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Status (and the grass tax)

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Status shows up whenever humans do, and it is the invisible underpinning of our culture.

The front lawn was only invented around the time of Columbus. The idea was to demonstrate that you had time and money to waste. You could take useful land and make it non-productive. You could take labor and put it to work taking care of this non-productive land with no obvious utility in return. A big front lawn, well cared for, was a sign of status and luxury.

It’s a contagious idea, and a sticky one. Many suburbs have it written into their laws.

John Green reminds us that Jay Gatsby paid to have neighbor’s yard groomed before Daisy came over to meet him…

The costs are real. Depending on location, we use 30 to 70% of our country’s total potable water supply to water the grass. We spend billions of dollars a year maintaining it, and the machines we use make our air toxic. If someone invented grass today, with all the hassles and costs, there’s no way it would catch on.

The next step in the status ladder is happening in many communities–grass for the high school playing fields has become low status. It needs to be replaced with plastic “turf” (a name created by wordsmiths to remind us of grass, when it’s actually carpet). The best reason to do the switch, supporters say, is because all the other schools are doing it, and we’re falling behind.

If it can happen to grass, it can happen to everything, and it does.

When in doubt about why a cultural trope exists, look for status.

And perhaps, now and then, we should set status aside and take a hard look at where we are, making a new decision with new information.

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