Do you know if a common term exists for widely socially accepted interactions/assumptions requiring certain spending? This could be how shabby the place you live in looks, or a family reunion taking place at a restaurant versus cooking together, or assuming everyone in a social group can get to this place that is not public transport accessible, or... Is there a more explicit, succinct name for this concept?
The concept - I'll call it common consumption denominator for now for lack of vocabulary - fascinates me. The differences in assumptions between my native country and my second home country are rather large in this regard.
One of the things that attract me to my objectively poorer second home country is its usually lower common consumption denominator. There's less of these implicit requirements. It's little things. I can buy individual screws at the diy shop. I also deliberate helped set a very moderate secret Santa budgets so my grandmother-in-law with her 400€/m pension too can participate as an equal. Our contractor drives a 1999 car. Etcetera.
I also find it interesting that my mother's upper middle class family had a slightly lower common consumption denominator than my father's lower middle class family. In the first group, there would be a lot of attention paid to all brothers and sisters, including the poor hippie uncle, being able to participate equally in common activities. The Stanford educated tech CEO brother too was very conscious of this.
P.S. I've mostly asked this question before at viewtopic.php?p=272889#p272889 , but it quickly got snowed under in the middle of the thread. I wanted to give this question more exposure here. I really would like to know if this concept has a canonical name!
Is there a common term for what I call a common consumption denominator?
Re: Is there a common term for what I call a common consumption denominator?
Well, I think the general term would be "barrier to entry." So, maybe "financial barrier to social entry?"
This is more specifically a Gentry track vs Labor track vs Elite track phenomenon. The barrier to entry on the Gentry track is education, cultural capital, or simply being intelligent and interesting, so financial barriers that would prohibit entry to anybody who meets the core price of admission are strictly limited. However, there are many people who do try to "buy" and/or "work hard" their way up Gentry ladder. For example, somebody with an IQ of 95 who somehow managed to achieve a PhD in Educational Administration and prides herself on her familiarity with expensive cheese varieties.loutfard wrote:I also find it interesting that my mother's upper middle class family had a slightly lower common consumption denominator than my father's lower middle class family. In the first group, there would be a lot of attention paid to all brothers and sisters, including the poor hippie uncle, being able to participate equally in common activities.
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unemployable
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Re: Is there a common term for what I call a common consumption denominator?
Standard of living?
I've kind of turned this concept on its end. What I say is I don't value the experience as much as the going market price implies. In most cases I have the money but just don't value the exchange of it for the product or service as fair. Like I have the money to buy, I dunno, a new Tesla or a first-class ticket to Hong Kong but don't derive $60k or $20k of value, respectively, out of either. It can be conditional, like I'll happily pay for a Super Bowl ticket the next time the Steelers are in it, but not otherwise.
Or take hotels. It's not that I can't afford a $100 room at the Fairfield Inn. It's that most nights, I'd rather sleep in my car for free and keep the $100.
In other words, I make it about myself. It isn't as if anyone else on this planet is looking out for me. If you have to spend uncomfortable amounts of money to keep your friends, they're not friends.
BTW, most mom-and-pop hardware stores in the US, usually affiliated with the Ace or True Value co-ops, are happy to sell you single screws.
I've kind of turned this concept on its end. What I say is I don't value the experience as much as the going market price implies. In most cases I have the money but just don't value the exchange of it for the product or service as fair. Like I have the money to buy, I dunno, a new Tesla or a first-class ticket to Hong Kong but don't derive $60k or $20k of value, respectively, out of either. It can be conditional, like I'll happily pay for a Super Bowl ticket the next time the Steelers are in it, but not otherwise.
Or take hotels. It's not that I can't afford a $100 room at the Fairfield Inn. It's that most nights, I'd rather sleep in my car for free and keep the $100.
In other words, I make it about myself. It isn't as if anyone else on this planet is looking out for me. If you have to spend uncomfortable amounts of money to keep your friends, they're not friends.
BTW, most mom-and-pop hardware stores in the US, usually affiliated with the Ace or True Value co-ops, are happy to sell you single screws.
Re: Is there a common term for what I call a common consumption denominator?
IOW, you find success by integrating a bit of the "sociopathy" that defines the Elite class ladder. I agree that this integration is necessary for any level of wealth boundary maintenance. It's in alignment with what Deida describes as the KIller aspect of the Adult Masculine energy quadrant. Sociopathy is also well correlated with testosterone levels. The Adult Feminine Energy is more associated with something like the scene in "The Grapes of Wrath" where Rose of Sharon breastfeeds a starving old man.unemployable wrote:In other words, I make it about myself. It isn't as if anyone else on this planet is looking out for me.
My friend who was worth $100 million once told me that you can maybe help about 2 other people max. I think there are around 10 people who are looking out for me and vice-versa, but I notice that I do try to keep my circle pretty balanced in terms of what forms of "capital" people have to offer.
@jacob:
Interesting. I think I must be fairly impervious to it or associating with y"all would have influenced me towards demonstrating the ability to do a Burpee or two by now.
Re: Is there a common term for what I call a common consumption denominator?
Thank you for pointing me at the demonstration effect. Duesenberry certainly did hit the nail on the head in many ways. It's very close to what I was looking for.
Social status obviously is an important part of the demonstration effect. My wife and I definitely want to unambiguously signal to others that we're capable of taking basic care of ourselves. That certainly is part of the social status game. I see little friction between that minimalist interpretation of social status and ERE.
Some social conventions are easier to ignore than others though. As an example, I love my aunt and uncle, but I can't just invite myself there. It's one of the reasons I'll sometimes go to a concert series that I know they go to every time, 150km from here here. 40€ return train ticket, 10-20€ on drinks afterwards. The tickets we'll usually get for free.
Another observation. In the small community of our Baltic second home, I started with a certain social status because I'm western European. People rightly assume that I earn a multiple of their income. Local spending patterns are generally modest, making ERE consumption patterns less visibly different. Plus I have the general foreigner trump card. People don't have as much of an expectations pattern as they have for a local. More freedom to set my own social patterns.
Social status obviously is an important part of the demonstration effect. My wife and I definitely want to unambiguously signal to others that we're capable of taking basic care of ourselves. That certainly is part of the social status game. I see little friction between that minimalist interpretation of social status and ERE.
Some social conventions are easier to ignore than others though. As an example, I love my aunt and uncle, but I can't just invite myself there. It's one of the reasons I'll sometimes go to a concert series that I know they go to every time, 150km from here here. 40€ return train ticket, 10-20€ on drinks afterwards. The tickets we'll usually get for free.
Another observation. In the small community of our Baltic second home, I started with a certain social status because I'm western European. People rightly assume that I earn a multiple of their income. Local spending patterns are generally modest, making ERE consumption patterns less visibly different. Plus I have the general foreigner trump card. People don't have as much of an expectations pattern as they have for a local. More freedom to set my own social patterns.