Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality

Transportation

Habitation

Relaxation

Lifestyles of the Rich and Shameless

We see today, in all modern societies, a lust for costly baubles, what economist Robert Frank has dubbed "luxury fever." But the intensity of this fever varies enormously. What determines this intensity? One factor over all others: the level of economic inequality. • The more wealth concentrates, the greater the obsession with the things only money can buy. In relatively equal societies — societies where most people make similar incomes — people will generally not obsess over things. With nearly everyone able to afford much the same possessions, things overall tend to lose significance. • But inequality changes everything. The wider income and wealth gaps become, the greater the differences in the things different people are able to afford. • Things, in markedly unequal societies, come to signal who has succeeded and who has not. You are judged, in these societies, by what you own, by what you consume, not who you are. • Luxury fever impacts almost every facet of contemporary life. For a sampling, check the left menu.

Inequality
by the Numbers

CEO Pay:
The Scorecard

An Inequality
Pop Quiz

Greed at a
Glance

Good Reads
For Your Bookshelf

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