My shortcomings are, shall we say, extensive. But there is one thing about myself I’m sure of. I have excellent taste. I have good taste in music, food, clothes, friends, and everything else in between. It’s one of my few natural gifts; recognition of quality and beauty.
Do you think you have good taste?
No. My friends aren’t chosen because of “taste.” Neither are my clothes, food or music.
I’m a peasant, unfortunately, happily merry in my unsophisticated ways.
So they are chosen completely at random? Surely, there is some criteria by which you decide who you like to associate with and who you won’t. If you choose to associate with smart, kind, honest people you have good taste in people.
I think I revel in my bad taste.
My favorite movies are of the “big dumb and popcorny” kind
My favorite reading is humor books and sci-fi and horror novels. I don’t think I’ve read anything “literary” since college.
One of my favorite TV shows is Survivor. But I think for someone with real “taste”, TV doesn’t rate anyway.
Pizza and burgers routinely make up my meals. I’ve never been to a gourmet restaurant.
And my clothes? Well, let’s just say I have a t-shirt collection and one of my prized possessions is my Guster concert T.
EDIT:
That is NOT what your OP implied. It implied knowing the “right” kind of people makes them better and makes your taste in friends “good.”
Or they could be people with whom I’ve worked who share similar traits: family, music, comedy, alcohol. The basics. You know?
Wow! You have good taste? How were you able to confirm this? Did you compare notes with other people with good taste?
I don’t think there is anything that can be called “good taste” that isn’t at least a bit subjective.
I have the right taste for me. And I deviate from my set taste if there seems to be a potential for something amazing “over there.”
Good taste is so subjective it’s arbitrary.
Lots of people would agree about “good taste” in clothing…don’t wear anything you would find a stripper wearing, or Marilyn Manson, or an urban cowboy…but that doesn’t say much towards WHAT to wear. The DON’T WEAR is much easier.
And as for music? Good luck. I cannot stand opera. Any kind. Period. I find it boring at best and nerve-gratingly awful at worst. But you would find lots of people who would say, hand over heart, that opera is in “good taste.” I like the Beatles. I like rap. I like alternative rock. I like pop. I like the Gypsy Kings. The only people who would swear I have good taste in music are the ones who share my taste in music.
Food? I live on cheese. I love bread. Pasta. Steak. Crispy salads. Baby carrots. Spanish rice. Bean and cheese tacos. Eggo waffles. Thin-crust pizza. Chicken casserole. Fried shrimp. Are my tastes refined? Are they “in good taste,” literally? I doubt it. I don’t like caviar. I’m so-so with sushi. I like my dinner to be wider than it is tall. I don’t do “fine dining.” I don’t get it.
I like my friends to be as real, flavorful and perhaps as every-day as my food. I relate to them, they relate to me. We get along just like the beans and cheese in my breakfast tacos.
People with good taste don’t boast about it, becasue it’s distasteful. 
I have terrible taste in wine. I love the cheap stuff but most expensive wines taste like I’m licking a plank of wood.
My taste in movies is fairly bad too. I’ve hated every Kubrick movie I’ve seen, Citizen Kane was a yawnfest, and I thought Schindler’s List sucked - whereas I’ve watched Grease 2 maybe 20, 30 times.
Music lovers would cringe at my iPod playlists too. I’ve got cheesy pop from the 60s onwards. Total Eclipse of the Heart, Hey Mickey, all the Spice Girl songs, and of course the Grease 2 soundtrack (“I want a cooooool rider. A cool cool cool cool rider.”)
I think I have good taste in clothes but that’s what I thought when I was 13 and running around in leopard-skin everything - including hat.
My home is a mix of antique, designer and Ikea, with quirky art pieces. I love it, but someone who’s into McMansion contemporary, white-on-white modern or french provincial would probably hate it because their taste is different. Actually no. I just decided. If you hate my apartment it’s because you suck. My apartment is awesome.
I’m a registered fashion risk.
Sometimes but not on the whole. I like to believe my taste in music is pretty good on the whole but I am listening to Nickelback at the moment and am only mildly embarassed by that. I also like gourmet food but had a strawberry pop tart for breakfast and most of my clothes are tasteful but I’m presently wearing a faded Nautica sweatshirt.
All my best or favorite friends are fantastic people without fail, though.
This is a very timely topic for me, especially the “good taste in people” minefield. I recently came to the realization that I want to be more sophisticated and elegant than I currently am. This isn’t a major issue except… my friends. Almost none of my friends would come to my house for a posh party. But I love them. They’re kind, funny, witty, generous, loving people, and I wouldn’t give them up for the world.
So, I find myself straddling the dividing line between plebian and sophisticate, but it’s rather fun, actually. You can’t end up too full of yourself when you’re laughing with your friends.
Nope. Mr. Mallard does, and each of us despairs over the other. Good taste requires (a) paying attention to what others are eating / drinking / wearing / thinking, both historically and contemporaneously, and (b) caring about it. I can’t be bothered.
Yes, in terms of aesthetics.
I pick friends based on whether they are interesting and trustworthy.
If they’re not trustworthy, they can be interesting acquaintances.
I recognize fashionable clothing and decor without necessarily finding it attractive or adopting it.
I’m not sure what “taste” means for movies or other entertainment. I’d have to call my taste in the arts “eclectic” and I enjoy some kitsch.
I am an excellent cook and appreciative eater bcause I can differentiate and use a lot of different spices and flavors.
I am the person you want to design your garden or office because I have a very good eye for color and space.
For home, my prefered look is late 20th century library with excellent reading chairs.
What does that mean, exactly?
I have better taste in clothes than my husband. Verifying pictures available on request. 
No, I don’t have good taste. I have very wide tastes in pretty much everything except maybe movies, but not particularly good.
Personally, my taste manages to wander the entire spectrum between the chic and the shabby. I wear an Audemars Piguet watch to the Cubs game where I drink Old Style and eat hot dogs. I wear my Cabelas boat shoes to the Caribbean French Restaurant where the Salade niçoise is $32. Simply, you are free to like what you like the way you like it. Comfort, by definition, is in good taste. At one point I had blue hair and wore kilts. Today, I still wear the kilt, only I’ve sort-of outgrown the blue hair. If someone considers a kilt in bad taste, then the problem becomes one of THEIR own making, decidedly not one of taste.
The REAL difference comes in how you choose to act. You can dress yourself in Bally shoes, Armani Black Label Suits, a Paul Stuart overcoat and wear Ferragamo accesories and Tiffany Jewelry, and you can still be a classless pig. Conversely, you can wear cutoff jeans, flip-flops, an old concert t-shirt and a baseball cap, and be a complete gentleman. Class is who you are, not what you wear, eat, drive, or own.
As far as friends are concerned; if you are the type of person who has friends, and lots of them, your class speaks for itself. If you shut people out of your life because they don’t meet your strict criteria of “class” well, I hope you can talk to your clothes about your problems.
Exactly what I came in here to say. Thank you.
All of the things I have good taste in are things I worked at educating myself about: clothing, shoes, household decor, food. Things I don’t bother working at, I have bad taste in: beer, television shows, movies, etc. It seems to me good taste isn’t so much instinctual as it’s something you care enough to educate yourself about so you can tell what’s “good” or “bad”. (I’m not sure how friends would fall into taste categories, it seems to me “good taste in friends” just means you have the sense to avoid actively bad ones)
I have no idea. I like what I like and don’t worry too much about what people call taste.