Everyday Life and Lifestyles of Social Classes in Montenegro

Consumption

To provide a systematic insight into consumption in Montenegro, an index was created which included: total household income in the past year; mode of obtaining clothing and footwear; level of consumption of personal hygiene items, cosmetics and cleaning products used in the household; and the number of household members who had been on vacation (there were questions about holiday destinations and types of accommodation). Based on a consumption index ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high), the respondents’ ratings yielded the distribution shown in Table 1.

Nearly half of the respondents indicate low or very low consumption, whereas 27.6% indicate high or very high consumption, revealing a noticeable differentiation between households.

Table 2 shows the average monthly expenditure on food per household member. While the number of farmers in the sample is too small to be representative and has only an illustrative character, the research findings show that the highest social classes spend two-and-a-half times more on food than the lowest social classes. The data also show how, statistically, expenditure on food, housing, and utilities is significantly associated with social stratification and place in the consumption index.

The daily life of most citizens is characterized by a low average monthly household budget, which affects the scope, variety, and price of any goods and services that may be purchased. When deciding what to buy, respondents show that they look for an optimal balance between quality, variety, and cost, the latter being the most important factor. Quality is chosen as the main criterion in the selection of goods in only 9.6% of the households; the others tending to place the emphasis on price. As for hygiene items, 43.3% of respondents use only the most essential, basic items. Food and beverages are most often bought in small local retail shops, while durables are most often obtained from shops in the city centres and large shopping malls. The stores known as ‘Chinese shops’, which sell cheap, low quality merchandise of all types, are regularly visited by 77.5% of the respondents, and ‘flea markets’ by 69.4%. The most commonly bought food type is fast food (76.4%). However, price is not the only criterion for members of the different classes as they select their goods; certain aesthetic standards and preferences also play a role. On the whole, women take the lead in the economic management of households, keeping an eye on the family budget and seeing to the purchase of durable goods. In 49.1% of households, it is the wife who allocates the family budget for everyday spending, and female members of a household are together in charge of the money in nearly 60% of households, with the wife having the last say in decisions about buying durable goods.

An unfavourable financial situation restricts other types of consumption, especially those related to holidays. Thus 57.8% of household members do not go on summer or winter holidays, and of those who do, only a quarter stay in hotels. In general, signs of deprivation appear in many areas of daily life. Revealingly, 12.4% of households have a very poor, low quality diet; 45% do not have a satisfactory housing situation; 28.6% do not have the funds to keep their dwellings in good condition; 53.6% cannot buy a car; 22.9% are unable to buy basic home appliances; and 38.4% are unable to buy other household appliances, such as computers. 15.8% have no funds for adequate clothing and footwear; 33.8% do not have the money to visit bars; 15.8% do not visit friends for financial reasons; and as many as 40.9% of households do not have the means to satisfy their cultural interests. Households make up for what they lack with homemade products and home-grown food, and usually attempt to solve immediate or unforeseen financial difficulties by measures such as short-term borrowing or taking out bank loans (under unfavourable conditions).

Family Life

Family life tends to be organized around the wife, who performs 50% of all household chores, such as cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, ironing, taking care of small children, and supervising the children’s schoolwork. Daughters and other female family members carry out approximately 15% to 20% of these chores, while men do only around 7 to 8%. Housework thus remains distinctly tied to the female members of a family, and mostly to the wife.

As against this rather traditionalist picture, significant changes have occurred in household decision-making. Although the trend may be only partial, as men are still almost four times more involved in family decision-making than in the performance of house chores while with women it is almost the reverse, women are more likely to be the decision-makers in certain fields. In more than 50% of responses, they are the sole decision-makers on the organization of living space; and in more than 25% of cases, women are the decision-makers on where to go on holiday, the children’s education, and any extracurricular activities the children may want to pursue. It is particularly interesting that grandmothers (and daughters, to a lesser extent) quite often participate in making these decisions.

Disagreements and conflicts among family members must be quite common, as around 80% of the respondents who chose to answer the question about them answered in the positive. Conflicts arise between spouses, and between parents and children, more or less equally, and the main trigger seems to be the manifold financial limitation the majority of Montenegrin families face. Another important source of conflict, however, is the distribution of household chores.

