<p>Prompt: Do people need to be able to compare themselves with others to appreciate what they have?</p>
<pre><code>Eons of Darwinian evolution have conspired to make relative rather than absolute wealth more important to a person's sense of well-being. The chief satisfaction we humans derive from our wealth and possessions is not the immediate comfort they afford us, but rather the soothing complacency of knowing that we're as comfortable or more comfortable than others.
Consider how a a person living in a modern American ghetto might rate his of her quality or life, as compared to how a person of relatively high socioeconomic standing in a rural African village might. Though they may earn roughly comparable incomes and have access to mostly the same goods, it's likely that the African would reckon himself to be much better off. This is because it is not wealth in and of itself that brings satisfaction, but rather the status that attends it.
It is for this same reason that people of lower socioeconomic status tend to spend more of their money on "conspicuous" goods like clothes and jewelry than do relatively well-off people. Their primary intention is to telegraph status, but since a lavish mansion on the hill is beyond their means, shiny new rims or golden jewelry is a practicable alternative.
Barring some fundamental change in our basic biology, we humans will continue to be more concerned with how much we have compared to our peers than simply how much we have overall. It seems that we'll be forever earnestly trying to keep up with the Joneses.
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<p>read the article about the MIT prof's findings on NY Times. </p>
<p>90% of articles of long length (>400) get 12s and from these, there is a very very strong correlation between length and points. doesn't have to imply causation but most of the time, when someone has a minute or so to read your paper, even if most of the second half is BS, it's fine. quantity is rewarded. don't compromise quality near the opening though. if there's only one rule of writing that carries into the SAT, it's that first impressions count quite a fair bit.</p>
<p>Not what you are asking...but my initial honest reaction is that it sounds like you are stereotyping and making value judgments on low income people. While supposedly it isn't content that matters, as a reader if I was choosing between two marks, consciously or not this would hurt your mark. </p>
<p>My suggestion would be to try to in advance work out more specific example from literature or history that could apply to a variety of topics. And, I agree, I know it isn't very much time but if you can get down more I think it would serve you well.</p>