[PaulDavisThe1st]

So what you're actually saying is that capitalism has caused the asymmetric distribution of financial resources to the point where too many people can act as speculators in the market for all kinds of products, thus driving up prices and limiting availability to the "ordinary folk", and that further, this behavior has been expanded because of a media culture of fetishizing the curation of vaguely artisanal production?

[mberning]

I don't know about the first part, but the part about media culture seems manifestly true. I wonder how many bourbon channels there are on youtube that have over 100k subs. Quite a lot I'd have to guess. I think this cultural aspect fuels people to buy things up with little regard to their personal preferences. I know lots of people that picked up "bottle x" based purely on hype, not whether they like it or not.

[b112]

I know lots of people that picked up "bottle x" based purely on hype, not whether they like it or not

There is a pizza place down the road, "State of Mind", which has all sorts of crazy slices. Mostly, they look good, with taste seemingly taking second place to cool, or wow factor.

I am convinced that the people ordering there, do so for appearances.

I think this makes sense, as a lot of people really have poor taste buds. They often, as in your example, cannot tell the flavour differences betwen burbons, but, want to get the good stuff.