I mentioned the term "conspicuous underconsumption". I think it might surprise you to know that the Rockefellers in the twenties practiced it. I knew a Harvard instructor whose father was an AT&T vice-president, and summered in Bar Harbor, Maine, and knew the Rockefeller children. One summer the kids were beach combing, and Nelson Rockefeller discovered a wrecked dory, and was trying to figure out how much it would cost to fix it up. A nouveau riche kid, less well brought up, sneered:"Why don't you buy a new one?" Nelson Rockefeller turned on him and demanded, quite sincerely, "What do you think I am, a millionaire?" He simply had no idea that the was indeed many times over a millionaire.