<P> Conspicuous consumption is the spending of money on and the acquiring of luxury goods and services to publicly display economic power--of the income or of the accumulated wealth of the buyer . To the conspicuous consumer, such a public display of discretionary economic power is a means of either attaining or maintaining a given social status . </P> <P> The development of Thorstein Veblen's sociology of conspicuous consumption produced the term invidious consumption, the ostentatious consumption of goods that is meant to provoke the envy of other people; and the term conspicuous compassion, the deliberate use of charitable donations of money in order to enhance the social prestige of the donor, with a display of superior socio - economic status . </P>

The display of wealth for social prestige is called