Have you heard about how Prozac doesn't work, and how dummy pills are at least as effective at remedying depression (only without the nasty side effects like wanting to kill yourself)? Guess what? The psychosomatic effectiveness of the placebo depends upon the patient's perception of the price it cost! So, what are the thought processes going on here?

"I'm feeling really down. I'll go to the doctor and he'll make me happy again with some pills. These pills really must work, because they're the most expensive and trendy."

What people have got to realize is that it is up to themselves, not the duty of a doctor, to improve their mood. Eat some sardines, get out for a walk where there are some trees, and talk to someone sympathetic. Above all: stop confusing price with quality. Everything you possess seems substandard when you are mixed up about this issue. There's always something more expensive that causes feelings of envy and inadequacy to emerge and spoil your day.

Advertisers know that there are millions of customers foolish enough to be convinced that "Brand X" is better in every respect to its unadvertised supermarket brand equivalent, even though blind taste tests prove otherwise. Quality, admittedly does come at a higher price than something worth less, but a lot of skepticism is called for, since a seller will try to take advantage of this perception. "Buy this Jenkem shampoo at $20 a bottle! Anything else is real crap!"

While a budding Leonardo Da Vinci is ignored by art critics and his paintings might only sell for peanuts, a hyped series of daubs by a chimpanzee sell for thousands of dollars a piece - and you can bet the ape doesn't get more than a few bananas out of it. Art is one of the biggest examples of price being entirely unrelated to quality. Talented musicians, writers and so on go unrecognized, while a chosen undeserving few are paraded as being great geniuses. If Beethoven was composing today, he would be told his work is too "retro" and not commercially viable. He'd be told his sound was too Eurocentric and he should get more of a cosmopolitan "world music" structure to it.

It's not just price though. People value all sorts of things more highly the more they think that others value them. This rule applies to how they view each other. Show women pictures of ugly men, and tell them that they are wealthy and popular with women, and the subconscious response, measurable in bodily responses, is that they are noticeably more attracted than if they were told nothing about the man. Their market value seems greater, their desirability amongst the crowd seems greater, so their quality is accordingly judged more positively. And a glamorous celebrity is likewise seen as of high quality by men and women, despite the fact that Paris Hilton and her ilk have about the lowest standards of taste and behavior possible. They make virtues out of idiocy and sluttishness.

Once you realize that price does not correspond infallibly to quality, you can learn to be more satisfied with what you already have. There is no need to envy the person who can buy shoes that cost two thousand dollars. The shoes certainly are not worth anywhere near that price, and the fool who thinks they are is living in a delusional world in which face values have replaced actual values. They feel the need to look at what they think the crowd finds impressive to find an appreciation of anything. This is a sad mindset to fall into, since such a person never has any independent ability to resist trends, and they also can never really live their own life - it is always a life as a mirror of others.