased. The rich man or woman "consumes freely and
of the best, in food, drink, narcotics, shelter,
services, ornaments, apparel, weapons and
accoutrements." Wasteful spending wasn't just
tolerated by the wealthy; it was required to show your
ample means.
By the early 1980s, the rich had become reserved,
responding to a post-Depression, cultural backlash.
"Showing off used to be the main satisfaction of being
very rich in America," wrote Mr. Fussell. "Now the
rich must skulk and hide."
No more. According to some studies, American
millionaires are spending hundreds of billions of
dollars a year on homes, cars, antiques, jewels, jets
and other consumer goods. Veblen's conspicuous
consumers, in other words, are back.
鈥?CLOTHING -- For the elite of the late 19th
century, clothing was designed to be deliberately
impractical. The most honored kind of wealth was
inherited, so daily work was considered a debasement.
Clothing, therefore, conveyed a life of pure leisure.
Whether it was white linen suits and "lustrous" hats
for men or corsets and elaborate bonnets for women,
clothing, Veblen said, should be "expensive but it
should also make plain to all observers that the
wearer is not engaged in any kind of productive
labor."
Today's elite are all about being conspicuously
practical. The idle rich have been replaced by the
roll-up-your-sleeves, workaholic wealthy, even if
their "work" involves organizing charity fund-raisers.
For women, corsets and bonnets have been replaced by
lavish accessories like Fendi handbags, and $600 Jimmy
Choo sandals are the new status symbols. For men,
white-linen suits are out: $700 jeans and designer
T-shirts are in. Suits are for the help. As one Palm
Beach banker who serves the rich told me recently:
"The wealthy wear T-shirts and shorts every day,
because they've earned that right. We work for them,
so we wear suits."
鈥?YACHTING -- In "Class," Mr. Fussell wrote that of
all the pastimes of the wealthy, yachting --
specifically, sailing -- topped the list. "Sail is far
superior to power, partly because you can't do it
simply by turning an ignition key and steering -- you
have to be sort of to the manner [sic] born." Bigger
was better. Yet the boats had to be slightly
uncomfortable, made of wood and "hinting at
privation."
Today, yachts are almost all powerboats, with sail
accounting for just 6% of yachts over 80 feet long
built each year. And they are designed to remove all
the discomfort of being on the water: Computerized
stabilizers -- which make the boat sit perfectly still
at anchor -- are now standard on many boats. Most also
have marble bathrooms, inlaid wood paneling and
Jacuzzis on the sundeck.
Of course, with today's megayachts topping 500 feet,
bigger is still better.
