Editon #52: A Peek Behind the Velvet Rope

Plus, a year in photographs, a performance by Lorde that will slice through your soul, and the bad sex awards

A Note From the Editor

Think about the last time you flew on an airplane (remember those?). Let’s really set the scene: you’ve got your suitcase to carry on, which you know is a little too large to comfortably fit in the overhead compartment, but you plan to give the ticket checker your most charming smile and hope they don’t notice. Better yet, you’ll place your personal item on top of your suitcase by way of concealing it, then you’ll smile and breeze right on through. You begin to observe the boarding process and marvel at how it brings out the worst in your flight companions; you see them hovering around the two-lane boarding area, starting at their tickets with bulging eyes as though they might be able to will their boarding group to be called. Someone tries to sneak on with an earlier group and they are caught by the gate agent, who politely informs them that their group number has not been called. The airport air is a little too warm, stagnant, and it smells vaguely of Auntie Ann’s Pretzels and perspiration.

The groups are called, starting with triple diamond elite members, then moving to double diamond, diamond, gold, silver, and then finally, group 1. The crowd grows antsy. The elite passengers board the plane, then the others, and eventually there are few stragglers left, in something like group nine, still waiting to be called. They seize eachother up, perhaps feeling like the last kids picked for the dodgeball game. When these group niners eventually board the aircraft, they complete the walk of shame past first-class, business class, the main cabin, and finally, economy. And by the time they make it to their seat, they discover all of the overhead bins are full. But the plane is still boarding, so now they struggle to move upstream against the other irritated passengers in order to drop thier suitcase at the front of the plane, sweating and a little embarrassed. This, in essence, describes the most common example of velvet rope economy; the idea that premium services continue to improve, but only for those who can afford it.

We live in a pay-to-play world, so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that “standard” leisure services continue to be bastardized for the sake of the bottom line. Companies have shareholders, shareholders want to make more money, and to make more money, said companies need to find a way to get consumers to pay more of it. The best way to do this without disrupting customer satisfaction is to provide a premium option, thus squeezing more money out of those who can afford it. There’s Blade, the helicopter service that will take New Yorkers directly to the JFK, bypassing the traffic one might experience in an Uber. American Express Platinum cardholders receive special benefits, like access to exclusive airport lounges and the ability to purchase early access, VIP tickets not available to the general public. Sports stadiums have boxes, luxury hotels have insane holiday packages, theme parks giants like Disney have VIP tours that go for $425 per hour. Things get dark when this pattern moves away from leisure activities and into the world of medicine. Concierge care functions as “luxury medical care,” in which members pay thousands of dollars per year outside of their insurance premiums to have direct, around the clock access to doctors. Concierge care doctors see far fewer patients, thus are able to provide a better quality of personalized care. With this model, members can say goodbye to waiting for an appointment or getting the runaround. The doctor is, quite literally, at their service.

Your initial reaction may be, “this is American, we’ve always been this way,” and you wouldn’t be wrong. More money means better everything: better schools, better job prospects, a better chance of staying alive. Money provides access, and access is the only currency that matters. But if we think about this model more critically, the potential negative effects are alarming at best, scary at worst. When it comes to experiences that aren’t endemic to the ultra-wealthy — going to the movies, taking our family on vacation, flying on a plane — the service divide acts as a constant reminder that, though middle-class families who are at the theme park might have saved up all year for their vacation, their efforts weren’t good enough. As they wait in a long line of sweaty, irritated parents and watch as a lucky few stroll to the front of the line, they might kick themselves for not ponying extra money up for the premium experience they couldn’t afford. Maybe they think about that promotion they were promised last year that never came to fruition. The encounter creates the potential to feel less-than, even in a setting where the non-premium participant paid thousands of dollars to get into the theme park in the first place.

