Speculation is the new luxury good

As engineering has improved and knock-offs have increased, though, the two-hundred-year tradition of physical luxury goods is fading away.

One thing that’s taking its place is speculation.

Speculation is a great hobby if you can afford it, but it shouldn’t be confused with investment.

A luxury good is one where the price paid is much higher than the apparent utility it offers. We pay extra precisely because it’s not a good value. The utility lies in how we and our peers think about it. The scarcity and bling of a luxury good are used to increase our status (in our own eyes and those in our cohort).

But that in itself is a sort of luxury.

And so, a top-end Mercedes isn’t much better at being a car than a Hyundai is, it simply costs more.

There are now hundreds of digital NFTs each worth more than a million dollars each. Just like Reddit stocks, they change in value dramatically, they come with a story and they’re fun to talk about with your friends and peers.

And one day, every one of them will be owned by someone who is unable to sell it at a profit.