Over time I've spotted an occurrence that at first glance doesn't add up. It seems like people think people who drive BMWs and Mercedes' are all assholes, but anyone in a Ferrari or Lamborghini are just really cool. People are always moaning about BMW drivers and how they're jerks, etc. If you go to BrandTags.net under BMW, you'll find the word “asshole” has one of the highest response rates for first impressions of their brand. If you go under Ferrari though, you'll mostly see positive tags.
Why would this be? If you don't like people with more money than you, why does the Ferrari still win you over? I think the root of the answer lies in people's aspiration sets.
I bet most people see the guy in the BMW as someone that they went to school with who ended up doing better than them, or even someone they already know. In the case of the Ferrari, few people know anyone with a car like this, and hence they assume it's some guy who got lucky and struck it rich. I think the luck part is actually a lot of it. Luck removes the feeling that it can be attained by “mere morals”.
There have always been three classes. At first: the proletariat (peasants), the bourgeoisie (merchant class), and the aristocracy (Kings, Lords, etc.). We now call them blue collar, white collar and rich, but it's really the same thing. In medieval times, the peasants generally loved the king and hated the bourgeoisie. The middle class was disliked because they must have cheated to get ahead in business. The king was given his position by divine writ, and thus was probably just in his position – again something out of their control.
The working class want to believe that their position is due to their bad luck or unwillingness to cheat to get ahead. They need a defense mechanism - something to show why they're not doing as good. While there are definite structural issues at play that keep them down, I believe they embrace the class system because it gives them this feel-good feedback. As much as they complain about class, they actually love the system. They don't believe in social mobility because it would shine a bad light on them.
It's funny – my socialist friends who don't do anything are always showing me a video of some millionaire who said they were lucky. They'll say, “Look! Look! It's all just luck!” Obviously, there is a lot of luck involved in being successful, but there's a lot of hard work to be able to make use of the luck. My rich friends are a hell of a lot more than just an average dude with a lot of luck.
I'm not sure they really believe this, or maybe it's just their psychological immune system protecting them from feeling of inadequacy. It makes sense now that anyone who has an interest in saying wealth is derived from luck would support systems that distribute it to those haven't had the “fortune” to have such wealth.
Am I wrong here, or just cold-hearted?
Very interesting to learn that drivers of BMWs and Mercedes are despised in the USA too. But not for the same reason in France.
It is common here to see brand new BMWs and Mercedes driven by young Arab-French guys in their mid 20s, grand-sons of immigrants from North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria). Based on common beliefs, they can afford to buy those cars (if they actually bought them) thanks to drug trafic, especially cannabis from North Africa.
And based on unemployment rates in the poor suburbs where those guys come from, around 20-25%, I guess they don't get the money from their job or any legal business.
I am not racist at all and any foreigner coming to France would see that phenomenon as it is quite obvious.
The reason to choose those cars is that there are the best to show off at an affordable price.
It is surprising from a French standpoint that a way to show off one's money, drinving a BMW or Mercedes, is not well accepted in America. I used to think and hear that success and wealth was admired by Americans.
Maybe the economic downturn among others had some effects on Americans morals.
Posted by: Damien | July 15, 2009 at 07:13 AM
I think what you say rings truer than people will let on. I definitely think people overall feel more comfortable embracing luck as a notion of how to achieve success; because then they have an excuse as to why they are not (i.e. must not have been lucky). Much harder to self evaluate and realize it's because of laziness or lack of effort they are in the situation they are in.
But I still don't understand how BMW's get labeled as being owned by "assholes", though. The comparable Mercedes is only associated with luxury and price - devoid of negativity.
(quick note, your link works fine, but the site is BrandTags.net not com, I went to .com from memory, not direct link, and it's just a domain squatter from what I can tell)
Posted by: kimberly jean | July 16, 2009 at 11:55 PM