I&#x27;m not convinced. First, there are plenty of things that people are interested in that do not improve their social status neither satisfy their basics needs. Like movies. Secondly, social status is fractal in nature, each subculture considers different things valuable and you can belong to many subcultures at the same time, so it isn&#x27;t necessarily a zero sum game. You can be a lowly janitor at day, but the lead player of the company of the football team at night.