1. Introduction -- 2. Markets over governments -- 3. Competition over cooperation and monopoly -- 4. Consumers over citizens -- 5. Management over labor -- 6. Growth over progress, justice, and equality -- 7. Conclusion.

“Symbolic consumption” is formally unrelated to “second-order preferences”, but the ability to symbolically consume and the ability to have preferences about one's preferences are each uniquely human characteristics. The major question addressed in this paper is this: are symbolic...