> What's so interesting in the rich (and supposedly educated, I'll take your word for it...) groups that you have to buy into them with expensive junk?

The fact that opportunity is driven largely by networks, and that networks are typically class-gated (not exactly wealth-gated; most people recognize that class and temporary circumstances aren't the same thing.)

Unfortunately, social seeking by the poor who aren't mentored on social signalling by someone already in or experienced with higher classes is likely to reflect lower-class misconceptions of higher-class signals, and fail as class signalling.