When Omega and Swatch did a collab and released a series of plastic watches it was the poor who stood in lines around the block to get them and immediately resell at an obscene profit. There is a benefit to the poor if the figure out how to play that game.
I suppose it still might be interesting for people considering spending 10,000 on a handbag to ask themselves if they might not overall be happier donating that money to help the homeless in their cities, however (because not having to step over homeless junkies on your way to the Hermes store is also kind of a luxury good?)
If 10k is all you have. Something durable like hand-bag allows you to visibly signal for weeks if not months... Same can't be said about donation... Can you even check such thing? So would anyone in peer group even believe?
Sounds like we need some way for someone to display their charitable donation amounts that are public and verifiable. Then more people could use their donation amounts as status symbols.
I am domiciled in a country where I don't have to step over homeless* on my way to the Hermes store; am I using this comment as a status symbol?
* they must exist here (et in Arcadia ego...), because I see the occasional newspaper article about them, but they're certainly not visible, as in Paris, or ubiquitous to the point of literally having to step over them, as they were in the Old Country.
[in my old city there was one individual who I thought might have been homeless ... but upon asking, my friends (a) immediately knew who I meant, and (b) told me, no, he has an apartment, he just looks like he doesn't]
Some people are vain. It's pointless to appeal to their sense of compassion. The best way to deal with them is to charge them lots and tell them they have a sophisticated sense of style. Their money supports preservation of artisanal skills, which is a benefit to humanity as a whole.
Considering budgets that homeless-industrial complex spends on homeless in NYC/SF/other big cities with homeless, 10k will have absolutely zero impact on anything.
