When commodities reach a peak in their rise, the pseudo-concept of the "middle class" may just be the buyers of these new "consumer goods."
Author: Manman
Contemporary consumption is departing from its original logic.
From the Maotai on the state banquet table, to the ape avatars on the Ethereum chain (BAYC Bored Apes), to the trendy Labubu toys on young people's desks, these seemingly unrelated products are telling the same story in their own ways: we are no longer paying for "function," but for a certain desire to be seen.
In this consumption structure, the use value of products is sidelined, while emotions, identity, recognition, and speculation take center stage, forming a new era map where "consumption is symbolic."
01 Micro: Consumption Constructs "Persona," Not Just Meeting Needs
The popularity of Labubu is less about successful design and more about precisely hitting the self-label of urban youth as "cute with a hint of rebellion." It is not a toy, but a "projection tool" for self-presentation.
BAYC (Bored Apes) is even more direct—what users buy is not just an image, but a public declaration of "I belong to Web3," a ticket to enter a specific circle, and a key to activate a virtual identity.
As for Maotai, its social role has long transcended that of an alcoholic beverage. You don't have to drink it; it can "speak" for you at a dinner table: a familiar institutional language, a symbol of identity that needs no further explanation.
At this level, consumption no longer addresses physical "needs," but serves emotional recognition, social intentions, and psychological belonging.
“Give me a smash” via Crazy Rush
02 Meso: Consumption Habits Are Structurally Induced by "Mechanisms"
Why can these products maintain their popularity? They rely not on naturally occurring "market preferences," but on a highly structured "induction mechanism":
Artificial Scarcity: Labubu relies on hidden editions, BAYC on fixed quantities, and Maotai on quota systems. Supply is precisely controlled, and scarcity is programmatically manufactured.
Symbolic Packaging: All three possess strong attributes of community language; they are carriers of cultural transmission.
Community Amplification: Product preferences are constructing business cards for social personas, whether it's "showing off boxes," "displaying apes," or "gifting Maotai," all expanding exponentially through user-driven dissemination.
Labubu triggers the desire to collect, BAYC creates dreams of wealth, and Maotai maintains social debts.
They collectively point to one fact: consumption behavior is actually a group response programmed by "mechanisms + emotions + culture."
03 Macro: The Assetization of Consumer Goods and Behavioral Finance Logic
Currently, the most popular consumer goods often possess four attributes: price speculation, symbolic scarcity, closed circles, and emotional resonance. This means they are not just products, but "quasi-financial assets."
When these characteristics overlap, they transform from mere consumer goods into "capital structures." Behavioral finance has mature explanations for this:
Anchoring Bias: Early hype sets high price anchors, making it natural for subsequent consumers to accept premiums.
Herd Mentality: When those around are buying and showcasing, individuals tend to abandon independent judgment, making following behavior the norm.
Confirmation Bias: Once purchased, people tend to collect signals that support the legitimacy of their decision, suppressing contrary information.
Sunk Cost Fallacy: The more one invests, the harder it is to withdraw, leading to continued investment to avoid the psychological pain of "being wrong."
Speculation, identity recognition, and emotional satisfaction are mutually causal in this type of consumption behavior, forming a self-reinforcing cycle and a symbolically speculative market where prices can easily be inflated.
The price inflation of BAYC is a collusion ritual among speculators, holders, and KOLs; the value inflation of Labubu relies on the collusion of blind box scalpers and platform strategies; the "valuation stability" of Maotai resembles a large social credit system operating in tacit agreement.
What these three reveal is not just "upgrading consumption," but "financial descent": capital logic is beginning to permeate the emotions and decisions of our daily lives.
04 Monetary Easing and the Structural Collusion of "Quasi-Consumer Asset" Expansion
Looking at it more broadly, behind this round of consumer financialization lies an undeniable institutional push—global monetary overproduction.
Since the pandemic, central banks around the world have continuously engaged in quantitative easing, leading to rampant liquidity and severe bubbles in traditional assets, prompting capital to seek "structural premium exports." These "symbolic consumer goods," which possess storytelling and emotional anchoring capabilities, serve as ideal containers for absorbing bubbles.
Labubu is treated as a speculative blind box, BAYC once surged in the NFT market, and Maotai has long held a top position as "hard currency." They are all accomplishing one task: transforming the loose monetary environment into a reservoir of "emotional assets."
Thus, today's consumption bubble is not a single point explosion, but a "top-down" structural collusion. It is not just a market phenomenon, but a financial mechanism's capital mobilization of cultural carriers.
05 The Less Like a Product, the More Expensive It Is
As essentially animalistic humans, our only main task on Earth is to obtain 2000 calories of food each day.
“m's, wild life” via Xiaohongshu
However, after the Industrial Revolution, social productivity experienced a qualitative leap, and basic survival needs no longer became the "main task," but rather taken for granted.
In today's developed productivity, what we consume may not just be products, but results of self-projection and emotional binding.
Labubu is a cute response to loneliness, BAYC is a self-index of futurism, and Maotai is a tacit echo of power language. They each stand in different corners of the consumption pyramid, yet all reveal a trend: consumption behavior is becoming or has already become a pet cultivated by capital.
No matter how products change form, the ultimate payer is always that part of us that desires to be understood, recognized, and differentiated—the "persona."
Therefore, those things that are less like products are the most expensive.
Because they carry too many of our expectations about "who I am," and expectations are the very anchor of today's consumer society.
When commodities reach a peak in their rise, the pseudo-concept of the "middle class" may just be the buyers of these new "consumer goods."
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