The Aesthetics of Loss: Zero-Liquidity Experiential Consumption and the Semiotics of Conspicuous Taste in the Era of Abandoned Wealth Ladders
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: In contemporary socio-economic landscapes, a profound paradox has emerged among younger andmiddle-class demographics: as the structural gap between average wages and foundational asset prices(e.g., real estate, equities) renders traditional upward mobility virtually impossible, individualsincreasingly divert non-essential capital toward high-cost, zero-liquidity experiential goods—mostnotably fine dining, curated travel, and aesthetic hospitality. Traditional economic literature evaluatesnon-recoupable expenditure as irrational consumption that accelerates financial decline. This paperproposes a novel cultural-semiotic framework—"The Aesthetics of Loss"—to argue that zero-liquidityspending functions as a sophisticated mechanism of psychological class-simulation and identitypreservation. By analyzing the transition from conspicuous consumption (material assets yieldingsecondary resale value) to conspicuous taste (ephemeral sensory experiences with zero resale value), wedemonstrate that the act of deliberately burning capital for non-retrievable experiences offers theconsumer a profound semiotic illusion: by freeing oneself from the middle-class anxiety of "depreciationand liquidability," the individual adopts the financial posture of the ultra-rich, who consume withouteconomic calculation. Experiential consumption, therefore, is reinterpreted not as mere hedonism ordoom spending, but as a bittersweet, symbolic assertion of agency and elevated taste within a frozenclass structure.
Author: Min, Jinseong
Language: English
Subfield: Marketing
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7204548429
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