re: Ponder with me, if you will, the $50 gift certificate card to Ruth's Chris

So many people in this thread conflating $50 cash with a frikkin $50 Ruths chris gift card.

These two things are not even close to the same value to most people in the world.

Dinner with wine, apps, dessert and steaks for Pimp and his wife at RC is easily $300.

The large majority of the population will never do this, or if so extremely rarely.

Virtually no one goes there just for wine or dessert.
A 50$ RC card is therefore, completely worthless to most people. The gift giver knows this.

Given this knowledge, the point of the gift CANT be to actually give someone something nice or express affection or respect for him.

The point of the gift CAN ONLY BE to signal social status and deliver a message of "I am superior to most people, so these $50 cards mean nothing to me." Its the only reasonable interpretation.

It is also possible that the giver is signaling to pimp "I am superior to most people, and Im sure you are too." but that seems less likely to me since he doesnt know this person well.

There is nothing wrong with being superior or accomplished or wealthy. Quite the opposite.

The evil comes when you start broadcasting it. Overt signaling is a plague right now in our culture, rocket-fueled and amped to the max by social media. Learn to spot it better.