Asher Meir
Keeping Down with the Joneses Replacing competition for opulence with delight in simplicity.Q. My neighbors have an annoying way of trying to match or outdo us materially. I'm thinking of borrowing something or pretending to have it, just to goad him into wasting his money on this annoying habit. A. The urge to keep up with the Joneses (or to surpass them) is hardly new. The phenomenon is described many times in the words of our sages – almost always in the context of a discussion how to mitigate this harmful phenomenon.Here is a selection from a long passage discussing this phenomenon:The rabbis taught: At first when people would bring portions to a house of mourning, the rich would bring in trays of silver and gold, and the poor in baskets of woven reeds. Then the poor were ashamed, so they decreed that all would bring in baskets of woven reeds, in deference to the poor. The rabbis taught: at first they would pour drinks in the house of mourning, the rich in white glass, and the poo
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