Paul Krugman, in Thursday's op-ed referred to conservatives as show-offs. And he started his little essay with the assertion that
Liberals talk about circumstances; conservatives talk about character.
Both, to my way of thinking, are accurate, but why?
The answer, I think, is to be found in the fact that conservatives are people directed primarily by superficial optics, but who don't really see. They don't talk about "circumstances," the things/people standing around them in their environment, because they don't actually see either themselves or their environment as distinct. So, they can only talk about their emotional reaction, their own interior state and that's what character means--what they internalize as intent.
But, that doesn't address why they show off. I think it goes back to not being able to see themselves, so they accumulate stuff in imitation of others to make themselves metaphorically more important and bigger-- in hopes that eventually they will be seen.
Krugman's harkens back to Veblen's critique of "conspicuous consumption," but I don't think that was or is the problem. Indeed, the acquisition of mansions and trinkets represents spending that satisfies the artisans and craftsmen. And I still hold that consuming things by looking (look but don't touch) might be considered akin to pornography -- non-productive, but also a non-invasive approach.
No, the problem with self-centered show-offs accumulating dollars isn't with what they spend; it's with the currency they don't know what to do with but pass around (like in a game of "who's got the button?") and gamble and play with. In that sense, of course, our currency is being treated like porn. All form; no function. All show; no production.
Of course, since the impulse to accumulate and aggrandize is not likely to be stymied by regularly relieving them of their stash, a robust regimen of taxation to keep the currency circulating may raise objection, but it shouldn't be listened to. Being deprived of a figment of the imagination will just incentivize more persistent acquisition without the detriment that ownership and the obligation to manage actually represents.