Rory Sutherland

But deep down, the evolutionary and emotional reason I'm doing these things is really to show off.

or to establish, you know, some sort of one-upmanship or status.

It's kind of complicated.

Do I buy one piece of conspicuous consumption, as is argued by various people like Lord Layard in the UK?

Do I make my neighbors less happy if I buy a newer, better car?

Because what I've done is I've changed their comparative frame, and therefore my pleasure comes at the expense of theirs.

Now, that's not – I don't think that's totally simple.

I think if you were a real car obsessive and your next-door neighbor bought a Ferrari, you'd actually be delighted because you could go out and talk about torque vectoring and adaptive air suspension or whatever it may be, okay, or the normally aspirated V12.

And you'd probably be made happier by that purchase.

So I don't think it's absolutely simple.

I think Jay Leno and Jay Leno's garage makes him one of the world's great philanthropists because he goes and spends a fortune on extremely rare cars and then shares his passion with an audience of millions.

If you are a car enthusiast,

You know, it's an extraordinary case, by the way, of translating money into something which is both a selfish pleasure and a generous pleasure.

It's complicated.

But when you read these books and you realize that status is effectively a kind of thing within us which we can't turn off.

Hmm.

The currencies will change.

The status currencies change with fashion and time and everything else.

You know, there was a time where having a digital watch was the, you know, the highest status thing in my school.

If you were the first kid with an LED digital watch, people were in awe of you.