How Much Did the Joneses Pay?

We've all been in this situation. We buy a product and feel justified in the expense as its value is integrated nicely into our lives. Then, a few days later, a friend of ours gets back from shopping with the very same item. Only, they tell us what a great deal they got on it--paying far less than we ourselves paid for the same thing. Suddenly, we're indignant. 'I guess,' we begin to think, 'that it's worth less than I thought it was. I got swindled!' But did we get swindled? Just because our friend paid less for something that we were willing to pay more for, does that mean that we were ripped off?

I've seen a few things as of late that make me ask these questions. First, I saw a video of an investigative journalist attempting to reveal the shady practices of a used car dealer. Two different people went into the dealership to try to get the lowest price on the same car. One person was able to get the salesman down to $4000 less than the other person was able to do. I also, later the same day, read an article on confidentiality of salaries. Employers apparently don't want their older employees to know that they are paying younger employees higher salaries. Somehow, we feel that there is injustice in these scenarios. Why should we pay more for the same item? Why should we make less for doing the same job? Is there injustice?

Well, maybe. It depends on how much value we place on comparing ourselves to others. The phrase, "keeping up with the Joneses," is originally from a comic strip in the early 1900s. The Joneses were affluent neighbors who were always talked about but never seen. When we 'compare ourselves to the Joneses,' we are saying that the value we place on a product or service is at least in part determined by the value someone else places on it. Sometimes, we'll even reason our way out of a purchase by saying to ourselves something like, 'would most people pay this much for this item?'

The question is, 'why should we care what other people think?' Why does it matter, just as long as I am content with my wages, that my co-worker makes more money than I do? Why does it matter, as long as I enjoy my purchase, that my neighbor bought it for less than I did? Well, quite possibly because we are social creatures and our values as individuals are at least in part intertwined with the whole. Perhaps there is no such thing as how much I value an object or activity apart from how much we value an object or activity. So, which is it? Should we care about how much the Joneses paid or not? I don't know. But it is worth considering next time you find yourself in such a situation. Ask yourself, in such a case, how much is this object or activity worth to me? Try leaving the Joneses out of it.