Reasons to Be Glad You Can't Afford Luxury Food

The rich may get their pick of the most desirable food, but it hasn't always been the best thing for them. Consider the effect of finely polished white rice on the Japanese diet as explained by Trevor Corson in The Zen of Fish:

"... rich people in Japan and other countries preferred the taste of bright white rice, and so they paid extra to have their rice polished. Sadly for them, the Japanese diet contained little besides rice bran to supply vitamin B1. People who ate polished rice condemned themselves to emotional disturbances, impaired sensory perception, weight loss, heart failure, and even death-- the results of beriberi, or vitamin B1 deficiency. About 350 years ago, as more Japanese acquired wealth and and moved from the countryside to cities, the consumption of highly polished rice increased. So did recorded instances of beriberi. One food historian reports that for a time, it was considered Japan's national disease."

Luxury Goods and Waste

Lawns were invented as a way for the landed gentry to demonstrate that they could afford to waste land. By taking the land away from the grazing sheep, they were sending a message to their neighbors. We're rich, we can happily waste the opportunity to make a few bucks from our front lawn.

I invite you to head over to Seth's Blog to learn more about the connection between luxury goods and the "desire to waste."

Living a Life of Luxury: Money Free

The word wealth comes from the Old English weal, which means well-being. Being wealthy simply means you’re doing well, so you don’t need money to pull it off.

This central theme of the forthcoming Broke is Beautiful was well expressed by Molly McDermott, who lost her job in the "luxury industry" due to the recession.

McDermott had an epiphany about the real meaning of "luxury" while watching the teenagers on the television program Gossip Girls carrying $10,000 designer handbags. These young people have not earned the right to carry such expensive items, she argues, because they could not possibly know what they are holding. (See a past article on this blog for more on how unrealistic television is about Americans' purchasing power.)

"Real luxury is about knowing what you are holding," she writes, "Not how much something costs, but understanding the time, passion, materials, research, development and dreaming that went into it. This is the lesson we should all take away from this financial mess–the ability to see things not just for their monetary value, but for their worth."

Incidentally, if you're looking for a really unique take on luxury, visit Podictionary, the etymology podcast. Charles Hodgson explains that the roots of luxury are from Latin. Luxus meant “abundance” and “sumptuous enjoyment.” Nothing too surprising there, but read on:

The fact is that although in Latin luxus meant “sumptuous enjoyment” the Latin precursor to luxury actually meant “sinful enjoyment.” So as Latin devolved into French and Italian and Spanish their words evolving from Latin’s luxuria mean “lust” and “debauchery.”

And so it was that when luxury first appeared in English from Old French in 1340 it didn’t mean sipping Champagne and swanning around in fur coats, it meant slipping between the sheets with someone you weren’t supposed to.

Gives new meaning to the expression "lap of luxury" doesn't it?

More Good News for Rich People!

Bloomberg is reporting that luxury spending is up!

Spending among 1,067 consumers with average annual income of $228,800 rose to $18,826 each in the three months ended in September from $14,554 a quarter earlier, the Stevens, Pennsylvania-based luxury-market research firm said today. Shoppers cut spending by 3.2 percent in the second quarter and spent $13,429 in the third quarter of 2008...

The highest-income group spent an average of $43,111 in the latest quarter and the lowest-income group tracked, with earnings of $100,000 to $149,999, spent $10,423.

Of course if you're not a rich person, the news is a bit different. The Consumerist reports that Colorado is the first state to actually decrease its minimum wage, from $7.28 to $7.24, and Social Security recipients will not be receiving their routine cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA for 2010.

In the off chance that you are more affected by the latter than the former state of the world, and you're not in a position to spend $43,111 on travel and spa treatments, the Daily Green is running an article today that will teach you how to make your own skin care potions out of stuff from your kitchen. If anyone asks why you have onions and oatmeal on your face, tell 'em you're not broke. You're eco-savvy.