Demonstrative consumption - the way of life of part of the elite group of citizens of Ukraine

Abstract

The essence of demonstrative consumption of material and spiritual goods in modern Ukraine are researched in the article. Consumer activity is seen as a process of conscious active behavior based on the needs and excessive financial capabilities of a person with the use of social benefits intended for material and spiritual development. Therefore, consumer activity can be considered as an element of the way of life of a person, and the cult of demonstrative consumption – an integral part of the way of life of a particular social stratum of the population of Ukraine. The emergence of distorted in the value dimension of some forms of commodity fetishism is revealed. In representatives of a particular social group (stratum), it asserts itself in the form of consumption of various objects of human activity. Such objects are not only material things, but also materialized cultural values, cultural mass events (theatrical performances, private parties with the participation of famous actors of theater and cinema and music, dance and singing shows). Functional and social properties and characteristics of things affect a person's acceptance of the way they are consumed. It is noted that people of this execution are beginning to demonstrate their own lifestyle, just as people of the previous, less overwhelmed by the choice of the era (twentieth century), consumed ordinary foods. In the context of the basic worldview principles of secular humanism, the significance of the "lazy class" theory of the famous American economist, sociologist and psychologist T. Veblen for the scientific analysis of everyday behavior of such representatives of the modern Ukrainian elite is revealed. Emphasis is placed on the manifestation of Ukrainian patronage in the late twentieth and early twentieth centuries.