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Originally Posted by whswhs
Nancy Kress had a witty short story about this some years back: An alien couple visit earth and are entertained by an earth couple, in company with another earth couple. And the hosts are Old Money and are casual about their wealth in certain specific ways—for example, they aren't worried when their dogs lie on the furniture, which horrifies the other earth couple, who are New Money and have very lower middle class attitudes. But the actual aliens are their culture's form of Old Money, and they and their hosts hit it off perfectly, which the other earth couple are total outsiders—and they can all sense it.
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Looks like another author I'll have to check out. What collection was this in?
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Originally Posted by David Johnston2
Lavish spending only helps when you know how to spend. Suppose some hillbilly discovers oil on his land and becomes one of the richest men in the United States. He could spend a bunch of money on, say, trying to finance his own moon launch and this would be regarded as eccentric but not odious. If on the other hand he decides that he wants to build his own mansion in Beverly Hills and invite his neighbours to a housewarming party, the mansion will look like a tasteless garish monstrosity, the food will be overpriced without actually being good, his new suit will similarly be expensive but tasteless and garish, and his manners will be those of a hillbilly. People with high status will react poorly.
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Sounds like something I might have seen before.
Some strange time travel going on, there :?
02-11-2012, 05:43 PM
Re: [SE] Status pretensions
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