Mustard, iPhones & Rich People

Dear reader, Humans have been seeking status symbols for as long as there have been other humans to impress. The interesting thing about status symbols is that they are always relative to what is scarce and valuable in society. During the Tang Dynasty in China being fat was a symbol of wealth. Imperial consort Yang Guifei, one of the “Four Beauties” of China, was known to be rather plump.

A recent study in the US explored changing indicators of wealth over time. In 1992, whether or not a household used Grey Poupon Dijon mustard allowed researchers to correctly guess whether someone was in the top or bottom quartile of income 62.2% of the time. In 2016, owning an iPhone was the best predictor of income at 69.1%.

It’s also interesting to see how once cutting-edge technology such as Kodak film has disappeared. I’m sure in 20 years iPhones will seem just as archaic.

Coming Apart? Cultural Distances in the United States over Time
Bertrand & Kamenica, National Bureau of Economic Research

As an Asian, however, I cannot quite understand the fascination with Kikkoman soy sauce. As an indicator of income in the US it is surprisingly stable over time.

Yours Sincerely,
Henry Chong