Fashion Taste and Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Fashion Taste and Ethics - Essay Example Each of the class has its own taste for the basic and secondary needs aspect that is commonly used by marketers as they launch new products in the market. In their efforts to emulate new consumption habits, members of the middle class as well as those at the lower social class imitate the taste of the upper calls members. This paper evaluates the relationship that exists between taste and class, one of the major aspects of identity. Class Social class entails the set of concepts that are adopted by social scientists to group individuals with similar consumption habits and taste into various categories. Being a vital analysis tool for the political scientists and sociologists, social class enables firms and governments to provide amenities and goods that are not only aimed at improving the living standard of individuals but also to improve economic performance of a country. According to Marxist theory, class involves the combination of subjective and objective factors. While the subjective individuals possess some perception of common interests and similarity among themselves, objectively members of the same class share common relationship to the factors used in the production of goods and services (Arsel and Jonathan, 2013). This implies that in most cases, the subjective factors play a key role in ensuring that members of a similar has have a similar taste towards a particular products. On his part, Max Weber, a reno wned sociologist formulated a major theory of stratification that depicted political power as a connection between class, status and group power. According to Weber, education and skills possessed by a person highly determines the class portion of an individual as compared to their relationship with the factors of production. Upper class Upper class is made up of the well-born or wealthy individuals. In most societies, the condition to enter upper class is being wealth. In others, individuals born in particular aristocratic bloodlines are taken to be the member of the upper class. As a result of the passing of the wealth from one generation to another within the upper class, their demand for luxuries and other expensive products remains constant. Some of the major factors that have resulted to high demand for expensive commodities by the members of the upper class include high generation of revenue from lands and rents among other sources of wealth. Even though the members of the up per class are not many especially for the developing countries, their implication on the aggregate demand for consumer products is significant in the growth for any economy. Middle class Middle class involves the group of people who fall between the upper and the lower classes. It covers the white collar employees who earn a significant income to cover their household needs. To ensure that their status is improved, individuals within the middle class have highly demand education and technologies the major aspects that enables them to enter the upper class. As compared to the upper class, members of the middle class have a lower taste for the luxurious products since their aim it to improve their economic status. In this regard, they look for employment opportunities that will expand their incomes and allow them to pursue further education thus enhancing their skills. One of the significant aspects of the middle cl