Paul Bloom Padlet by Lucas Belsky

Paul Bloom's Central Thesis

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 16:37:06 UTC

Paul Bloom's claim is that while some may say that an item is not practical to own and others claim that obsession over luxury items are hurtful to the very soul; the simple fact is that an items aesthetics, signal, and history play a deep role in our attraction and feeling of want/ need for these items.

Key points

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 20:07:53 UTC

Aesthetics
Signalling
History

Aesthetics

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 20:08:26 UTC

"An appreciation of beauty explains certain accessible and universal consumer pleasures- Postrel begins her book in Kuala after the Taliban fell, describing how the women there revealed in their freedom to possess burkas of different colors and to paint their nails- while signaling theory applies to the more extravagant purchases. A crimson burka? Aesthetics. A $30,000 watch? Signaling. Aristotle Onassis's choice to upholster the bar stools in his yacht with whale foreskin? Definitely signaling" (Bloom 4).

Signaling theory

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 20:16:43 UTC

"signaling is a theory with broad scope- it has been applied to everything from self-mutilating behavior to the fact that the best private schools teach dead languages—but it is most blatant in the consumer world. Advertisements are often pure signaling fantasies. Your neighbors gasp as your car drives by; the attractive stranger in a bar is aroused by your choice of beer; your spouse and children love you because you bought the right brand of frozen pizza. Consistent with this, neuroscience studies reveal that when people look at products they judge to be “cool,” brain areas associated with praise and social approval are activated (Bloom 3).

History

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 20:25:53 UTC

"Napoleon's penis suffered a similar fate, reportedly removed by the priest who administered last rites" (Bloom 7).

"Children experience the same boost in value in their attachments to teddy bears and security blankets. Psychologist Bruce Hood and I tested this by presenting children with a machine we described as a duplicating device. We then fooled the children into believing that we had made perfect copies of their attachment objects and asked them which they wanted to take home, the original or the duplicate. They tended to want the original" (Bloom 7).

"The importance of history is clearest in cases of objects such as teddy bears and JFK’s golf clubs because these are unique items with special stories behind them" (Bloom 7).

Arguments against Bloom

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 23:19:30 UTC

From Robert H Frank

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 23:24:32 UTC

"Robert H. Frank calls “luxury fever” takes away from individual consumers money that would be better spent on more substantial goods, such as socializing and travel" (Bloom 3).

Analysis

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 23:26:40 UTC

What Frank is saying here is that it is bad and even related to a sickness that people spend a high amount of money for approval while they could be traveling and living their best life.

Blooms Rebutle

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 23:27:09 UTC

"It is hard for people to opt out. To say that an individual can simply refuse to participate is like saying that countries in a literal arms race can choose to stop buying all those fighter planes and put the money into school lunches and Shakespeare in the Park. Sure they can—if they don’t mind being invaded. If everyone else buys fancy suits for their job interviews, then I risk unemployment by choosing not to" (Bloom 3).

analysis

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 23:29:52 UTC

Blooms rebuttal is a strong one, he relates that while Frank is correct by saying there are better places to put your money but also for something like a country the same can be said. yes there are always better places to put your money such as toward the hungry instead of fighter jets or troops. While yes you help the hungry but you still may have to come to the senses that you will be invaded. Overall, this rebuttal is saying that yes you can put money into better place however that doesn't mean that money can't be put into other things that don't hold the same living value but are still kinda important.

Analysis

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 23:38:51 UTC

After the release from Taliban control women started to wear different color burkas which is the traditional clothing they wear. These items are not very expensive compared to a $30,000 watch however have value to them because they show Aesthetic. Bloom is saying that these things give a sense of personality to someone therefore putting more meaning into something as little as wearing a different color burka that matches your nails or even getting some new shoes where yeah they may not be that expensive but they look good and you feel good about them.

Analysis

lcb168 — 2025-02-17 23:40:36 UTC

Signaling is a theory that in short states that items send messages to the parts of our brain that determine something as "Cool". Cool meaning something that give approval or something that one may find attractive like the kind of beer you drink. the kind of beer you drink as simple as it may be can be the leading factor to why some humans may relate or get to know one another. A hypothetical example of this is if a man is sitting at a bar drinking a labeled brewed bear instead of a light beer then he may be seen as more "manly" or able to handle his liquor better which may come off as attractive to some people. Another example also mentioned by Bloom is a car you pull into your driveway. This nice car that's worth hundreds of thousands of dollars will make your neighbors say wow due to that fact, it's expensive and may look "cool". Overall, do to these social affirmation an item that gives good signals to whoever sees it has more worth placed onto it.

Analysis

lcb168 — 2025-02-18 04:15:44 UTC

While many things bring value such as look or price one of the most important things Bloom claims to bring an object value is the history behind said object. For example as stated Napoleon one of the most famous and glorious generals in the world had his penis of all things cut off by a priest and held where today people put high value in something that to one may see worthless. Another thing is a sentimental history, an example is a baby's teddy bear. A baby will care about the teddy bear more than many other things such as a cool toy another kid will find cool. This is because that item while it may only be $3 it holds a sentimental weight.