Just like Chinese "Lao Wang", there are some surnames in English that cause special associations. This year's "Double Eleven", the British "Independent" published an article saying that this shopping frenzy shows that the dream of the nascent middle class has become a profound part of Chinese society, which is not without similarities with the United States depicted by Keep up with the Joneses. Keep up with the Joneses is a 1913-1940 comic strip serialized in New York World and other newspapers, featuring the McGuinness family desperately trying to emulate their wealthy neighbor Jones in order to squeeze into high society. Later, this became an idiom that referred to finding ways to be as rich or successful as those around you. The surname Jones is also used to refer to neighbors who like to show off their wealth and fashionable circles.
Psychologists say that comparison is human nature. But ordinary people don't compare themselves with Bill Gates or Buffett, but with their most direct reference groups or reference groups, including relatives, friends, colleagues, classmates, etc. — about 150 people. In the 1980s, Cornell university economist Robert Frank broke an important assumption in economics: People always choose the maximum absolute value of wealth. Research shows that we would rather earn 50,000 yuan to live in a community where others make 40,000 yuan than make 100,000 yuan but live in a community where others make 150,000 yuan.
Comparisons may stem from survival mechanisms. In ancient times, humans moved in small groups, and the competition for food and mates was quite direct, so the ordering problem was more urgent. In modern society, human beings do not have nothing to eat because their neighbors eat too much, but this thinking mechanism has not changed in essence. Because survival and reproduction remain the goals of implanted genes, men and women still store energy in areas related to these two goals to compare. As rapper Young MC raps: If you got no money and you got no car, then you got no woman, and there you are.
In the era of highly developed mass media, all kinds of explicit or implicit advertisements are everywhere, showing passers-by at all times the ideal residence, the ideal holiday, the ideal skin, the ideal figure, the ideal boyfriend/girlfriend, the ideal child... And all of this requires investment (consumption). It's a business that's always ongoing, as new products are constantly being introduced. Moderate comparison or dissatisfaction can give people motivation to strive for better, to obtain material and spiritual satisfaction, and to promote social progress. But over-comparison can be pathological, bringing with it negative emotions such as jealousy, anxiety, and even hatred. The tension created by "you can't lose at the starting line" is one example. As soon as the child is born, comparisons ensued. Than the size, than the appearance, than the morning and evening, than speaking a few languages, than mastering several specialties, than kindergarten, than school, than grades, than work, than income, than marriage, than children... Comparing and coming and going has become a comparison for the sake of comparison. Life becomes a series of numbers or indicators, and how the person feels and whether he is happy or not becomes irrelevant. (Feifei Zhao)