Prosperity in many aspects of human advancement have taken place in the past two thousand years, however, with gain there is loss and social anxiety has flourished as well according to Alain de Botton in his book, Status Anxiety (1991). In his speculation, the condition of an individual’s life, drab or pleasant, does not determine how they view their “wealth.” Instead, it is how we compare ourselves to certain other individuals that we choose, specifically and usually those that we grow up with. Botton argues that with the growth of media, wealth, and prosperity in a society comes the unfortunate social anxiety in the forms of inequality, envy, and the most unforgiving of all, expectation. Shown throughout history, it is apparent that humans will view their living conditions as normal, despite how drab or unpleasant they might be, if peers that they grew up with are in similar conditions. In his argument, Botton denotes this group as our “reference group.” How we define wealth and prosperity may not always be in the form of currency. It …show more content…
Envy is created only by the individual who desires the wealth of one or some of the members in their reference group. However, as Botton explains, we do not expect from ourselves or envy the wealth from a person that we never desired to resemble. While this may seem to limit our reference group, Botton argues that envy and expectation in society is growing rapidly as nations or societies become more successful, particularly the United States. This is not unreasonable to determine, however, because the concept follows the same ideals that we compare ourselves to those in our reference group. If our peers become more successful, we expect more from ourselves and condemn ourselves when those expectations are not reached, creating a pandemic of envy and regret in some