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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I found your usage of the word “tax” to mean “waste” very confusing, which I did not understand until reading the comments.

A tax is often seen as zero-sum where one party benefits at the expense of another, however societal waste is just a negative loss.

Apart from that, I am very much enjoying reading your articles about status.

Disclaimer: older geeky engineer type!

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Peter S. Shenkin's avatar

It is not reasonable IMO to describe conspicuous consumption that people indulge in to enhance their self regard as a "tax".

Yes, it's dead weight, caused by vanity. But a tax is something imposed by one group (usually the leadership) upon another (often the masses).

But you also said "These elites would of course charge a price for their support, and such prices would add up to an elite tax on the society." (My emphasis.)

This, it seems to me is an explicit statement of the presence of a tax in the normal sense of the term in that the elite is said to be imposing ("charging") a tax. This is quite different from the dead weight caused by wannabes trying to keep up with the Joneses.

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