Delaware License Plate Syndrome

Delaware License Plate Syndrome

During this past summer, I was driving to Delaware with a former girlfriend who had lived and attended school in the area. As we were driving, she pointed out to me that in Delaware the less numbers/letters (digits) a license plate contained, the more money the license plate cost. I was astounded by this information; I started paying attention. I saw cars with four, five, or six digits, and I noticed that the license plates with four digits were often attached to luxury cars. So, of course, I needed to research this new intrigue.

In Delaware, state issued license plates contain a combination of six digits. Any decrease on that number, you will pay for its luxury status. In fact, some license plates have been known to cost upwards of $3000. “Wait a minute, did he just say, ‘three thousand dollars’?” Yes, sadly, I did. “But why would anyone want to pay that high for an obnoxious tracking device?” Because, my friends, it’s an obnoxious tracking device that costs upwards of $3000, and only the (daftest) elitist can afford such triviality.

Still, this issue does highlight important questions: what is it about money and status that corrupts individuals into believing that they are more valuable than those who own or have less? What is it about money that deludes our sensibilities?

The same former girlfriend also told me about the following story. There is a woman, married to a very powerful and wealthy man in New Jersey, who had a ‘girls’ night sleepover at her house. During this gathering, the women drank a few bottles of wine, laughed, gossiped, and did whatever else women do during those séances. After two bottles into the wine, the host realized that she had made a terrible mistake. She and her friends drank two bottles of the $2000 wine. She was petrified as to how her husband would respond; after all, it wasn’t an occasion where he got to partake in the valuable, liquefied fruit. My interest in the story certainly wasn’t the same as her fret.

Even a sommelier would agree, a $2000 bottle of wine does not necessarily surpass in quality or taste a bottle of wine that may retail at $30. Perhaps it should, but it is not a given premise. What’s more, the women drinking the wine did not experience a qualitatively different response than they would have experienced had they drank less expensive bottles.

What possessed this wealthy man to have such expensive bottles? He likes wine, and of course, the Delaware License Plate Syndrome (DLPS): he’s a status seeker. Would it be a shock to anyone if I passed on to you that this man holds a vocational position of power and decision making? Would it be a shock to you if I told you that he is under federal investigation for embezzlement, bribery, and money laundering? By possessing these bottles of wine, the wealthy man bamboozled himself into believing that he was somehow worth more than one who did not possess these bottles; that $2000 bottles of wine allow him to be more established in this life than those who do not possess this. The DLPS has quickly become his downfall, as well.

As a collector, I must make a distinction, however. I understand the lure of collecting oddities and valuables. I have been a collector all my life. It started with, and continues to include, baseball cards. But I enjoy collecting many things, some trinkets stranger than others; some of great value, some only of intrinsic worth. There are things I collect that I know I will sell for a quick profit. There are other objects that I enjoy reading or watching or organizing, and they are not for monetary gain. In my life, I’ve collected matchbooks, lighters, fireworks, books, beer labels, movies, CDs, knives, covert military equipment (non-lethal), photography, $5 bills, stories and quotes, stamps, and probably a lot of other stuff I can’t recall. For me, though, it has nothing to do with status. It has everything to do with interest.

There are wine connoisseurs who are fascinated by the taste and intricacies of wine and grapes. They realize that some of the bottles of wine they purchase cost quite a bit financially, but it’s worth it to these drinkers to have that bottle because one day they will enjoy the complexity of its taste. Kudos to these individuals. I do not knock them or others who are interested in collections based on provisions of fascination and happiness. That’s cool, even admirable, at times. I just have an issue for the possession of things based strictly on the idea of status and image, as if, by possessing certain things, one is scurried into a higher plain of existence. I have a problem with purchasable license plates with the sole intent of advertising status. It’s rather annoying, and without a doubt, sullied with idiocy.