'Luxury beliefs' are latest status symbol for rich Americans

You could put a great deal of individualism into this bucket, I'm thinking. "Everyone should do their own thing", makes a lot of sense, when you have a lot of resources, individually. "We all need to hang together", is more important when everyone is one misstep away from disaster, because they have few resources. "Don't do anything weird", makes more sense when, if you get yourself into trouble, you don't have the resources to get yourself out, and everyone else will have to pitch in to rescue you, and they don't have much in the way of resources to spare, either.

The original meaning of "conservative", is very close to "cautious", and it is the normal result of the feeling that you are in a precarious position. Not being conservative, being adventurous even, is more palatable when you have the resources to recover from things going badly for a while.

Oddly, I find myself thinking that this NYPost article is an interesting, even insightful one, and that is not what I normally think about the NY Post.

i relate to the first paragraph. i agree with the author's quoted 'friend'. i dont think marriage validation and/or requirement is for everyone. i believe that marriage should be personal and maybe it can be religious for some, but the state and law should have no foothold in how people choose to form unions or define it.

there can be no separation of church and state if both of them consider themselves to be the authority that validates marriage. why should the state dictate mormon unions or LGBTQ unions or religious or civil unions. any legal contract should be drawn by the parties involved. contracts should be under the purview of the state, not the unions themselves.