h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Clearly the point of status symbols is that they convey status, regardless of their practical function. Even so, some status symbols have always puzzled me because I just don't think they're very good.

For example, the swimming pool; what's so good about a moderate expanse of water? They don't even have anything interesting like fish in them, and people seem to use them mostly as an attractive backdrop for putting sun-loungers next to. Of course, you can actually swim in them, but unless you've got a super-massive pool, they're just a bit too small for that; you can easily kick off the side and do 5m without needing to take a single stroke, so anything less than a 10m pool is restrictive.

Never understood jewellery, myself.

I've never looked at anyone and thought they would look nicer with earrings, bracelets, necklaces, etc. If I notice it at all it's because people are wearing too much of it - huge dangly earrings, weird piercings, or big rings on every finger.

sports cars
oh so your car can go 200mph well that's wonderful,
except you can never go that fast unless you take it to a track so what was the point?

Or to German highways. Some of them, at least.

Smart phones. if i want to take a picture i use a camera. if i want to e-mail i use my computer. etc. etc. all i want to do is make a Bl***y phone call.

The problem with smartphones, I think, is terminology. Being able to call someone is not really the main function of these devices anymore.

Personalized license plates! Admittedly I don't drive, but if I did have a car, I might actually consider getting particular plates, in theory. Some of them you see are actually quite clever. I might even pay up to £30 for a good one, if I happened to have the cash spare that month.
The thing is, they're not £30, they're £3000 or more! As it is, I look at these plates, no matter how clever they are, and all I can think about is the dozens, maybe hundreds, of awesome things I could buy with that money and still have change.

The point of those is that they're unique.

You can't even say that about works of art - how many Munch 'Scream's are there?

Rolexs. Do they do anything other than say 'I have more money than sense'? There are other ways to tell the time.

I think smart phones are useful. I recently had a query that would have taken the person concerned 4 minutes to sort out. I required a signature, on a form which needed to be completed for a deadline in two weeks time, but the person concerned was on leave, never mind, the receipent, said 'just get a 1 line email saying it's ok'.

My has as smartphone, and when she's on leave she'll respond to queries like this within about 24 hours. Sometimes sooner, amusingly often before I get her 'out of office' reply. For the non-smart phone owner I waited until he got back from leave, (no problem) but he didn't get time to check his e mails or his in tray on the first day back, fair enough he had a clinic and a ward to look after, so he waited until the second day back, then he misunderstood and thought I needed a letter (by now I could have posted him the document to sign), so he dictated a letter to his secretary who typed it on the the third day, and he signed it on the fourth day back from his annual leave.

"unless you've got a super-massive pool, they're just a bit too small for that; you can easily kick off the side and do 5m without needing to take a single stroke, so anything less than a 10m pool is restrictive." [Quotes]

I agree with your main point, but my kick isn't that powerful. I swim about 4 kilometers a week in a 25m pool, but have made do with much smaller pools when on vacation [I once made do with a pool that was *less* than 10m, in the basement of a summer house. The water sloshed dreadfully because the pool was so small! ]. A 20m pool is the smallest that is really useful for me.

Again, I agree with your main point. There's nothing to say you couldn't keep some beautiful goldfish of koi in your pool if you're not going to swim in it [or even if you are, if you don't use chlorine because of sensitivity to it]. You might still need filtration, though, as fish can and will dirty up the bottom pretty readily....

[that should have been "goldfish *or* koi]

The price of so-called great Art has to be the most obscene
of all the gratuitous symbols of status. For the price of some
recent notable art sales one could buy several Rolls-Royces,
a half dozen classic sports-cars, a couple of middle-class
houses (with pools!) and a shedload of bling to hang
on your body.

I am not saying that Art has no value, of course it does.
And yes, great Art has extra value. But it is meant to be
seen and shared, not flaunted by someone spending
hundreds of millions to selfishly possess it.


~jwf~

"Designer" clothing.

I have a Yves Saint Laurent shirt that my ex mother in law bought in a jumble sale.

Others have commented on it in the past.

To me, it is a short sleeved light blue shirt (that still fits round the middle).

PP

University degrees.

with the smartphone - as ReddyFreddy always used to say: why take two bottles into the shower with you.

>>why take two bottles into the shower with you.

More than two! Music player, sat nav, games console, phone, camera,....

David Beckham.

In the following example David Cameron, the prime rib-roast of Grape Brittany, brings in his own David Beckham to solve world hunger:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19003895

Got to agree with the unusual number plate one. I find it hard to imagine a scenario where I won't have something better to do with that sort of money even if I came into Roman Abramovic's wealth.


University degrees. Hmmm. Hard to imagine an engineer, doctor, lawyer, scientiest etc. etc. agreeing with that one.
One could also argue that they're not necessarily much of a status symbol these days - particularly in the UK.

Young adults go to university nowadays because that is what they are "expected" to do. Yet there isn't the jobs for half of them.