Changing Joneses
January 22nd, 2008 | by Paul |I seem to have a knack for coming across interesting information years after a lot of other people did.
Take for example, this article from 1999 by Juliet Schor.
It’s a bit long and a bit academic, but there’s a lot of meat to chew on there, even if it’s almost nine years later. One thing I found particularly interesting is her idea that Americans are spending more and consuming more in part because “keeping up with the Joneses” no longer means the Joneses down the block. It means the Joneses on TV, the Joneses in the workplace.
But as married women entered the workforce in larger numbers-particularly in white collar jobs-they were exposed to a more economically diverse group of people, and became more likely to gaze upward. Neighborhood contacts correspondingly declined, and the workplace became a more prominent point of reference. Moreover, as people spent less time with neighbors and friends, and more time on the family-room couch, television became more important as a source of consumer cues and information. Because television shows are so heavily skewed to the “lifestyles of the rich and upper middle class,” they inflate the viewer’s perceptions of what others have, and by extension what is worth acquiring-what one must have in order to avoid being “out of it.”
Neat, huh? As for me, I’m inclined to believe that the downfall of social interaction is contributing to a lot of ills in society, so I’m probably not the best judge of Juliet Schor’s arguments. She’s saying what I already feel, so I’ll leave it up to you to chew on that. I’m biased.
While you’re chewing, also consider this comment from James Fallows of The Atlantic Monthly.