The Ferrari Paradox

Imagine it's a brisk autumn morning. The air is crisp, but it's not too cold just yet. The sun hits your skin, calling the hair on your neck to stand at attention as your goosebump ridden arms feed on its elixir of vitamin D. You order your favourite skinny cappuccino as the arabica stained air greets your nostrils kindly. It's a perfect morning, like something out of a fairy-tail. Suddenly, that fair-tail is shattered, as a bright red Ferrari revs its way down the street, topped off by a license plate reading "rari". Your morning is ruined.

Now, finish off the story. How do you react? With anger? Probably. Actually, let's say you're a level headed individual, so perhaps with slight frustration. How else would you react? Most of us would spend a moment starring. How can we not? It's a nice car, isn't it? You'd maybe think about what it'd be like to drive? How fast it would go? How the steering wheel would feel. Before you know it, you're imagining yourself in that car, but why? You don't care about cars. The only reason to think about the car like that is because of how you think others will perceive you if you were in it.

But stop and think, at no point did you actually consider the driver did you? Exactly. You imagine yourself in the car because of what you think it signifies, money, status, etc. and because you want others to think that these are things you have. In reality, people just use your wealth, in this instance, the car, as a benchmark for their own desire for wealth and admiration, and thus never pay any attention to you, hence the paradox.