--- description: The new book presents a new social class — the aspirational class — that buys things like electric cars to display their goodness title: The New Conspicuous Consumption image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2e04bc3a3d0e4f8/6988cdc3cf40a8d6dfc47b98/new-conspicuous-consumption-book-sum-small-things.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Ideas](/section/ideas/) ## Ideas Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The New Conspicuous Consumption by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 18, 2017 10:25 AM CUT  by [Sarah Begley](/author/sarah-begley/) ## Sarah Begley Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 18, 2017 10:25 AM CUT In the late 19th century, the economist [Thorstein Veblen](http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/LCS/theoryleisureclass.pdf "undefined") famously skewered members of the upper class for trying to telegraph their social status by surrounding themselves with luxury goods — a phenomenon he dubbed “[conspicuous consumption](https://www.britannica.com/topic/conspicuous-consumption "undefined").” But [Elizabeth Currid-Halkett](https://priceschool.usc.edu/elizabeth-currid/ "undefined"), author of [_The Sum of Small Things_](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0691162735/?tag=timecom-20 "undefined"), says a new cultural elite is on the rise: the aspirational class. These are people who aren’t necessarily rich but who share a set of views on the most socially conscious ways to spend money — for instance, driving [electric cars](http://www.thedrive.com/tech/10129/electric-cars-wont-have-a-financial-edge-on-gas-ones-until-2025-says-leading-supplier "undefined") instead of SUVs and buying only organic produce. While these are financial choices, Currid-Halkett argues that they are driven primarily by an aspiration to be — or at least appear to be — “their version of better humans.” That’s why, for this milieu, “a $2 heirloom tomato purchased from a farmers’ market is so symbolically weighty … and a white Range Rover is not.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4783917/sum-small-things-conspicuous-consumption/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4783917/sum-small-things-conspicuous-consumption/"},"headline":"The New Conspicuous Consumption","datePublished":"2017-05-18T10:25:32.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:59:27.594Z","description":"A review of The Sum of Small Things by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett","url":"https://time.com/4783917/sum-small-things-conspicuous-consumption/","keywords":["Books","society","Economics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2e04bc3a3d0e4f8/6988cdc3cf40a8d6dfc47b98/new-conspicuous-consumption-book-sum-small-things.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sarah Begley","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sarah-begley/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2e04bc3a3d0e4f8/6988cdc3cf40a8d6dfc47b98/new-conspicuous-consumption-book-sum-small-things.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"new-conspicuous-consumption-book-sum-small-things","caption":"new-conspicuous-consumption-book-sum-small-things","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4783917/sum-small-things-conspicuous-consumption/","name":"The New Conspicuous Consumption"}}]}] ```