In 2004 there were 8.3m households worldwide with assets of at least $lm, up by 7% on a year earlier, according to the latest annual survey by Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. The newly wealthy are often desperate to affirm their status by conspicuously consuming the favored brands of the already rich. In developed countries this can be seen, in its extreme form, in the rise of “Bling，’-jewellery，diamonds and other luxuries sported initially by rappers-and Britain’s unsophisticated Burbenry-loving “chavs”.
根据美林证券和凯捷的最新年度调查，2004年全球共有830万 户家庭的资产超过100万美元，比年初增长了7%。这些“新贵”迫切 希望得到社会的认可,于是，他们大肆购买“老贵们”常用品牌的产 品。在发达国家，一个的显著的例子就是“Bling”品牌的崛起。最初 是说唱歌星穿戴“Bling”的产品,包括珠宝、钻石及其他奢侈品,借 此来显示自己的身份。热衷简约风格的巴宝莉品牌的chav们也是 如此。
The number of luxury buyers in the developed world is also being swelled by two other trends. First, consumers are increasingly adopting a “trading up, trading down” shopping strategy. Many traditional mid-market shoppers are abandoning middle-of-the-range products for a mix of lots of extremely cheap goods and a few genuine luxuries that they would once have thought out of their price league.
在发达国家地区，奢侈品消费群的增加体现出两种趋势：第 一，越来越多的消费者采用“要么买高价物，要么买低价物”的采购 策略。很多传统中等价位消费者则越来越倾向于购买大量价格极 便宜和少量货真价实的奢侈品，而不愿在中等价格的产品上花钱。 而这些奢侈品超出了他们的消费水准。
Alongside this “selective extravagance” is the growth of “fractional ownership”： time-shares in luxury goods and services formerly available only to those paying full price. Fractional ownership first got noticed when firms such as Neuets started selling access to private jets. It has since spread to luxury resorts, fast cars and much more. In America, From Bags to Riches-“better bags, better value，，-lets less-well-off people rent designer handbags. In Britain, Damon Hill, a former racing driver, has launched PI International. A ￡ 2,500 ($4,300) joining fee, plus annual membership of ￡ 13,750, buys around 50-70 driving days a year in cars ranging from a Range Rover Sport to a Bentley or a Ferrari.
在这种“选择性奢侈消费”增长的同时，“部分拥有消费”的人 数也开始增加。以前只能全额付款才能拥有和享受到的奢侈品 及奢侈服务，现在他们也能够分时段地享有。由某些公司，例如 NetJets公司出售私人飞机的使用权开始就“部分拥有消费”群体引起了市场的关注。之后，他们开始将消费对象扩展到豪华度假胜地，名牌跑车和其他事物上。在美 国，人们经常根据手提袋来判断你的身价，因此有了“手袋越好，身价越高”的说法。因此，那些“比 上不足，比下有余”的人们纷纷租用品牌手袋。在英国，前赛车手达蒙_希尔开展了P1国际A级会 员的项目，人会费为2500英镑(约4300美元）,另外每年还要缴纳1 ? 375万英镑的年费，这样就可以 获得一年中50?70天的名车驾驶时间，会员可以在陆虎、奔驰或法拉利中任选一款。
As a result, “the price of entry for much of what traditionally was available to the top 0.001% is now far lower’’，says a upper class, who notes the sorry implications for a would-be conspicuous consumer: “How do I know if the guy who drives past me in a Ferrari owns it or is just renting it for the weekend?”
因此，“传统0.001%的富人所能拥有的，新兴富有阶层通过人会也能够得到，并且钱花的更 少”，一位上层阶级人士就表示，这对那些一心想要炫富的人来说可不是什么好消息。因为别人会 问：“我怎么知道那些开车经过的人开的法拉利是他们自己的,还是只是周末租来的？ ”
Demand for luxury is also soaring from emerging economies such as Russia, India, Brazil and China. Antoine Colonna, an analyst at Merrill Lynch, estimates that last year Chinese consumers already accounted for 11% of the worldwide revenues of luxury-goods firms, with most of their buying done outside mainland China. He forecasts that by 2014, they will have overtaken both American and Japanese consumers, becoming the world’s leading luxury shoppers, yielding 24% of global revenues.
在一些经济新兴国家，響如俄罗斯、印度、巴西和中国，奢侈品的需求量也在急剧增长-据美林 证券分析家安托万?科隆纳估计,去年中国消费者在奢侈品消费上的消费已占到全球奢侈品消费 总量的11%,其中，大部分属于海外消费。他还预测，到2014年，中国消费将会超过美国和日本,成 为世界上最大奢侈品消费国，届时全球奢侈品消费收人将增长24%。
These emerging consumers have a big appetite for the top luxury brands-and the owners of those brands are increasingly keen to oblige. Russia is producing today’s most determinedly conspicuous consumers. Roman Abramovich, the best-known oligarch not in jail, has conspicuously set new standards in buying mansions，ski resorts and soccer teams.
同时,这些新兴消费者对顶级奢侈品牌产品偏爱有加，而这些品牌的老板们也开始急切地投 其所好。毫无疑问，俄罗斯的“炫富人群”正在显著增加。现在最知名且不在监狱里的金融巨鳄阿布 拉莫维奇就为购买大厦、滑雪场和足球队定下了新的收购标准。
But perhaps the true symbol of exalted status in the era of mass luxury is conspicuous non-consumption. This is not just the growing tendency of the very rich to dress scruffily and drive beaten-up cars, as described by David Brooks in “Bobos in Paradise”. It is showing that you have more money than you know how to spend. So, for example, philanthropy is increasingly fashionable, and multi-billion-dollar endowments such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are certainly conspicuous. However, since the new philanthropists are keen to demonstrate that their giving produces results, this does not quite meet Veblen’s threshold of being a complete waste of money. So the laurels surely go to those who are so wealthy that they are willing to buy adverts encouraging the state to tax them. Kudos，then, to those conspicuously non-consuming wealthy American opponents of recent efforts to abolish estate taxes: George Soros, Bill Gates senior and Warren Buffett.
然而这个大众炫富的时代，真正能体现高贵身份的恐怕是炫耀性非消费。这并不仅仅只像大 卫布鲁克斯的“波波天堂”中所描写的那样:衣着破旧，开着破车,这样是一种发展趋势。这种方式 证明你确实富有到已不知该如何花掉自己的钱。那么，什么才是真正的“非消费”呢？举个例子:现 在’慈善事业逐渐成为时尚，就像盖茨夫妇基金会这样的机构,将几十亿美元捐赠于慈善事业。这 就是典型的富豪式“非消费”。新加人的慈善家也希望他们的捐赠能为他们带来好声名。可见,这同 托尔斯坦?凡勃伦“纯粹是浪费金钱”的说法并不相符。因此，这些慈善家当之无愧应当被冠以“富 人”的称号，同时他们也为州政府税收作出贡献。不过话说回来，那些不想要炫耀性非消费的美国 富人，比如乔治?索罗斯、老比尔_盖茨（比尔_盖茨的父亲）以及巴菲特，则为州政府废除房地产 遗产税而四处奔走。