How did the respondents evaluate their daily functioning in the ten areas of family life explored? A significant negative correlation between class affiliation and indicators of family friction came out in eight of these areas. Being in a much better financial situation (Ro = -0.240), members of the upper classes show greater levels of harmony in all of the following: agreement between parents on methods of educating their children (Ro = - 0.165); cohesion and solidarity among family members (Ro = - 0.158); level of candour and closeness between family members (Ro = - 0.127); general good relations between family members (Ro = - 0.125); common interests with parents (Ro = - 0.112). Last but not least, they have significantly better levels of health in their families (Ro = - 0.093).

Thus, when it comes to the daily functioning of family life, ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ social classes are clearly distinct in a range of areas. Out of the ten different areas of family life explored, respondents classify the most problematic as: their financial situation (over 40%); housing (almost 20%); health (almost 20%), And, in a high fourth place, a perceived lack of closeness and connection between family members, most often due to financial frustrations.

Professional Life

Permanent unemployment and temporary employment correlate highly negatively with the consumption index. The low quality of life many indicate can mostly be attributed to unemployment. Nearly a third of the respondents are (or were) out of work, the average duration of unemployment reported as four years and seven months. About two-thirds lost their jobs involuntarily through no fault of their own—either made redundant, or cast off when their employing enterprise stopped operation, or fired without there being any personal blame. More than a quarter of respondents leaving work voluntarily had valid personal reasons: illness, injury, old age, etc. In 70% of the cases, new jobs have been found through informal connections. A questionnaire item asking which social situations make it important to know other people, gets the reply ‘finding a better paying job’ from more than a quarter of respondents; only in second place do they mention personal social relationships, counselling, and support from others. However, among those unemployed for longer than the average, more than half have permanently given up seeking a new job. A very unfavourable job situation and low quality of life explains the fact that, for various reasons, almost 90% of respondents say they are willing to accept additional work, often under unsuitable conditions, just to provide a sufficient family livelihood.

Of those in full employment, nearly a quarter have serious problems at work, such as irregular wages, unpaid overtime, denial of annual leave, and undefined or unclear assignments. Such problems are mostly reported by members of the classes lower in the scale. Unsurprisingly, members of the upper classes are significantly less likely to be unemployed. Better education makes a considerable difference, giving those who have benefited from it special knowledge and skills which help them find employment more easily. Significant assets are fluency in foreign languages, computer skills, and having a driving licence.

Finally, between 40% and 50% of respondents reply positively to a question about life planning. However, here too, upper class respondents, with a higher consumption index, are the statistically higher proportion of those claiming successful planning of key areas such as work, education, housing, and family growth.

Leisure Time

Activities that respondents choose to do in their free time are dominated by watching TV (21.9%), going for walks (17.5%), and hanging out with friends (14.5%). These are rather stereotypical ways of spending leisure time, and can be taken as an important indicator of relatively low quality of life. To be sure, there is no lack of desire for other leisure time activities, but low spending power imposes constraints. The three most popular topics for conversation with friends and family are sports (38%), children (31.7%), and political events local to Montenegro (30.3%). Stereotypically, men show up as more interested in sports, while women are more interested in children.

Time Management

To a question on daily schedules and time management, respondents provided information on how many minutes, on average, they spend on getting ready for work, commuting, working, doing part-time jobs, continuing education, managing family affairs, and leisure. The replies show that those in employment are very burdened. They stay at work for about eight hours, and commuting takes about an hour-and-a-half. If they are married, family obligations and free time take, on average, around seven hours, which, all together, accounts for sixteen-and-a-half hours per day. More than 50% of respondents have some additional part-time work, which adds on another two-and-a-half hours. Members of the lower social classes spend more time on family-related activities, which are needed to maintain cooperation and cohesion between family members so that they can tackle the myriad hardships confronting them more efficiently. Again, financial challenges are the problems mentioned most often.

