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Robin Hanson's avatar

See my added to the post.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

The primary argument against spending on positional status goods seems to be that, due to the inherently zero-sum nature, it induces wasteful spending, displacing other things, correct?

However, as has been mentioned, some positional goods (education, beauty, &c.) potentially have positive externalities. If the magnitude of these externalities is great enough, wouldn't it actually make sense to, if anything, encourage positional spending on them, since this will lead to people voluntarily spending additional resources creating said positive externalities? A society of well-educated, beautiful people seems strictly better than a society of less-educated, less-beautiful people with the same relative status positions.

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