One bi-product of my bi-coastal lifestyle is stacks of half-read magazines on both coasts.  Last week, I got around to finishing the April 3rd issue of the New Yorker and Relatively Deprived, a thought-provoking article in it by John Cassidy, which challengers how we determine and consider poverty in a society where 91% of households have a color TV.  It made me think about how absolute and relative prices on many "luxury" items have dropped substantially during my lifetime, and about another phenomenon:  The growing pricing disparity of all goods, from televisions to tomatoes.  When I was a kid, blue jeans meant either Toughskins from Sears or Levi’s.  There was a price difference, but it wasn’t huge.  Even the fashionable Calvin Kleins of my teen years were only three or four times as expensive as Wrangler or Lee jeans.  Today I saw a pair of Dsquared2 jeans on eLuxury.com for $745.

That’s 50 times as expensive as the least expensive jeans at Wal-Mart.  Now, I have been known to defend the purchase of luxury goods as simple wealth re-distribution.  And yes, the blue collar touch of tobacco can-wear on the back pocket is clever.  But wearing these jeans just says "I’m so insecure, I need to wear my wealth on my ass to feel good about myself."  Could anyone’s penis be that small?  Oh, btw, these Sears’ Canyon River Blues are on sale today for $14.99.