Attitudes towards the State and Society

Citizens’ distrust of the state and the government, and their sense of resignation are primarily reflected in the large gap between their perceptions of the three most important things for personal advancement in Montenegrin society and what they think should really count. The things they think are needed to get on in Montenegro are: knowing the right people (41.1%); coming from a rich family (36.7%); and political participation (34.4%). Personal beliefs about what should be most important converge instead on: high quality education (43.8%); hard work (25.2%); and ambition (16.2%). People find it hard to reconcile reality with current social values. As a consequence, there is widespread passivity about participating in any kind of organization. More than half of the respondents say they are non-political, in the sense of not belonging to any political party. Members of the lower social classes are significantly more averse to involvement in politics, while members of the middle class are more ambivalent. Most commonly, the latter are either members of the governing Democratic Party of Socialists (Demokratska partija socijalista, DPS), or of no party at all. The prevalence of anomic feeling towards society and state has already mentioned. Just over one-fifth of respondents believe that elections are the best way to protect the interests of citizens, while 40% believe that this can be done better through knowing the ‘right’ people. Students and young people are more in favour of strikes, mass rebellion, and street demonstrations. Members of the lower classes especially believe that, if they are in need of help, they can only rely on themselves and their families.

Cultural Practices

For the study of cultural practices, respondents were presented with a five-degree interval scale by which to rate 25 items giving descriptions of people attracted to different cultural practices. Using Varimax factor analysis, five factors with high loadings (mostly above 0.500) were extracted which could be quite easily interpreted. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test yielded a high score (0.809), indicating that the sample was well amenable to factoring. All five factors explained 61.52% of the inherent variances. The strongest factor explained 19.74% of the variance.

What of the results? The highest loadings turn out to be items describing respondents who are film or cinema fans and fans of pop music, and similar musical genres. The first factor is therefore named ‘The factor of western pop culture’. In the second factor, almost all items with high loadings relate to the consumption of media news and political programmes, so it has been named ‘The factor of news and political programmes’. It carries 14.41% of the variance. The third factor, which explains 12.18% of the variance, brings up loadings above 0.500 for items that describe admirers of elite culture with a high aesthetic level such as classical music and literature. This factor is named ‘The factor of elite culture’. The fourth factor, explaining 9.156% of the variance and holding loadings above 0.600, has items related to folk, turbo-folk music, and reality TV programmes, and is ‘The factor of mass culture’. And finally, in the fifth factor, which explains 6.01% of the variance, with high loadings over 0.800, the items emerging are those connected to national folklore, hence named ‘The factor of folk art’.

Analysis of these clusters reveals one of the most important, if unsurprising, conclusions: that members of the upper end of the social strata (professionals, small private owners, and the self-employed) are considerably more likely to reject mass culture, and are less interested in national and folk art than individuals who belong to the lower end of the social ladder.

Cluster analysis further shows that the common denominator for most social classes is the fourth factor, ‘The factor of mass culture’. This factor has an index of significance of 0.91, and almost a quarter of all respondents show an interest in mass culture as entertainment they like to follow. With the exception of professionals, all social classes have a significantly higher frequency in this cluster than expected. The fact that all aspects get only average scores might indicate a significant degree of uncertainty and confusion crossing social classes with regard to the cultural topics and contents addressed in the survey. Unlike other results reported above, all of which confirm Bourdieu’s theory, cluster analysis distribution of the fourth factor corresponds more to the ‘omnivorousness theory’ first proposed by Richard Peterson: social classes, the analysis reveals, do not significantly differ in their cultural practices.^[8]

Value Orientations

A five-degree Likert scale with 18 items was used to measure dominant value orientations: nationalist, authoritarian, and individualistic. The internal consistency of the scale was satisfactory (Cronbach alpha = 0.6). In order to extract potential value orientations, a scale factorization using Varimax factor analysis was again applied. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test gave a quite high figure (0.796), indicating again the suitability of the results for factorization. Factor loadings were, with one exception, above 0.5, and often above 0.6 and 0.7.

The strongest factor, covering 22.224% of the variance, relates to the achievement of individual success and family happiness; in the latter there was a particular concern with regard to children and agreement between family members. This factor, which is an indicator of individualism in value orientations, is hence named ‘The family factor’. In the second factor, which bears 14.172% of the variance, statements that describe professional success and individual rights stand out. It has therefore been named ‘The factor of professional success and individual rights’. The third factor, covering 10.224% of the variance, is the least ‘pure’, since it includes disparate claims which are either typically individualistic or typically indicative of an authoritarian value orientation. The fourth factor, covering 5.961% of the variance, is unequivocal and is ‘The factor of nationalism’.

