“Keeping up with the Joneses” is a catchphrase in many parts of the English-speaking world. Just like “keeping up appearances,” it refers to the 11 to one’s neighbors as a standard for social status or the accumulation of material goods. Generally speaking, the more luxuries people have, the higher their value or social status—or 12 they believe. To fail to “keep up with the Joneses” is thus perceived as revealing socio-economic inferiority or, as the Chinese would put it, a great loss of face.
The 13 was popularized when a comic strip of the same name was created by cartoonist Arthur R. “Pop” Momand. The strip was first published in 1916 in the New York World, and ran in American newspapers for 28 years before it was eventually 14 into books, films, and musical comedies. The “Joneses” of the title were rich neighbors of the strip’s main characters and, interestingly, they were merely 15 but never actually seen in person in the comic strip.
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