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I don't accept this is the economic position of most people who voted Brexit. I haven't seen any exhaustive research or breakdown of the Brexit cohort, so can admittedly only fall back on anecdata. I watched Adrian Chiles' documentary on Brexit voters in Birmingham. One couple owned a house and had just bought a narrow boat. Another was a pub landlord with a thriving business.
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He wasn't describing most people who voted Brexit. He was describing the circumstances of the English thugs you posted about upthread. Don't reparse the question after it's been answered.
And it isn't an either or situation. Some people will be culturally nationalistic, some will be economically suffering and dislocated, some will be a bit of both. However it isn't even that simple. "Culturally nationalistic" and "economically suffering and dislocated" aren't absolute. They're scales and people can appear at any point on both at the same time.
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I don't accept this is the economic position of most people who voted Brexit.
That's cool, it's not a contradiction of your argument or mine.
But... you did specifically cite an example of the yobs in Marseilles and that is what I was responding to. I also do not think for a moment that that group of people reflect those who voted leave.
The_Seldom_Killer
Velocio
This is bad thinking.
The poor waste their money on useless things, be it Stone Island clothing, or Timberland boots, or 50" flat screen TVs.
They waste their money (and opportunities) because they live without hope of ever experiencing a different set of circumstances. They earn enough to get through a month and have a little pocket money, but not enough to think of the future, a pension, a house, the large ticket items. As their small disposable income barely sustains a decent present they seek consolation in what it can buy... and through widely available consumer credit a lot appears affordable when it is not, they can get the flat screen, the trip to a foreign football match, the booze... and pay it off over a long period of time.
It is precisely because they have no future, no hope, no decent income, that they can piss away what little they have on ostentatious but ultimately pointless things.