The End of The Bling Decade

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It’s starting to feel a bit like “The Last Days of Pompeii” or the “Fall of Rome”. The stock market tumbled again on Wednesday, the U.S. Government is running out of options to control the economic crisis, and our economy is causing a global domino effect. It’s the end of The Bling Decade! If you’re wondering where the term “Bling” came from, Bling was coined by rap artists B.G. and Cash Money Millionaires in the late 90′s. It’s been a decade, and “Conspicuous Consumption” is definitely out of fashion, as I mentioned a few days ago.

For those who aren’t aware, per Wikipedia, “Conspicuous Consumption is a term used to describe the lavish spending on goods and services acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status. A very similar but more colloquial term is ‘keeping up with the Jones’.”

Virginia Postrel wrote a very interesting article in the Atlantic this summer. This article sheds light on why certain cultures tend to spend more of their resources on cars, clothing and other visible items. She wrote:

“So the researchers went back to Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term conspicuous consumption. Writing in the much poorer world of 1899, Veblen argued that people spent lavishly on visible goods to prove that they were prosperous. ‘The motive is emulation—the stimulus of an invidious comparison which prompts us to outdo those with whom we are in the habit of classing ourselves,’ he wrote. Along these lines, the economists hypothesized that visible consumption lets individuals show strangers they aren’t poor. Since strangers tend to lump people together by race, the lower your racial group’s income, the more valuable it is to demonstrate your personal buying power.”

We can learn a lot from the the wealthiest in our society. According to two great books – “The Millionaire Next Door” and “The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy,” you can look wealthy or you can be wealthy. For most people these two things are mutually exclusive. This truth is made all the more clear in a tough economy. Those who have been trying to “keep up with the Jones’” should to start focusing on taking better care of themselves financially, rather than worrying about what others think of them. Smart choices need to be made, rather than bad choices made out of vanity and insecurity.

For example, according to Forbes, Warren Buffet, who is one of the wealthiest men in the world “recently traded in a six-year-old Lincoln Town Car for a 2006 Cadillac DTX.” In an article in Forbes, Nate Chapnick wrote, “Unlike mere millionaires, who may flaunt wealth with flashy rides, some of the world’s top billionaires own cars as utterly average as their middle-class childhoods.” “They spend a lot of time giving away their money and their main goal in life is to solve big world problems, and that is why the car becomes less important,” says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute, a New York City-based research firm.

IN

1. “Frugality Chic”
2. Wearing a Classic Dress From a Few Seasons Ago
3. Wearing Simple Jewelry That Means Something to You
4. Fresh, Young & Natural Hair and Nails Done Yourself More Often Than Not
5. Hybrids & Compact Cars
6. Taking the Metro or Walking
7. Hosting a Dinner Party at Home or Eating at a Local Restaurant
8. Getting Your Hands Dirty & Helping those Less Fortunate
9. Use Volunteering as Team Building for Your Employees and Give Back to the Community
10. Shopping at Local Boutiques to Help Our Community and Investing in Good Quality Classic Pieces

OUT

1. “Conspicuous Consumption”
2. Buying a Trendy New Dress for Every Occassion
3. Wearing a lot of BLING to Show Off
4. Being High-Maintenance Ringing Up Big Tabs at the Salon
5. SUV’s and Other Low Gas Mileage Vehicles
6. Car Service
7. Eating Out Often Especially at National Chains                                         
8. Getting Your Name on a Host Committee Without Doing Any Real Work
9. Blowing $500K by Taking Your Company’s Sales Team to a Resort
10. Spending Money on Fun Yet Uber Trendy Pieces That Won’t Last

So let’s say good-bye to The Bling Decade – it’s Gone! Hopefully there will be a new decade of real and positive change ahead of us, which will put substance ahead of style! 

- Miss A

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