Yeah ok. But a BMW is still a definite status symbol. I think it also probably varies on area of the country. Here in the bay area mercedes screams old person. So it would not be a very good status symbol for someone who isn't old. Around here the rich status obsessed people all drive BMWs, although some of them now have priuses too.

That doesn't make much sense. A status symbol works because people notice it. Nobody notices someone's lack of status symbols and thinks that shows they have a high status.


I mean there is a definite flame there to be made that you seem to be looking for but that wasn't it.

When people point out something in order to make people notice it, they are seeking acknowledgement and a requisite increase of their status in others' eyes. It's no different.


The point is that everyone has some status symbol(s). For some, it's their avoidance of "traditional" status symbols and their need to point it out that is their status symbol.

 

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I already mentioned Brown

 

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You still arn't grasping what a status symbol is. Unless it's something other people notice and think you have a higher status as a result it's not a status symbol.


A status symbol isn't determined by what you personally think. I can think my wal-mart pen is a status symbol but that doesn't make it true.


There are certain places where a lack of material possessions could be a status symbol. In ascetic communities hair shirts were probably a status symbol of sorts. Apparently at brown driving an old bmw is a better status symbol than a new one according to SoO? But status is determined by society, not by each individual.

That seems to really be a stretch of the commonly accepted phrase 'status symbol'. The way you are talking about just about every type of action becomes a status symbol....and the phrase really loses its meaning.

What do you think status symbol means?

A status symbol is a symbol of your status. There is no doubt that there are status symbols that signify wealth but there are also those that are specifically meant to signify a detachment from wealth and the idea that money matters. There are symbols everywhere, even symbols that are meant to demonstrate your belief you don't like status symbols.

 

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Your walmart pen could be a status symbol if you were some sort of campaigner for OWS - i.e. you're using a very proletariat writing tool as your sword against the designer pens of the 1%ers...

The point is that if you're doing something because you believe it will make other see you more favorably, what you're doing or buying is a status symbol.

Further, and by your own logic, if you are unimpressed by a BMW, is a BMW really a status symbol?





Well your, and many peoples' definitions of status symbols are far too parochial and subjective imo. Status is relative. Symbols of status are also relative. Is a BMW a status symbol in Hollywood? Probably not. Is a Che t-shirt a status symbol? During an OWS rally it might have been lol.


I think that subjectively defining status symbols as anything YOU say is "over the top" is at LEAST as pretentious as those you accuse of being for having their "status symbols".

 

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Yeah but whether its a status symbol or not depends not on what you personally think but how the people viewing you think about it. That is what status is. If you're the only one who thinks it's a status symbol it isn't.