Luxury
Luxury ( from Latin luxury, extravagance ',' debauchery ', actually, lush fertility ' ) denotes behaviors, expenses or equipment, which exceed the usual level beyond ( the usual standard ) or considered over the in a society as a necessary or useful degree. Luxury sums so together phenomena that are for a large part of the reference group as desirable. Therefore, their exchange value is often considerably, that is the price of their purchase high and therefore luxury goods are mostly to acquire only on the basis of corresponding equipment with power or wealth.
Material luxury
Material Luxury demonstrated a way of life that stands out because of its exclusive features from the normal social life and is often represented as a success and status symbol. A luxurious lifestyle is reflected, among other things, in fine food and beverages as well as in more expensive clothes, jewelry, expensive cars and exclusive residences.
Intangible luxury
Luxury consumption, besides the extrinsic striving for distinction, prestige and social class also have individual, intrinsically motivated in the first place and thus intangible reasons. Consumer behavior is influenced not only cognitive, but also affective and partially unconscious motivations. People buy products also because of their symbolic meaning and not just utilitarian reasons.
Thus, the pursuit of self-gratification and self-realization be a reason for the consumption of luxury products also. Some seek a balance in luxury goods, for example, stress at work and want to treat yourself to luxury. Here are primarily about emotional needs, such as for pleasure.
This means that the luxury products / services need not be conspicuous and visible to others; it is here rather a way of life and about expressing his own personality. The consumer buys brands that meet their individual values and thus become the symbol of a lifestyle. In this context, luxury goods fulfill primarily an identification function, and their consumption is more intrinsically motivated. Thus, an individual's identity can be deeply influenced by the possession of certain goods, because their symbolic content is transferred to the consumer and thus the enhanced self-image is affected. Here, the object of consumption can not only support the existing characteristics of the buyer, but also favor not yet existent characteristics in their creation. This means that a confirmation or an increase of the self or one Selbstkongruenz concept may be caused by this transmission.
The increasing importance of the intangible component of self-gratification as the target of Konsumes / ownership of luxury products is also a study of LiM / Keylens. So are the majority of the respondents that the personal pleasure and self-gratification are the most important motives of luxury consumption. Reasons such as conformity, or inclusivity have become less important.
Cultural and historical context
In ethics and religion is luxury as extravagance generally doomed. The related from the root word Luxuria is one of the seven deadly sins.
What is considered a luxury, is highly dependent on cultural and ethical standards as well as the social position of the judge, and not least from the economic and technical development. Currently, the advertising emphasizes open and often the luxury nature of certain products, for example in fine perfume or expensive cars. What is luxury, thus subject to social change.
Before the invention of printing the purchase of a ( hand-written ) Bible was a luxury that could only afford princes and wealthy citizens; cost but such a work the equivalent of two half-timbered houses. Modern production methods have now made Bibles and books ever affordable for everyone. Only for Christians who live in countries where no printed Bibles and also may not be imported - such as in Saudi Arabia - they still remain hardly accessible luxury.
Galt example, running water in the house by the antiquity, the Middle Ages and in modern times to the 19th century ( in the country any longer ) as a luxury, it is today through the modern water supply, a water line in each apartment in the industrial countries default and is no longer viewed as a luxury. For many poor people in developing countries, however, a faucet in their dwelling a still unattainable luxury, based on a private indoor swimming pool is, however, referred to in rich countries still considered a luxury.
Also the access to intangible assets - for example, by habitual visit to the opera - is in demand as a luxury or even criticized.
Therefore, the judgment of what is meant by luxury, relatively - characteristic is the control over scarce goods and their wasteful and immoderate use and consumption. From this power of disposal, there is also the representative of social differences emphasizing character of luxury: He signaled political, financial and cultural power, whose carriers are relieved of the need to be thrifty.
Taxes and sumptuary laws
In a number of countries of the purchase of certain products that are perceived as a luxury, with an increased rate of VAT ( so-called luxury tax ) will be allocated.
In the story, a large number of laws against luxury have been adopted. Most of the expenditure for clothes, feasts and funerals should be kept in check to prevent some ethical or commercial policy reasons, partly to the depletion or to allow demarcation of the stands outwardly from each other.
For example, was adopted in the Roman Republic in 215 BC, the Lex Oppia, which prohibited to wear purple robes or expensive jewelry.
Further examples of such (anti) sumptuary laws are found in many cultures and times. So the Doge Gerolamo Priuli 1562 regulated that the equipment of gondolas in Venice could only be black to prevent ostentation. Such regulations generally prohibited by no means luxury, but its inappropriate display.
Department of Economics
Werner Sombart, starting from the early modern globalization through long-distance trade, trade with the then the most rewarding luxury goods (including silk, pepper, spices, coffee, chocolate, cane sugar ) worked out as a special initiator of mercantile capitalism.