Conspicuous consumption

Why would you need 28 top-of-the-line vehicles for one family? It may be over-the-top for you, but since there are 30 or 31 days every month, you could say that stopping at 28 cars does sound like a virtue.

- JULLIE Y. DAZA

You could call it a weakness for collecting, the way some people collect vintage cars, old maps and books.

Or you could call it conspicuous consumption, so many syllables to pronounce without your listener being incited to covet and/or be jealous of a neighbor’s goods. Those two words, paired together, do sound like an invention of modern man, not of his innocent ancestors who collected food for consumption, not for collecting.