Positional Goods latest

The modern economy is throwing up new kinds of inequalities which have more to do with social expectations, status and leisure than about material inequalities. These new inequalities often appear around what thirty years ago, Fred Hirsch called ‘positional goods’. The Global Elite’s appetite for these goods whose value is mostly - if not exclusively- a function of their relative desiderability, is having knock-on impacts on attitudes and behaviour throughout society. The effect that this ‘consumption treadmill’ is having on happiness, mental health, spending patterns and community life is significant.

A final report will be available in early 2007.