Luxury Goods Insanity

Thousands of years ago in the bronze age, a large trade network moved the gemstone amber around the world. Apparently people were obsessed with amber. Today, nobody cares about it. Most people wouldn't even notice an amber gemstone if it were mixed into a box of other stuff in their attic. It has some value to collectors, but that's it. I have no idea how much amber is worth per ounce or even if ounces is the appropriate unit of pricing.

In the 17th century, beaver pelts were prized. Beaver clothing, like hats and gloves, was the rage in old Europe. If you didn't have a beaver hat, you were trash. The beaver trade sparked wars and conflict for decades. Thousands of people died over it. Entire native tribes in the new world were wiped out by other tribes in an attempt to control the commodity. The beaver population in the Hudson River valley was wiped out. Eventually people got tired of wearing beaver skins on their heads, though, and the trade died out.

The mass market for diamonds was only established in the 19th century after the discovery of large diamond deposits in South Africa. It became a part of the wedding ritual after mass advertising convinced women that it was a good idea for their future husband to blow several months of his pay on a shiny rock when they were just starting out in life.

In each of these cases, some arbitrary item became highly prized probably through advertising. Some arbitrary item ended up as a mark of social status. Of the three examples above, beaver pelts probably had the highest utility. Amber is a sparkly trinket. Diamonds, outside the context of industrial abrasive use, are also sparkly trinkets.

People have a built in conformity mechanism that enables random items to become a luxury commodity. It's the same mechanism that turns them into hysterical retards about cold and flu season. It's an extremely bad feature.