Degrees once considered exceptional become basic employment requirements. Corporate titles multiply while responsibilities remain unchanged. Awards, credentials, and professional distinctions proliferate, gradually losing their power to distinguish achievement.
Prestige Inflation examines how modern societies have created an expanding economy of status symbols—and why their value is becoming increasingly uncertain.
Exploring higher education, professional careers, corporate hierarchies, academic grading, and the competition for recognition, the book reveals how institutions inflate credentials and how individuals respond by pursuing ever more elaborate signals of success.
A thought-provoking examination of ambition, merit, social status, and the growing gap between genuine achievement and its outward symbols.