>Its not hard to see why though. In industrializing countries with a lot of income inequality, wealth is rare, and anyone who has that is seen as either getting it through hard work, or getting it via their parents' hard work.

I see it more that in these societies, the difference in quality of life between being rich or poor can literally make the difference between living or dying. In those conditions, the first thing you probably care about when assessing a potential partner or friend is whether they have clean shelter and know where their next meal is coming from, so the signaling value of money is extremely high. Whether they have excellent taste in music is a long way down the list.

In most developed societies, the difference between being lower middle class or upper middle class is relatively minor, and gives people the luxury to consider conspicuous displays of wealth to be crass, and to choose partners based on more subtle characteristics, like their ability to write funny comments.

That definitely makes sense.

On a similar vein, wealth often also brings protection against the State which often abuses its own citizens (e.g. corrupt Government and police officers). This does happen in the US as well (e.g. violence against African Americans) but not to the same extent.

It brings protection in general. Protection against sickness, famine, servitude, and so on. The more present these threats are, the more valuable the signaling power of money becomes.

In a world where most people are infected by a zombie virus, it might become very important to be able to signal that you're not infected. In this world, the fact that I'm not infected by a zombie virus is literally one of the least interesting things about me and will rarely warrant even a passing mention.

Likewise, to me, your t-shirt that just says the word GUCCI in massive letters tells me that you have rich parents and no aesthetic sense. In other circumstances, to other people, it might signal that their quality of life could be improved many times over by being with this person.

The irony becomes that these signals of disposable wealth can be so coveted that in certain places, people's priorities will shift such that they'll sacrifice all areas of their lives, eat nothing but the cheapest instant noodles, and spend a year's savings on, say, a Louis Vuitton wallet which, sadly, they'll no longer have any money to put in.

We were in Rwanda recently to go gorilla trekking. We were told by our guide that in the villages the status symbol that shows you are a person of means is a bicycle.

Dude. You flew to another country to look at a bunch of animals. Your guide knows that your wealth is magnitudes more than his own.

He was lying to you to make you feel better so that you tip more.

I lived in Africa for 2 years, and both can be true at the same time.

Wow, and I thought I was a cynic.

No, he wasn't lying.

Complete sentences.

lol yatches really made me lol. I wish it weren't a typo and what we called pretentious people with yachts.