Editing Keeping up with the Joneses (section)

{{Short description|Idiom on comparing oneself to neighbors}}
{{other uses}}
{{more sources|date=March 2022}}
"'''Keeping up with the Joneses'''" is an [[idiom]] in many parts of the [[English-speaking world]] referring to the comparison of oneself to one's neighbor, where the neighbor serves as a benchmark for [[social class]] or the accumulation of [[Tangible property|material goods]]. Failure to "keep up with the Joneses" is perceived as a demonstration of [[Socioeconomic mobility in the United States|socio-economic]] or cultural inferiority. The phrase was coined by a 1910s [[Keeping Up with the Joneses (comics)|comic strip of the same name]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ammer |first1=Christine |title=The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, Second Edition |date=2013 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-547-67658-6 |page=251 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=l_LxuR1jMVgC |language=en}}</ref><ref name=Safire>Safire, William (November 15, 1998). [https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/15/magazine/on-language-up-the-down-ladder.html?src=pm "On Language; Up the Down Ladder"]. ''[[The New York Times]]''. Retrieved June 23, 2016.</ref><ref name=toonopedia>{{cite web |last= Markstein|first=Don|year=2010|website=www.toonpedia.com|publisher=Don Markstein's Toonopedia |title= Keeping Up with the Joneses |url=http://www.toonopedia.com/joneses.htm|access-date=June 23, 2016 }}</ref>