If you don’t spend two months salary on a diamond ring, it doesn’t mean you don’t love your Significant Other. (“De Beers: It’s Just A Rock.”) But conversely, if you’re always reluctant to spend any money on your SO, and yet seem to have no emotional problems with spending $1000 on a flat-screen TV, then yes, this does say something about your relative values.
I disagree, or at least the way it’s phrased is misleading. The obvious completion of the pattern is that you care more about a flat screen TV than your SO. But that’s not a valid comparison. What it really says is that you care more about the flat-screen TV than anything else you could purchase for your SO for $1000. But for example, if you’re poorer than your SO, you could believe that it’s always better marginal investment to invest in your own happiness rather than theirs, but this says nothing about how much you value the relationship or the person. How much you “value” a person isn’t on the same scale.
I disagree, or at least the way it’s phrased is misleading. The obvious completion of the pattern is that you care more about a flat screen TV than your SO. But that’s not a valid comparison. What it really says is that you care more about the flat-screen TV than anything else you could purchase for your SO for $1000. But for example, if you’re poorer than your SO, you could believe that it’s always better marginal investment to invest in your own happiness rather than theirs, but this says nothing about how much you value the relationship or the person. How much you “value” a person isn’t on the same scale.