Vivian A Zelizer Analysis

Vivian A Zelizer argues individuals will all behave in a different way in their responds or interaction with money. Every individual’s perception of money is different and therefore the way they value its significance is also different. The individual’s social and cultural structure matter because it’s these concept that define the way the individual feels about money compared to another individual whose culture and social structure is completely different. Concepts like these define how the individual behaves whether that is rational or un-rational. Zelizer states “individuals behave as rational participants in market transaction, making distinction only of price and quantity, a dispassionate sphere where all monies are alike”(4). Through Zelizer’s empirical study she has been able to discover that people shape and invent their own way of not only making their own money but also learning to make money …show more content…
Since I hadn’t gotten paid I wasn’t sure if I was going to have enough money to purchase the watch. So I thought of asking my parents for money and lying saying that I needed it for school but instead purchase the watch. However, I felt guilt doing that because those are my parents earning that my parents probably saved for something important and I would be lying to them just to purchase something that wasn’t even going to be for me. I decided to wait to buy the watch even if I didn’t have it on the day of his birthday. My example resembles the theory because I was about to use my parents money to buy my boyfriend a watch that he most likely didn’t need but that I thought would be a nice gift. I thought that maybe by lying I would be able to obtain the money from them on time to purchase the gift. This is the same as the theory because just as the example given in the reading I felt as though I was using money that wasn’t mine to purchase