Social status is not about deciding with whom to allocate your time, and people don't generally choose how they allocate time based on how many hours of labor someone else does nor do most people labor to get other people to allocate more time with them. Indeed, people generally spend time apart from the people they want to allocate their time to in order to labor.
>Indeed, people generally spend time apart from the people they want to allocate their time to in order to labor.
Only because they cannot get everything they need from the people they want to spend time with, so they have to trade outside that group.
This game begins all the way when kids are deciding who to sit next to at lunch in elementary school. It’s a simple fact that time and attention are limited, so there have to be cuts made once demand exceeds supply.
Actually, it might even begin earlier, as I currently have a breastfeeding toddler who is always keeping an eye on who his mom is allocating her time to, and ensures that he is number one…much to the chagrin of his sister and me.
If you were laboring to buy a seat next to someone at lunch, you had a very messed up childhood.
Again, that is not what the term social status refers to, nor is it the goal of most people's labor, nor is it something that would logically be acquired by labor.
Your breastfeeding toddler does not wish to monopolize your partner's time because of her high social status which was elevated by her labor; he wants a secure source of food. Children will probably always want their mothers, but in a post scarcity world no one needs to worry about where their next meal is coming from.
