By guest host Jane Clayson:

Brands like Gucci and Prada and Louis Vuitton carry price tags that would eat up most people’s monthly paychecks. The ads tell you luxury-grade goods are worth it but what if it’s all a big lie?

Behind those Italian labels, those claims of Old World craftsmanship, is just a lot of glue and cheap labor in China. The profit margins make CEOs salivate, and consumers are left holding the bag at ten times what it cost to manufacture.

This hour On Point: The devils who sell you Prada.

Guests:

Dana Thomas, author of the new book “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster.” She is a cultural and fashion writer for Newsweek in Paris, Paris correspondent for Australian Harper’s Bazaar, and contributer to The New Yorker, Washington Post and The Financial Times;
Tim Kasser, Professor of Psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, author of “The High Price of Materialism” (2003) and co-editor of “Psychology and Consumer Culture: The Struggle for a Good Life in a Materialistic World “(2003)