Keeping up with the Joneses

The popular catchphrase is defined by Wikipedia as referring “to the desire to be seen as being as good as one's neighbours or contemporaries using the comparative benchmarks of social caste or the accumulation of material goods. To fail to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as demonstrating socio-economic or cultural inferiority.”

The phrase apparently originated in the U.S. but the Brits have their own version;  “keeping up appearances” or “keeping up with the Beckhams”. But I can’t think of a Quebecois version.

Some are arguing that this desire to keep up with the Joneses is at the root of the current financial crisis – perhaps more so than Wall Street’s greed. Here’s an excerpt from a Globe & Mail article  by Richard Florida, author of The Rise of the Creative Class  and the recently published Who's Your City?

So many of us came to define ourselves not through our work or creative endeavors, but through what we could purchase. We were fooled into believing that our identity and self-worth somehow depended on acquiring expensive or impressive belongings - much of it on credit.
Regardless of how or when the financial markets are restored, credit will be much harder to get - the age of the house as piggy bank is long gone.

How will we define ourselves when we can’t get a quick self-defining “makeover” at the dealership, the electronics store or the mall? How will we rebuild our way of life and our very identity? Those are the questions that many of us, and our society as a whole, will be confronting long after the financial markets have been restored.

One area in which "living above ones' means" has caused negative social effects is that of credit card  usage. In the first quarter of 2002, total credit debt in the U.S. was $660 billion. Total credit card debt was approximately $60 billion. By 2005, the total credit card debt had increased to $735 billion. Americas' average credit card debt in 2007 was $8400 per household. By the end of 2007, consumer debt in America had risen to $2.5 trillion. According to the Federal Reserve, over 40% of households spend more than they earn.

Quebeckers and credit card debt

Quebeckers have fewer credit cards, generally spend and owe less, and are slightly more likely to pay their monthly balance in full by the due date.

Quebeckers are also more likely to say they postpone a purchase than buy on credit – 57.2% of Quebeckers agree with this statement compared to 49.8% of Canadians in the ROC. (Source: PMB 2008)