Prestige is your price on the friendship market

Prestige is to friendship what attractiveness is to mating: your price on a social market. The higher your prestige, the more people want to be your ally, your friend, your associate.

Like any market price, this is driven by supply and demand. Everyone has a roughly similar — and limited — supply of friendship to offer. But demand for your friendship varies enormously depending on your prestige. A highly prestigious person has many would-be friends and can afford to be selective.

This reframes why prestige matters. It's not just ego or vanity. Your prestige determines your access to allies, and allies matter enormously for survival, opportunity, and wellbeing. Prestige is synonymous with your value as an ally.

[!NOTE] The market analogy makes explicit what usually goes unsaid: social association is a resource allocated by price signals, not by virtue or need.

Source claim: Prestige functions as your price on the friendship and alliance market, determining how selective you can afford to be about your social partners.