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Cultural Ratchet Explains Escalating Weddings
- Weddings have become a cultural ratchet that drives ever-higher spending even for typical middle-class families.
- Understanding this ratchet helps explain how other runaway systems, like the military-industrial complex, escalate.
Speed Of Media Tightens The Ratchet
- Faster communication and media accelerate cultural change, making new wedding standards visible instantly.
- This speed turns novelty into expectation, tightening the ratchet and raising everyone's baseline.
Weddings Serve Families, Not Just Couples
- Seth describes how weddings are often decided by extended family voices, not just the couple getting married.
- He gives the example that in some cultures the mother-in-law effectively chooses where a mother gives birth to signal status.