The analysis extracted these four clusters, of which the second was the strongest and included 49.1% of respondents, the third 23.5%, the fourth 15.2%, and the first 12.2%. The second, strongest cluster is characterized by value confusion; the third is characterized by anomic attitudes. Thus, nearly three quarters of respondents live in a sort of ‘value vacuum’. This value confusion can be explained as a state of ‘value-normative dissonance’-a term which Mladen Lazić coined to denote

‘[…] the circumstance in which new values are present within the confines of an old, dominant system of relations (that comes with corresponding norms and standards) as well as the fact that old values survive even when a new system of relations has already been established […]’.^[9]

Satisfaction in Everyday Life

A special ten-degree scale was constructed for questions about satisfaction with the following aspects of life: love life; financial situation; professional status; health; work; realization of civil rights in Montenegro; efficiency of the state institutions in solving everyday problems of citizens; the political situation in the country; and everyday life in general. The average of all nine means is 5.7319 (Table 3). Thus, respondents are satisfied with their overall lives to a degree somewhat above the average on the scale. The things they are least satisfied with are: the political situation in the country, the efficiency of state institutions, realization of civil rights, and their financial situations. The things they are most pleased with are: the state of their health, daily life in general, and their love lives.

Although overall satisfaction with everyday life is above average, Montenegrin citizens show a relatively low level of satisfaction in most crucial areas. Interestingly, they show the relatively highest satisfaction in those areas in which individual effort can make a significant difference, such as state of health and love life. They show less satisfaction in what it is like at their workplace, their professional status, and their financial situations. It seems that, here, residual opinions from the former Yugoslav socialist regime are at work, as it was a feature of state socialism to make citizens believe that in these three areas the government should have a great influence. Indirectly, the huge dissatisfaction concerning civil rights (including the right to work) is touched by this same thinking, as is the perceived inefficiency of state bodies in solving the everyday problems of citizens—especially the state’s insufficient engagement in solving unemployment—and the general political situation, which is held to blame for divisions within Montenegrin society at various levels, ranging from the economic to issues of identity.

In general the quality of daily life for citizens of Montenegro is quite low. This is primarily the result of socioeconomic underdevelopment, which makes the differences in consumption between higher and lower social classes less acute than in developed European societies. Family life is characterized by numerous deprivations, especially financial ones, and, mainly in the lower social classes, intra- and intergenerational conflicts are associated with the resulting hardships. With regard to the family, the biggest positive change is a significant decrease in gender inequality. Professional life is characterized by high rates of unemployment, nepotism, lack of specific knowledge and skills, low self-esteem and undeveloped entrepreneurship. Due to the perceived nepotism and party privileges, a significant percentage of respondents believe that it is beyond their reach to reduce deprivation in family and work domains, and it is because of this that they articulate dissatisfaction with the state and distrust of state institutions.

Upper Class

A high index of consumption amongst this class (F = 14.381; p = 0.000; see Table 2) is also a way of demonstrating power, prestige and success, which is why material gains are highly valued. Members of this class show a careful rationality towards money in planning their monthly household budgets but are willing to take business risks, such as selling their apartments in order to make profit in a new business. They have the smallest index of deprivation (F = 9.364; p = 0.000) of all the social classes, and, at the same time, they are the most satisfied in almost all areas of life. (The index of deprivation was calculated by counting the number of deprivations recorded by respondents, totalling them and then dividing the figure by the number of respondents.)

Both the sphere of family life and what is done in leisure time are carefully concealed by respondents in this class. As members of the nomenklatura and the ruling party (DPS), they are the only class to evaluate the realization of civil rights, the effectiveness of state organizations in the protection of civil rights, and the overall political situation in the country very positively.

As regards cultural practices, this class mostly prefers elite culture, which serves to confirm their social standing (F = 13.801; p = 0.000). Also, they attempt to be well informed about political events (F = 6.205; p = 0.000). When it comes to value preferences they are predominantly authoritarian and nationalist. The clear purpose of such value orientations is to preserve their material and social capital, their power and domination. All this reinforces feelings of social superiority and group narcissism.

