In economics, signalling refers to the idea that one party credibly conveys some information about itself to another party. In evolutionary biology signalling has a more general meaning.
In addition to a hunger for food (and sex) humans appear to have an insatiable hunger for information. And so as their hunger for food is more easily met people have moved from consuming food to consuming concepts.
I am one of the lucky few to snatch a ticket for Peter Stein's 12-hour production of Dostoyevsky's The Demons. The ticket price gives an interesting insight into the economics of the performing arts.
In the aftermath of the financial crisis there was a lot of talk of a crisis in economic science. The Annual Review in Economics proves that the contrary is the case.
Of course I’d like to have more purchasing power and pay lower taxes and I too disagree with some of the ways the government of my country allocates its budget. But there is a different form of private wealth which depends on the public infrastructure of the country you live in.