Are there any positional goods that aren’t reasonably well-captured as signalling?
Depends on whether you count signaling to yourself as signaling.
There are cases of rich people buying stolen art (and other collectables) that they would never be able to publicly admit owning. But presumably the ownership of that rare and hidden art piece warms the cockles of their hearts...
Can’t they show off their stolen goods to particular other people, in confidence, indicating something like “I am so, rich and ruthless that I have this amazing piece of stolen artwork, and I trust you enough to let you in on this secret even though you could destroy me with it”?
That’s an interesting case. I can readily appreciate the idea of secretly owning a great work of art for my own private consumption, but that seems to have a fair amount of intrinsic value as well.
Depends on whether you count signaling to yourself as signaling.
There are cases of rich people buying stolen art (and other collectables) that they would never be able to publicly admit owning. But presumably the ownership of that rare and hidden art piece warms the cockles of their hearts...
Can’t they show off their stolen goods to particular other people, in confidence, indicating something like “I am so, rich and ruthless that I have this amazing piece of stolen artwork, and I trust you enough to let you in on this secret even though you could destroy me with it”?
That’s an interesting case. I can readily appreciate the idea of secretly owning a great work of art for my own private consumption, but that seems to have a fair amount of intrinsic value as well.