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Comment by AnotherGoodName | Hacker News Reader

I feel there's a huge amount of status put into cars in America too. Perhaps due to extremely effective marketing.

Mercedes did a LOT of this over the decades in the US ; *'Constraint of product category availability"* - whereby you go to any other country and there were TONS CHEAP little mercedes trucks, trikes, pickups, box-trucks, desert crawlers, etc etc etc...

But they dont sell those in the US, as it allows them to keep *"luxury brand"* marketing hype to sieve money from the unsuspecting US consumer market.

I thought it was due to import duties?

What if mercedes "lobbied" to have those put in place for brand price bloating?

That’s an absurd theory. Why would Mercedes lobby to increase the taxes they pay. They could have just put the price up and taken the difference as profit. The point of the import duties was to advantage domestic manufacturers (I think there were some general U.S. Europe trade disagreements at the time)

Not Arguing WITH "Absurd Theory" -- It was just a wierd one that popped in my head - I am NOT saying I think this - just thought a fun angle...

I really enjoy just playing "what-if" in every category

Or you can choose not to do so, but why?

Usually the way one plays what-if is by coming up with a bunch of ideas and then thinking about whether they make sense or not, and then tossing out the ones that don’t make sense. Often when someone writes ‘what if X?’ What they really mean is that they think X and either think it is plainly obvious or know it is a controversial/conspiratorial theory, which is the tone I wrongly read in what you wrote. I hope you won’t be too put off from writing down your weird ideas in future.

There is just a lot of shaming going on even today.

There's an Instagram story I just saw where some influencer was making fun of software developers showing how the apartments of typical software developers who make USD 100k, 200k, 300k, and 400k make and they were a. twin mattress on the floor, b. two twin mattresses side by side on the floor, c. full size mattress of the floor, d. full size mattress with fitted sheet on the floor. I mean ok, what's wrong with that? If someone has a mattress on the floor what does it hurt?

It is made to look like organic "content" but I am positive it is boosted by some marketing firm somewhere if I saw it even though I don't follow the influencer. Point is, there are a lot of really smart people working really hard to separate Americans from their money.

Full disclosure: I, too, had a mattress on the floor a few years back so maybe I am taking it too seriously.

My mattress is on the floor right now, but it has a fitted sheet.

It’s just typical consumerism. Most people in Western culture are brought up to believe you need to have stuff to be happy. Especially in America. You need to live in a big house with way more space than you need, then you need to fill that space with stuff. Then that stuff gets old so it needs to be replaced with new stuff every few years. The more this is perpetuated via mocking people who don’t have stuff, the better it is for companies who make stuff.

A bed frame is the perfect example of stuff. The average western person believes this is a necessity even though it has no function. Especially the ones without storage. Yet if you sleep on the floor you will be mocked. People will scoff. “You’re an adult you need to buy a bed frame”. Why? Why would I spend money and consume resources on something that has absolutely zero benefit?

> A bed frame is the perfect example of stuff. The average western person believes this is a necessity even though it has no function.

There is a function. Having sex with no bed frame or headboard is awful.

Serious answer? Pests and drafts. We raise beds off floors for good reasons. I only recently learned that even headboards have a reason to exist: drafts flow down to the floor rather than over the sleeper.

Sort of like my friend who feels no need for drapes. One of my stranger conversations. He thinks they're pointless entirely. But besides privacy and the fact that most people can't sleep in full sunlight, they also reduce noise and improve thermal control.

Us nerdy types are often iconoclastic about convention and tradition but sometimes things are done a certain way for reasons that make good sense. And you'll be thought anywhere from odd to clueless if you decide to go against the grain. Or worse, kinda lazy.

No judgement or anything. My mattress was on the floor for most of my 20s.

For myself, I'd rather have a pest free home than compensate with an elevated bed. Historically headboards may have served a purpose of insulating and protecting from drafts. In a modern dwelling with adequate heating and insulation a headboard is merely decorative.

>what's wrong with that?

Nothing. There is something wrong (or at least ill advised) with wasting time watching “Instagram influencer videos” if your goal is to ascertain right or wrong (or optimal or suboptimal).

Maybe the content strikes a chord? I’d absolutely judge a six-figure earner with a mattress on the floor.

I won’t bother you about it, but I’m judging internally if I see that.

I think the joke is generally that it is the basic necessity and one would generally expect people to create a more homely environment (eg furniture for guests or eating, storage for clothes, maybe bookshelves with books or photographs or whatever). The joke is not ‘floor mattress bad’ it’s ‘no furniture nor decoration despite ample means = weird’. The thing you saw was just a derivative of the original meme which was a single mattress on the floor next to a phone charger.

I don’t really think the thing you saw was really trying to get people to be more consumerist.

There's a huge amount of status put into your house too, even though there is effectively zero marketing done in the housing market.

Cars are used to communicate status because:

* They are expensive. For most Americans a car is in their top 5 most expensive possessions.

* You can demonstrate some personality in choice. Which model, which type, which color.

* They go everywhere you go.

* People get a lot of utility from their car.

Also lower disposable income in Europe.

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