The game of how much you make and how much your ’things’ cost. When someone has a branded ’thing’. Could be a watch, bag, or jacket. Often, someone will ask “whoa, how much was it?” Whether this is indeed the correct thing to ask or not, whether it’s rude or not, inherent in such a question is the acknowledgment that “I see what you are carrying and I acknowledge that it’s expensive because we as a society have placed collective importance on the brand and bestowed the same reverence for the people who drown themselves in such brands.”

Sometimes, people won’t know and not ask and so the owner will go out of their way to make it extremely prominent. I can’t imagine there is any other purpose for a shirt that has LV plastered on it for a hundred repetitions or a jacket that appears as if Hugo Boss threw up on it. It’s loud. It screams “look at this. Don’t you want to know?!”

Now, by knowing prices, we know how much things cost and how much it cost the owner. Instead of assuming that this is merely a difference of philosophy on placing value on things, we commonly resort to the individual’s wealth and corresponding place in society.

The same could be said for jobs too. Specifically job titles. This is inherent in the question of “what do you do?” One can tell if it’s a genuine question of curiosity or not by whether there are constant follow-ups digging into the role. Lack thereof indicates it was merely a proxy to rank you in the questioner’s hierarchy of individual worth.

These individuals might not admit it but there are plenty of people who will proudly tell you they are venture capitalists, investment bankers, investors, management consultants, lawyers, software engineers at Google, etc… If in the 60s and 70s this didn’t really matter because people roughly made similar amounts (a construction worker, accountant, banker, taxi driver, they all made good livings for their families), now…one hears the title and $$ figures might as well come attached to the person like a price tag for handbags. That’s why you are selling with the job title.

Over time, it has become a thing of comparison. Now, what’s funny is how inequality has grown but how much people want it. I’m going to say something that might sound controversial, when it isn’t, and that is that no one wants equality. Specifically, people want inequality where they are in the winning minority and if they had to choose a side... they will be compelled to take the side that has everything if it means they can attain it.

That’s why we ask prices. That’s why we ask for job titles. It’s not because we are genuinely curious about how much a jacket cost or what someone does for a living. No one asks the price of a no-name bag that a friend has. They might ask “where’d you get this?” first before asking for a price because they genuinely want to see if something is in their budget. But most times, the “how much?” hits first for well-known brands.

The mere act of asking and looking to make dollar figure comparisons prompts the desire to be on top. If they bought something you can’t afford, envy comes alive. Then you want it or you want to chime in and tell them about something expensive you have stowed away that you couldn’t bear yourself to wear outside. The same can be said for telling people how much your house costs or how much you pay in rent.

Instead of confessing poor fiscal decisions, it is intended to be a brag about one’s status. There is hope of overlaying this to create further inequality among one’s peers. This isn’t to say that every question of how much something costs or what someone does or sharing how much one spends on XYZ is to play the comparison game. Unlike the virtuous and smart who don’t think this, I am yet flawed and have done much of this comparison. I still do it inadvertently and if I’m somewhere along the average spectrum, I wager many are like me.