Professionals

Professionals are second only to members of the upper class when it comes to the index of consumption (F = 14.381; p = 0.000). They too put greater emphasis on the quality of goods over price, but unlike members of the upper class, they do not maintain this consumption pattern to indicate the dominant position of their class. Rather, they wish to satisfy specific needs. In addition to satisfying these needs, members of this class may go after complex aesthetic pursuits, which are more conditioned by their pronounced individuality than by any effort to display superiority. Although this class feels less deprived than members of the lower social classes, it considers itself more socially deprived than the upper class and harbours a subjective feeling that this is not fair (F = 9.364; p = 0.000).

The lifestyle of this class is characterized by emphasized individualism, reflected not only in the consumption of material goods but also in the allocation of the family budget: there is agreement on who pays what in the family. Professionals also manifest individualism in relation to family responsibilities. In order to liberate themselves from the most important family obligations, such as the upbringing and education of children, their children’s progress at school and these children’s extracurricular activities, they leave these responsibilities to their eldest adult daughters (X2 = 72.397; df = 49; p = 0.017). Thus the emphasized individualism functions primarily in the realm of professional aspirations and the acquisition of specific knowledge and skills that can make them competitive in their professional fields. Members of this class are therefore the ones most satisfied with their professional lives.

Cultural practices within this class are similar to those of the upper class, as can be seen most clearly in their preference for elite culture (F = 13.801; p = 0.000), pop-culture (F = 6.205; p = 0.000), and politically informative programmes (F = 6.205; p = 0.000). They too reject mass culture to a significantly greater extent than members of other classes. It is important to note that the professionals are often of a younger age. This might be one reason why, in the realm of value orientations, professionals differ significantly from members of the upper class. While the latter tend to be authoritarian, professionals put emphasis on professional success and individual rights (F = 2.428; p = 0.018).

Small Private Entrepreneurs and Self-Employed Individuals

Small private entrepreneurs and the self-employed have a number of similarities in lifestyle with professionals, but they are, above all, different in that their self-confidence and individualism is significantly less developed. Members of this class have an index of consumption lower than that of members of the upper class (F = 14.381, p = 0.000), but they still tend to favour quality over price. Unlike the professionals, who seek to satisfy developed aesthetic needs for their own sake, this social group is more prone to choose goods as status symbols, a trait they have in common with members of the upper class.

One interesting characteristic of families of this class, as well as of the other two higher classes, is that the most important family decisions are almost exclusively left to the women. Professionals leave almost the entire upbringing and education of their younger children to adult daughters; small private entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals leave family decisions to their wives. Effectively, an additional burden has been transferred to the already overloaded women.

The one essential difference in the lifestyle the small private entrepreneurs and self-employed have when compared to professionals is their greater willingness to enter into new business arrangements and to take economic risks. In addition, they seem more adept then other classes in the planning of their professional and everyday lives (X 2 = 62.043, df = 28; p = 0.000).

Members of this class are interested in pop culture (F = 6.205; p = 0.000), politically informative programmes (F = 6.205; p = 0.000), and, to a lesser extent, traditional art (F = 2.156; p = 0.036). Unlike members of the upper class, their commitment to cultural practices is not motivated by the need for a symbolic expression of holding a high social position. In general, according to what they report, small entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals are the group most satisfied with the different areas of their everyday life after the upper class.

Clerks and Technicians

More than with any other class, the lifestyle of clerks and technicians is characterized by great contradictions in both attitudes and feelings. Although, for example, they have a relatively high index of consumption, which does not significantly differ from small private entrepreneurs and self-employed individuals, they buy their food (X2 = 78.103, df = 28; p = 0.000), cosmetics (X2 = 44.472, df = 28; p = 0.025), and household equipment (X2 = 63.698, df = 28; p = 0.000) significantly more often at cheap outlets, and spend holidays more frequently with relatives and friends (X 2 = 81.719, df = 28; p = 0.000) than the social classes above them. This need for rationalization in the purchase of items may be an expression of psychological insecurity with regard to their social standing. But when it comes to care about the education of their children, they are ahead of any other social class. This accompanies efforts to channel savings towards increasing their cultural capital: they can do so vicariously by providing a good education for their offspring.

Like the previous groups, however, clerks and technicians are prone to let adult daughters have control when it comes to the raising and education of younger children. These daughters are also responsible for managing the daily budget, while wives are left with more important decisions. In this social stratum, female responsibility, and the work connected with it, register as even higher than with the upper social strata. (As I will show below, this increasing curve continues in the lower social classes, where the female workload is higher still.)

