that people get into financial difficulties through treating as necessities
goods whose only function is social display. In our interview study (Walker
et al., 1992) we found that people with serious debt problems regarded
certain kinds of expenditures on children (for example fashion goods and
substantial Christmas gifts) as necessities, and would run into debt in order
to maintain them, even though many people would classify them as luxuries.
The whole question of the classification of goods as necessities or
luxuries, and its consequences for purchasing behaviour, is of current
interest in economic psychology (Livingstone and Lunt, 1992b). It clearly
relates to social comparisons - what "everyone buys" is likely to be seen as
a necessity, and according to reference group theory "everyone" actually
means the members of one's reference group.