Studies such as Robert Frank's <i>Luxury Fever</i> have shown that people would agree to make less total money so long as they make more than their neighbors: that is, they would rather earn, say, $85,000 a yeear where no one else is making more than $75,000 instead of $100,000 where everyone else is making $125,000. H. L. Mencken, who took especial delight in the frailties and the pretensions of the democratic spirit, once defined contentment in America as making $10 a month more than your brother-in-law.