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托斯丹·凡勃伦:有闲阶级论·摘录 73

托斯丹·凡勃伦《有闲阶级论》· The Theory of the Leisure Class · 投资

It is notorious that in their selection of serviceable goods in the retail market purchasers are guided more by the finish and workmanship of the goods than by any marks of substantial serviceability. Goods, in order to sell, must have some appreciable amount of labor spent in giving them the marks of decent expensiveness, in addition to what goes to give them efficiency for the material use which they are to serve. This habit of making obvious costliness a canon of serviceability of course acts to enhance the aggregate cost of articles of consumption. It puts us on our guard against cheapness by identifying merit in some degree with cost. There is ordinarily a consistent effort on the part of the consumer to obtain goods of the required serviceability at as advantageous a bargain as may be; but the conventional requirement of obvious costliness, as a voucher and a constituent of the serviceability of the goods, leads him to reject as under grade such goods as do not contain a large element of conspicuous waste.

出处: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/833
定位:Excerpt 73 · 核对日期:2026-10-19 · 核验:短摘录

白话

消费者在商店挑东西时,嘴上说看实用,实际更看做工和精致程度。一件商品要卖得动,除了能用,还得让人一眼看出花了不少工本,显得贵气。这种把“明显昂贵”当成好货标准的习惯,抬高了整体消费成本,也让我们把便宜和劣质划等号。买家当然想物美价廉,但社会习俗要求商品必须带着“显眼浪费”的印记,否则就被当成次品拒之门外。所以,我们多付的钱,常常不是买功能,而是买那个“看起来值钱”的标签。

上下文

凡勃伦《有闲阶级论》讨论消费如何被社会地位和炫耀性浪费塑造,而非单纯满足需要。

今日一问

你最近买的东西里,有多少钱是花在“看起来贵”而不是“真的有用”上?

公版作品;原文逐字取自 Project Gutenberg,仅摘录段落并附全书链接。

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