Spending on Social Status Different for Different Races

This is a very interesting article by the Economist on why people spend for status instead of for their own well-being.

Erik Hurst, Kerwin Charles, and Nick Roussanov found many people view their consumption as a signal to others. Further, black and Hispanic Americans are more likely, after controlling for permanent income, to spend a greater share of their wealth on conspicuous forms of consumption such as automobiles, clothes, and jewellery. To fund this spending, they often forgo more beneficial goods such as health care, education, and future consumption, i.e. saving. They found the conspicuous consumption motive can explain as much as 50% of the Black/white wealth gap, after controlling for income.

The interesting part is that richer people actually stop conspicuous consumption after a certain point because it actually makes them look poor. It also seems that when a minority group as a whole gets richer they move away from conspicuous consumption. The authors of this study also found that Hispanic communities that are affluent spend less on conspicuous consumption then poorer communities.

I wonder if average wealth in a community affects political affiliation of minority groups in that community as well? So would richer blacks and Hispanic communities turn to the GOP because they would be more interested in their capital gains taxes being raised, affording good health care, or the liberalization of colleges that they pay $50K+ a year for rather then being able to afford Gucci sweatpants or a diamond studded watch?