The New Status Symbol: It’s Not What You Spend – It’s How Hard You Work

The author analyzes how the paradigm of displaying class power has changed from what sociologist Thorstein Veblen called conspicuous consumption over a century ago - where the elites spend money on stuff they don’t need and glorify luxury - to conspicuous production - making a virtue out of and showing off how hard you work.

Conspicuous production is a common thing, especially among America’s big companies’ CEOs, Ben Tarnoff writes, but, of course, that doesn’t mean poor and middle-class people are not trying to emulate them, since this productivity frenzy is not looked at with disgust or outrage, but with admiration.

Another important point that the author makes in order to show that conspicuous production is linked to class power, is that most people who behave like that don’t actually *need* to work so hard. They don’t need to do it for survival reasons, but to somehow justify the worthiness of their wealth.

“This is the hallmark of conspicuous production: it justifies the existence of an imperial class by showcasing their superhuman levels of industry.”

In the second part of the article, the author muses on how this productivity obsession goes hand in glove with the constant self-improvement trend, and how through technology we are able to monitor our “working on ourselves”, until it becomes a full-time, 24/7 job.