The creative writer in me can’t help but imagine a dystopian future not so far down the line where pay-to-play dominates our world in the most Black Mirror way. Children are going to public school, but the public education credential has become virtually useless and those who can’t afford private school and private tutors have zero chance of getting into a college, which they couldn’t afford anyway. Grocery stores have taken on the membership model, and the non-member stores are stocked with brown, spotted produce, all items teetering on their expiration dates. The concierge doctor trend has made its way to concierge hospitals, so if you need surgery or to deliver a baby in a place that isn’t a total dump, you must schedule it 8 months to a year in advance. It feels like the inversion of what Americans are afraid of with socialized medicine: seeing a good doctor would be impossible, wait times would be outrageous. That same dreaded scenario could just as well become reality in the future where the concierge doctor model gains popularity, deeming the already sub-par, standard health insurance offerings even less easy to use than they are today.

The middle class used to be a safety zone. America needs the middle class to function exactly as they always have; to stay in their lane and pay their taxes and to hold on to hope that if they work hard enough, they might just be able to enter into the glorious land of the 10%. But with every premium service divide, leisure or otherwise, comes the opportunity for the middle class to spend more money just to live a “normal” life, all while wages are stagnant and the cost of living goes up. The middle class is shrinking, and when I look at the shape our country is taking, I can’t help but wonder if it will eventually disappear entirely.

Cheers, my dears, and thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Velvet Rope Economy, whether you think it is perfectly fair or problematic, and what the long-term effects might be. If you want more on the subject, I highly suggest this book, which is where the phrase and the idea stemmed from.

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Three Pieces of Content Worth Consuming

1. 2020, As Told By Photographs. Every December, AP releases “A Year of Photos,” images from around the world that are said to have captured the essence of the past twelve months. This particular collection is riveting, heartbreaking, and, in some instances, hopeful. The photos tell the story of a year of loss and destruction, with a few pockets of joy squeezed in between.

2. Why Do We Still Have ‘Girl Stuff’ and ‘Boy Stuff’? I think about the divide between how society treats boys and girls, and later, men and women, often (see: my reflection on the gendered roles in heterosexual engagements). What I found most compelling about this piece is the timeline young children begin to notice what is expected of thier gender, and the age at which they begin to internalize those expectations. Another interesting point: tomboy-ism is celebrated and accepted in American culture, but there is no equivalent for young boys (and girls are expected to grow out of the tomboy phase when marrying age comes about). As children, the divide influences everything from toys to clothes to extracurricular activities. As adults, gendered expectations manifest in assumptions about sexual appetite, romantic endeavors, parenthood, career, the list goes on.

3. Maybe Aging Isn’t So Bad After All. This essay on aging made me cry and it will probably make you cry, too. It made me consider all of the arbitrary age markers we set for ourselves in order to track a successful life, and how those markers are much more prevalent for women who are constantly racing against the clock that is their reproductive system. I like where the author of the piece landed, and it's a place I hope to land comfortably as time passes: that aging isn't so bad and that the future might hold so much more than we could have imagined.

   “I began to fear aging in the same way the way that I feared failure. Birthdays were less celebrations than opportunities to scrutinize all the things I had not yet done that my peers had.”

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Perhaps You Should…
Watch Lorde Tear Your Heart Out

Remember Lorde? Where is she? I’ve been going thorugh a phase of re-listening to all of her music and I recently stumbled across this magnificent performance from SNL, which is an absolute must-watch. Not only is this song lyrically piercing, but the performance itself is artistic expression personified. Long live the queen.

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**Bonus Content** (The Bad Sex Awards, Cancelled)

Did you know there is a Bad Sex in Fiction award? Neither did I! The annual award is doled out to the author who wrote the worst sex scene in otherwise literary novel, and even the most big wig authors have earned the award in years past. As I've gotten better acquainted with a literary world that takes itself a little too seriously, I appreciated learning about this award, and also appreciated the fact that the award is canceled this year because “2020 has enough bad stuff.”

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A Quote From A Book You Should Read:

“The things money could buy weren’t the reward; the reward was to feel lifted above everyone else.”

-The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney

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This newsletter is best served with a side of conversation, so drop your opinions, reflections, and thoughts in the comments below and let’s get to talking.

Or, share the most thought-provoking piece from today’s edition with someone you love, then call them up to discuss, debate, and percolate. As a wise woman once said, “Great minds discuss ideas.”