Stop Trying to Buy Your Status, The Joneses Don’t Want You.

Posted by The Marksman at 20 July, at 09 : 47 AM Print

Everyone has heard people use the term “keeping up with the Joneses”.  For those who do not know what it means, it is basically when you are using a social benchmark to accumulate material good.  When you fail to “keep up with the Joneses” then you are not a part of the elite social class, and are considered inferior economically.

Many people make the mistake of buying into that as some sort of complete truth.  How you carry yourself is often just as important as what you’re wearing, and only one of those things can be flat-out bought with cash.  Status does mater in this world depending on the situation, but people often apply their status pursuits in the wrong way.  Buying material goods won’t buy you the status you are looking for, and people think the more they buy their status meter is going to rise.  They could not be farther from the truth.

On a personal level, a one-on-one conversation or at a dinner, in medias res, behavior is almost all there is to talk about, since you’ve already made the all-important initial impression. But here we’re discussing whether or not you can buy your status (and, in case you haven’t guessed yet, you can’t). This time, the focus is less on behavior than consumer culture, and how its nature prevents you from just slapping a wad of bills on someone’s counter and asking to be respected by your peers, please.

1- Status should be about Self Confidence, and not Material Worth

Status is not simple, but it has more to do with confidence than wealth. This isn’t to say that it’s completely independent of wealth, and in some situations a person’s going to conclude all he feels he needs to know about you based on the car you show up in.  The problem is letting material things define you; some people lose all their confidence when they step away from their expensive vehicle.  They have defined their confidence in that one vehicle, and they leave their confidence in the parking lot with it.  You need to have a discerning eye and the presence of mind to spend money intelligently in the first place.

2- Status Symbols Change All The Time (The Joneses Keep Setting Trends)

Commercial status can’t be bought because it’s not a fixed concept like cost or trendiness; status isn’t the same thing from year to year.  For many years being lighter was in, but in recent years being darker is now popular.  There was an SUV craze a few years ago, now car dealers have trouble selling the gas guzzlers.  Mobile phones, T.V.’s, and even food all fall into that category, in recent years it has become trendy to eat Sushi when several years ago it was rare to hear the average person talk about eating it.

3- Your Status Requires Everyone To View You In The Same Way

The reason these symbols change so easily is that none of them really mean anything, in and of themselves. Status only functions the way it does if we come to a mutual understanding about how to present and decode it. An expensive mobile phone is much more expensive than the components used to make it, and a similar phone with the same materials will cost considerably less.  At the same time, who really even knows how much a diamond is worth, beyond the amount someone’s willing to pay for it.

4- Wealth Without Class Is Likely To Reveal Your Lack Of Status

There are many items that can be bought to elevate a person’s status, but not the understanding of the cultural landscape that empowers you to buy the right ones.  Spending your money on a diamond-encrusted Cell Phone or a solid-gold iPad isn’t just a failure to buy your status; it’s also a desperate attempt that blatantly demonstrates you have none.  Remember, all the visible personal cues that announce your status to the rest of the room are about command, comfort and poise, and anyone who tries to project status by crassly demanding attention is missing the point entirely.

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