Why We Hate Cheap Things

This volume explores the way we can easily pine for what is costly and out of reach - and it gently returns us to ourselves, full of new found wonder and gratitude. Combining literature, economics and sheer good sense, Why We Hate Cheap Things reawakens us to the world immediately around us and to the latent beauty and interest of what we have.

We don’t think we hate cheap things – but we frequently behave as if we rather do. Consider the pineapple. The pineapple was once such a status symbol that whole aristocratic evenings were structured around them. Christopher Wren topped the South Tower of St Paul’s with one. But now, the pineapple is one of the world’s least glamorous fruits. It is never served at smart dinner parties and it would never be carved on the top of a major civic building. The pineapple itself has not changed; only our attitude to it has. When we have to pay a lot for something nice, we appreciate it to the full. Yet as its price in the market falls, passion has a habit of fading away. It’s a pattern that we see recurring in a range of areas – and it’s a current cultural misfortune. We need to rethink our patterns of consumption. This entertainingly informative book considers how to do so, and shows how more of things we could love are already to hand. We are, astonishingly, already a good deal richer than we are encouraged to think we are.