status seeker

Someone who aspires to a higher socioeconomic level. Upward mobility have always been an aspect of American society, but it took sociologist Vance Packard's 1959 book The Status Seekers to give a name to people who strove to impress by acquiring and flaunting fashionable and expensive items and social cachet. Status seekers—the derogatory epithet quickly gained popularity—not only tried to keep up with the Jones, they wanted to leave the Jones behind.