Comparative disadvantage

Fence Sitter

By A.R. Samson

ENVY CAN sometimes be a positive motivator for achieving goals. Perverse admiration expressed in coveting another person’s attributes, talents or wealth can goad one into action. While resentment drives envy and even corrodes the one harboring this deadly sin, it can also push him to greater lengths to try to equal if not surpass the object of jealousy. This is why bonus schemes are publicized to show how the top performers are doing and why they need to be envied.

Envy is based on comparing one’s status with that of another, usually to the disadvantage of the jealous one. Can this bitterness be turned around into a feeling of well-being, if one is able to somehow turn himself into becoming the object of envy? If a few are better off, might not many others be worse off? This acquired feeling of smugness can be a coping mechanism for the envious.

If envy is engendered by a friend or younger relative making bigger bucks and managing to buy the car of your dreams while you struggle with your old wreck that is on the verge of failing the smoke emission test, can the opposite of envy offer comfort? Can smugness in contemplating the fate of someone worse off provide psychological relief?

This is not about gloating over other people’s misfortunes but simply taking some comfort in the thought that your situation is better than another’s or that at the very least it could be a lot worse. Thus, someone who has lost a leg in an accident is told that at least he has one leg left. And if he has lost both, maybe he will be comforted by the consideration that he no longer has to buy shoes… just artificial limbs that may cost more (but then you get your legs back).

This theory of comparative disadvantage may seem offensive to some, as consolation is achieved at the expense of someone else’s miserable state. Like the food chain, there must be someone at the end of the misery line who has no one to feel superior to, except maybe biblical characters like Job or sports teams languishing in the cellar -- even these have justified their bottom status by saying they don’t really care for sports excellence, as for them it is only academics that matter.

Finding someone worse off in order to feel warm all over is similar to the economic concept called "the bigger fool theory." This one has to do with unloading intrinsically worthless commodities (like expired medicine or inactive stocks) bought solely on the certainty that someone else (the bigger fool) is going to pay more for what the present owner has paid. Thus, it doesn’t matter what the intrinsic worth of a stock is if someone in the future (say, later in the afternoon) is willing not just to buy it but to pay a higher price for it.

Talents can fall into this comparative disadvantage game too. Their box office sock allows them to be poached and offered higher fees in a virtual bidding war, even when their rating glories are all behind them now. Once they sign up with their new home and their shows’ ratings slide or advertising minutes required to cover the inflated talent fees take more time to recoup, does it really matter to them? They have their guaranteed fees and become the envy even of those high in the ratings but getting lower cash. This equilibrium does not last as the one in the higher rating category demands a higher fee. Too, the overpriced talent may have to read the fine print of her contract and see that the fee is not guaranteed at all but dependent on rating points.

Somebody else’s misery shouldn’t really alleviate our own. Neither should another’s good fortune depress us. Life is not a contest, even if it seems to be. The comparative disadvantage principle is a theoretical state. Still, it can sometimes be useful in eliciting creativity and hard work. In contemplating how one can fall farther behind, envy provides the motivation for moving forward.

We can be much better off anyway without checking who is ahead of us in traffic, or for that matter who is lagging behind. The goal is just to drive carefully and get home in time.