> But once your assets cross a certain threshold, almost all your spending is relative to the Joneses. The amount of absolute wealth no longer matters — what ma

> But once your assets cross a certain threshold, almost all your spending is relative to the Joneses. The amount of absolute wealth no longer matters — what matters is the amount of wealth relative to your peers. This seems to be the premise of the whole article: that being rich is some kind of big competition. It feels presumptuous to me. Perhaps there are people who are rich because they are smart, worked hard, and are fortunate. Perhaps these people generally also wish well for their peers? Such a cynical view of motivation that this article presumes.