Social Comparison Blues: a mixture of envy, resentment and inadequacy that some experience when comparing themselves unfavorably to others.
This is the beginning of an exploration. Starting out with a few questions:
Should government care about the Social Comparison (SC) blues? Should the government pursue policies that reduce the level of SC blues within American society? Why or why not?
Does the existence of a mega-rich class exacerbate the SC blues within the populace?
Is it mainly the idea of these people that is so demoralizing or does one need to see the perks- all the stuff, expensive experiences, beauty, privileges - to get the SC blues?
It doesn't take much to trigger the SC blues: basically you reach a threshold of unfavorable self-comparison and bam! Perhaps the SC blues is subject to a dose effect: the misery of social comparison doesn't keep ramping up with exposure to ever more dazzling people. The extra perks enjoyed by the super-rich don't necessarily evoke more angst than advantages enjoyed by the merely affluent, assuming one considers those advantages beyond one's reach.
I'm talking the SC blues here - not moral outrage. Moral outrage against the rich keeps growing the richer they get (or so it seems).
So the SC blues tend to be triggered when we become aware of people who are doing better than us in ways that personally matter (status, looks, skills, things, spouses, lifestyle, friends, etc.) combined with self-doubt about our ability to achieve what they have. The sour spot is reached when we want what they have (envy), which they don't really deserve (resentment), but we don't believe we have what it takes to get it (inadequacy).
If we were confident we could get where our 'betters' are, their presence wouldn't be demoralizing - it would be motivating.