[pdonis]

> universities are conspicuous consumption, internships are conspicuous consumption, entrepreneurship is conspicuous consumption

> scientific research is conspicuous consumption (MIT Media Lab?), book authorship is conspicuous consumption, and political candidacy is conspicuous consumption

Is the paper making all these claims? I don't see them.

[exolymph]

Sometimes people write comments relaying their own opinions.

[scottishcow]

Never said it does, was it confusing? Maybe my English needs more work.

[pdonis]

> Never said it does

Then I don't understand who this question is supposed to be directed at:

> Are there any activities left that doesn’t function as a form of conspicuous consumption?

My answer would be that none of the activities you list (with the possible exception of the kind of wannabe entrepreneurship the paper is talking about) are conspicuous consumption. But it seemed like you were directing the question at the authors of the paper, not me.

[scottishcow]

> Then I don't understand who this question is supposed to be directed at:

To the HN community of course.

> My answer would be that none of the activities you list (with the possible exception of the kind of wannabe entrepreneurship the paper is talking about) are conspicuous consumption.

That’s a valid response, although I don’t agree. Note that I’m not regarding these activities to be entirely about conspicuous consumption, just like the paper doesn’t claim all of entrepreneurship is veblenian. Fwiw the paper does cite another work that claims some internships can be viewed as a form of conspicuous consumption.

[pdonis]

> Note that I’m not regarding these activities to be entirely about conspicuous consumption

If your definition of an activity being conspicuous consumption is that somebody, somewhere, can use it for conspicuous consumption, I think you're right that it's going to be hard to find an activity that isn't "conspicuous consumption" by this definition. But I would say that's a problem with your definition.

[scottishcow]

Well surely it's a matter of degree (and also chronological trends) we're talking about here. My writing may not be perfectly clear but other commenters seem to understand my point, nuanced discussions may be difficult but not impossible if we're engaging in good faith.

[dnautics]

I think it was a rhetorical question directed at me. I got a chuckle out of it, it made me go 'hum...', and brightened my day about one micromort's worth.