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Conspicuous Consumption means lavish spending on goods and services that are acquired mainly for the purpose of displaying income or wealth. In the mind of a conspicuous consumer, such display serves as a means of attaining or maintaining social status. A very similar but more colloquial term is "keeping up with the Joneses".

The term was introduced by Norwegian American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen in his 1899 book The Theory of the Leisure Class. Veblen used the term to depict the behavioural characteristic of the nouveau riche, a new class that emerged in the 19th century capitalistic society as a result of the accumulation of wealth during the Second Industrial Revolution. In this context, the application of the term should be narrowed only to the elements of the upper class who use their enormous wealth to manifest their social power, whether real or perceived

Conspicuous consumers garner the biggest motor home, boat, most expensive car, biggest Plasma etc to self-gratify and self-ingratiate.

Examples of 21st century Conspicuous Consumption.

There are Critics Of Economic Materialism and Conspicuous Consumption.

Above explanation is taken from Wikipedia.