First…know that Teddy P is the latest Bugatti boy. And then…

EbenGregory was like…”Keeping up with the Joneses” is a catchphrase in many parts of the English-speaking world referring to the comparison to one’s neighbor as a benchmark for social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to “keep up with the Joneses” is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority. The philosophy of “keeping up with the Joneses” has widespread effects on society. According to this philosophy, conspicuous consumption occurs when people care about their standard of living in relation to their peers.

It used to be that spending money on status symbols for the sake of flaunting your wealth was an activity reserved for celebrities and millionaires. That has all changed. Conspicuous consumption, what was once referred to as “keeping up with the Joneses”, has brought the lifestyles of the rich and famous to suburbia. And now…overshoppers have come to think about their lives in terms of what they must buy next and how jealous they can make their friends.

Unfortunately, chronic over-shopping is almost always associated with low self-esteem and insecurity. And if you aren’t sure exactly what makes you happy, you can be tricked into believing that the acquisition of yet one more new thang will do it for ya.

There’s no question that our affluenza is a culturally induced affliction. Having 7000 version of jeans with price tags that range into the thousands means that $200 for a pair of Rock and Republic’s look like peanuts. But if you’re making $15 an hour and having to pay rent, buy food and pay for transportation, you might only have a disposable income of about $2 an hour, and those jeans would represent 100 hours of work… That 13 days… almost 2 and a half weeks of work… just to buy a pair of jeans. Or you could stick ‘em on your credit card and pay interest too. So here’s the moral to the story:

The Joneses are sometimes broke. That is all.

This is EbenGregory.com…telling you sometimes I can go off on a tangent.