This BI article is about "The Rise of Discreet Wealth" and mostly focuses on how the country's wealthiest individuals have changed their spending patterns in the past decade to reflect "experiential" purchases instead of material ones. It touches on many of the same points we have discussed in this thread, including the desire to spend their money on low-key status symbols instead of big opulent ones. They're all about building social capital.
For example, the top 5 categories of new "discreet wealth" spending are described as
1. Education, for themselves and their children. Includes things like private tutors and SAT prep courses, but also living in the best school districts.
2. Health and Wellness. Includes gym membeships, organic food, spa vacations, etc.
3. Travel, including sabbatical trips to de-stress from their horrible jobs.
4. Secrurity and Privacy, including houses that aren't visible from google street view and digital protections
5. Exclusivity and Customization, which are apparently just generic terms for overpriced luxury versions of normal things.
The relevant summary quote, I think is “Eschewing an overt materialism, the rich are investing significantly more in education, retirement, and health – all of which are immaterial, yet cost many times more than any handbag a middle-income consumer might buy.” That part, at least, rings true for me. There is nothing I could possibly buy that I value as much as my retirement. Having all of your time back to live your own life is priceless. Like a plantation slave buying his own freedom, it's literally worth everything else you own.
I mentioned this list to my partner this morning over coffee, because I thought it funny that my own family has achieved so much of that list with modest spending. We live in the best school district around, we both have graduate degrees, our neighborhood isn't on google street view, etc. It seemed somehow backwards to me that "the rich" are supposedly spending so much money on stuff that we already have without being rich. She reminded me that we are, by most accounts, rich. So this article could be read as about
us instead of, as it was intended, about other people who are rich.