How can...?

The second question from this morning's Edinburgh Socrates Cafe at the Filmhouse. We meet roughly every two weeks and choose a question or two to discuss. The first one was about why we find it difficult to cope with people who are different (I paraphrase slightly, but that was the gist) and then after the break we moved on to this. Interesting in that there turned out to be some people who defended the expensive handbags, or at least wondered why pick on that and not some other, 'more acceptable' forms of consumption? I think we all agreed the over-priced bag in an expensive shop was a symbol of capitalism and its worship of consumption, but there were voices who wondered why handbag = bad, when painting = good. Felt we had just touched the surface of the debate when it was time to finish - a shame we didn't pick it as the first topic!