[andrea_s]

I've skimmed through it after the blatant straw man in the first paragraph, which prompted me to post. I might read it later if the resulting discussion on HN is interesting :-)

edit: downvote away, but I doubt I'm alone in feeling turned off by this kind of clickbaity behavior

[fenomas]

The article had nothing to do with what you're claiming it "hinges" on. It was a meditation on status symbols, and an interesting one. Why not just read it and comment, or don't and don't?

[wutbrodo]

I would assume the down votes are less about "avoiding clickbait" and more about "commenting on something you didn't read"

[andrea_s]

Perhaps - but to me, the article goes like this:

[premise] society loves to hate on poor people and considers them stupid for buying luxury

[tweet that states nothing of the sort, not even remotely]

[thesis]

so, given that I've never heard of this trope myself (perhaps it's a bit of a US thing?) I felt turned off and commented on that, nothing less, nothing more.

[gknoy]

I read this article years ago, and it's worth re-reading... ergo, not clickbait.

The author talks about how it __appears__ wasteful to buy expensive clothes when you're poor, but it's all about __signalling__ to others that you're someone that should not be ignored. It profoundly changed the way I thought about the "people buying expensive things they can't afford" idea when I read it.

At the risk of quoting too much, this is the part that really was memorable for me, and is worth reading more than once in the original article:

  I remember my mother taking a next door neighbor down to the 
  social service agency.  The elderly woman had been denied benefits .... 
  The woman had been denied in the genteel bureaucratic way — lots 
  of waiting, forms, and deadlines she could not quite navigate. 

  I watched my mother put on her best ... outfit.  

  It took half a day but ... my mother’s performance ... got done 
  what the elderly lady next door had not been able to get done 
  in over a year. I learned, watching my mother, that ... 
  we had to pay to signal to gatekeepers that we were worthy of engaging. 
  It meant dressing well and speaking well. It might not work. 
  It likely wouldn't work but on the off chance that it would, you had to try.

Sure, there are stupid people that buy things they don't need. However, sometimes the things we think of as "luxury" are necessary for Getting Things Done. Hell, this is the reason I have a suit in my closet that I've worn rarely (job interviews). Expensive accessories and a Nice Outfit can help people ensure that they aren't discriminated against for being "low-class".