APAD: Keeping up with the Joneses

Meaning:

To strive to match one's neighbors

 

Background:

 

It's not clear when this expression first appeared but it was popularized by

Arthur R "Pop" Momand's Keeping Up With the Joneses comic strip that ran for 26

years from 1913 and was distributed by Associated Newspapers.

 

Although some see the Joneses as simply a generic for the family next door,

others make a connection to the exceptionally rich family of Edith Wharton (born

Edith Jones) who were prominent in New York Society and were one of the first to

build a grand country villa in the Hudson Valley; others followed suit, with

each house becoming grander than the last.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Keeping up with the Joneses certainly won't hurt capitalism. I don't see it

right or wrong. I welcome and try to exploit it in others, don't always succeed,

but that's another matter.

 

For my own sanity, however, I've found it useful to recall once in a while: "If

you live in harmony with nature you will never be poor; if you live according to

what others think, you will never be rich." from Seneca the Younger.