Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant
than pretend to be somebody and have no food.
Proverbs 12:9 NIV
From what I can tell she dates a guy who knows how a lady should be treated but can't actually afford to treat her that way.
From the woman's face in the 4th panel she has grown insecure and lowered her standards, dating a guy who bikes and takes her for a burger. She sees on going to the bathroom that her date owns the restaurant chain they are eating at.
The lesson seems to be for women to know their place and date men who could treat them as they deserve, but instead take them to a place they get kickbacks from eating at (and seemingly don't reveal this fact before inviting them).
Praise jay-sus.
Edit: Since the "loser" has dark hair and takes her to a sushi restaurant, and the "good" (presumebly christian) catch has blonde hair and takes her to an all-american burger joint, it also comes off as slyly racist—at minimum xenophobic.
I'm betting the artist looks like the second guy. It's likely more a self insert as the "frugal, good guy" from the artist more than a xenophobic jab. Just insecurities about his looks.
I still don't get the lesson though. The woman gets treated badly in both. The top one she gets stuck with the bill, the bottom one she gets stood up because the guy was opening a restaurant and didn't tell her. I guess the christian moral here is that if you're a woman you get screwed over either way?
It’s the downturned eyebrows and the slightly wider mouth. It’s the “I’m showing my teeth because that’s what a grin is supposed to look like, but I’m not smiling with my cheeks” look. Because smiling with your cheeks is involuntary, and causes the outside edge of the mouth to pull up slightly more into a “sharper” smile.
Source: Am autistic enough to have studied smile posture to be able to identify when people are being genuine.
Pretty sure it's about conspicuous consumption and how many people live above their means.
In practice, there's many rich people who understand that flaunting wealth is seen as crass, and many who don't want to be known as well-to-do. There are definitely wealthy people who also understand how wealth can taint their interpersonal relationships, and aren't excited to share how wealthy they are initially with a new partner, because they want the partner to like them for who they are, not for their wealth.
The first man appears wealthy, but in actuality has very little money, because he has spent his money on things that make him look wealthy. He flaunts his "wealth" only for it to be a sham.
The second man appears poor, but in actuality has a decent amount of money, because he has spent his money on things that actually provide value, while limiting conspicuous consumption. He would prefer to initially hide his wealth from a new partner.
This isn't meant to be a defense of the rich. By and large, most rich people are all too happy to commit to conspicuous consumption and let their interpersonal relationships be tainted by money. The handful of rich who understand how money twists things I do not think are properly representative of the whole.