Keeping Up with the Kardashians, or the Joneses?: The Rat Race of Modern Success

The fight and rush to succeed and show wealth.

The good old days

Education used to be at the forefront of making money. If you did well in school, you did well in life. If you aced your exams and did well in college, you would get a well-paying job. Your salary would be higher because you went to college. This job allowed you to distinguish yourself from others. The more hours you worked, the more money you made. This led to a life where if you bought something, everyone knew you could afford it because you had a good paying job. The houses and cars in the neighborhood represented most of the class in that neighborhood.

There was a time when there was a gap or a clear distinction between those with education and money and those without. Money represented achievement or success. If you had it, you worked for it.

There was a clear lower, middle, and upper class. Usually, these classes represented the educational level of the majority in that class. You could also tell what kind of work a person generally did. Their appearance generally reflected their lifestyle. These classes also had names like working class, blue collar, and white collar. You rarely saw someone out of their element.

There have always been other groups that are the exception. They all have money, but it’s not earned the same way as everyone else. You could be born into wealth. So you had money because your family had money. You could be part of different criminal groups, like theft or drugs. There’s white-collar crime and blue-collar crime. Both theft and drugs can range from small local groups to national or international rings. But we will not focus on the exceptions here.

It seems strange to say white and blue collar. What is it these days, “the haves and have-nots”?

If you saw a person with money, you could kind of guess what kind of work they were doing. But all that went out the window when the Internet came along.

The change

The age of reality TV and the internet: fame, influence, and money.

It also included online streaming and a way to interact with people on a more personal level (social media). I remember when I first heard about buying things online. I said no, “How can I try it on if I buy it online?”. Whether we knew it then or not, we can definitely say the Internet has changed the way we do everything, especially business.

Who knew that a black and white screen with dots or a bunch of ones and zeros would turn into pictures and videos? We didn’t know that one day we’d be able to take our desktop computer and our landline phone with us.

It opened up a new world of opportunities for new businesses and investments. At work, you no longer had to see your teammates every day. You could literally connect to your work office from your home. Amazing.

Social media has stolen the hearts, minds, and time of many. Many spend countless hours staring, watching, scrolling, and then repeating the process. The same scammers and thieves from the old days have found new ways to operate in this new era.

Making money

Those who have become influencers have made millions of dollars (and millions in many other currencies).

Reality TV, the Internet, and social media have made it much easier to become a millionaire. Those in comedy, beauty, entertainment, fashion, fitness, sports, and video games can all tap into this stream of wealth. There are so many more areas, too many to list here. Not to mention the large number of people who make videos of their personal lives and post them on various types of social platforms.

Anyone can make money nowadays. Get online and show something and you’re in. Dance in front of your camera, you’re in. Fight, argue, hurt someone, you’re in. Show your whole life online, you’re in.

Anyone can make money as a reality star or social media sensation. There are children with social media accounts from birth, 5 years old, 10, 12, and 15 years old. All of them are millionaires. This is happening in several countries. 17 year olds are renting private jets. Of course, you know it is more extravagant for the adults.

The other side

There are people with no money who are still trying to keep up with “the Joneses”. They will spend at all costs. They work so they can spend. They don’t have the basic necessities, but they will buy expensive things.

People without money will still buy things they either can’t afford, or they will buy things and they have nowhere to put them.

I have seen people driving around in shabby cars and with “expensive” earpieces in their ears. I’ve seen people who don’t have money make sure they get their nails and hair done. People can barely pay their rent, but they buy an Apple Watch.

We can’t tell the difference

Mentioning all the groups above, today you can’t tell the difference between the educated or the uneducated, the rich and the poor. When we come out of our homes and are in public places, it’s fashion and style that takes over.

There are so many wannabe gurus and influencers walking around it’s hard to tell who's who. They do the, “I’m a star” walk, or the“look at my influencer hair” pose. They are flashy and classy. Big sunglasses and shiny things.

I recently found out that many of the people you see on the Las Vegas Strip, Fifth Avenue in New York, and The Promenade de la Croisette in Cannes are renting clothes, jewelry, and cars. You can name any famous place where there’s money to be spent, and now I know, there are a number of these people trying to make a name for themselves or pretend to be someone they’re not.

It’s not about education or training anymore. It’s not even about who you know as much anymore. It’s about who you pretend to be. There could be two people at a red light, both with Apple watches, the latest iPhone, and an Apple Vision Pro in the back seat, and everyone in the Lamborghini wearing Chanel and Gucci.

Today you can’t tell who received money because they’re educated, who rented everything you see, who got their money from social media or reality TV. You just think, wow, this person has money. It doesn’t matter anymore how they got it.

What do you think?

Until we meet again, Keep Living!

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