Politically, the contradictions that characterize the lifestyle of this class are reflected in their belief, on the one hand, that social and state institutions protect the general interests of society, while, on the other hand, they are primarily members of the fairly new and small political party, the Democratic Union (Demokratski savez), commonly known as DEMOS, which is opposed to the current government (X2 = 117.571, df = 56; p = 0.000). Equally strong is the division in cultural practices. Although members of this class favour pop culture (F = 6.205; p = 0.000) and mass culture (F = 4.099; p = 0.000), they may also appreciate elite and traditional cultural productions.

Skilled Workers

Because they have a smaller index of consumption than the classes above (F = 14.381; p = 0.000), skilled workers feel more deprived of the basic necessities. Due to their limited budgets they frequently buy from ‘Chinese shops’ (X2 = 77.671, df = 28; p = 0.000). With them, it is the wife (rather than an adult daughter) who distributes the money for daily consumption (X2 = 49.058, df = 28; p = 0.000).

Generally, the lifestyle of skilled workers is characterized by a lack of refined tastes, which is clearly conditioned by a selective consumption primarily focused on basic needs. In addition, they have developed safety precautions in an effort to adapt to the currently unfavourable economic conditions and job market. A poor capacity for future planning is typical of this class, stemming from lack of material resources and social connections. Most evident is the lack of any family planning for the next five years (X2 = 16.494, df = 7, p = 0.013). Their cultural practices reveal rather undeveloped aesthetic criteria; value confusion is present, in spite of a certain preference for folk art. A feeling of powerlessness with regard to making an unfavourable environment any better is accompanied by strong efforts to adapt to this environment through hard work.

Unskilled and Semi-Skilled Workers

Together with the farmers, unskilled and semi-skilled workers have the lowest consumption index, and their style of consumption is characterized by purchase of only the most essential goods, such as food and personal hygiene items. The main criterion when they shop is low cost, and they usually go to the ‘Chinese shops’ for the things they need. Effectively, the lifestyle of unskilled and semi-skilled workers depends on the female family members, who are left with most of the decision-making. In fact, except for the daily distribution of money, it is the grandmothers who perform almost all the important family tasks, including the upbringing and education of the children, deciding which specific skills children are to acquire, and choosing how and when the family will spend any holidays.

Members of this class, together with the farmers, experience the most deprivation, and they relatively often report increased alcohol consumption. Most of them take no part in organizations and associations, and the reason they give for this is mistrust. A belief that they can rely only on themselves is very marked. When plans and goals fail, they ascribe it simply to being out of luck.

Farmers

As stated above, the results concerning this social class can only be taken as illustrative. Strikingly, the lifestyle of farmers is primarily characterized by existential problems. In the selection of their merchandise and shopping places they are very similar to the unskilled and semi-skilled workers. However, they buy only the most essential things for personal hygiene and nutrition. Price determines the choice of goods, and consequently quality is of little relevance. The ‘Chinese stores’ are their habitual places of purchase. Paradoxically, the farmers produce less food and beverages for their own consumption than the other classes (X2 = 17.284, df = 7, p = 0.016).

Since farmers do not have specialized knowledge and skills beyond working their land and have little cultural capital, they feel insecure and disconnected from society. This is why they tend to conform to what they perceive as the right social conduct: they believe that the safest path towards progress in Montenegrin society is obedience (X2 = 68.134; df = 56; p < 0.128).

In this stratum, decisions on any extracurricular activities for young children, if offered at all, is left again to the eldest daughters (X2 = 72.397; df = 49; p = 0.017). When it comes to leisure time, farmers are the most passive of all the classes. They are particularly passive in political life, and do not usually belong to any political party. They show a general lack of interest in cultural events, and this is true even for light entertainment as embodied in what is called mass or popular culture.

Just like unskilled and semi-skilled workers, farmers are less authoritarian and nationalist than members of some of the higher social classes. This result goes against research findings in Serbia, but is not unexpected. In Montenegro, the pronounced authoritarianism and nationalism of the upper classes are related to their specific privileges, and it seems that the members of the lower social classes recognize this. They reject ideology not only because of what they perceive as insincerity and falseness in the higher classes, but also because they know that being nationalist will not bring them any sort of social improvement, let alone privileges.