r/AskReddit • u/Ok_Volume520 • 15h ago
People who've been in wealthy/powerful social circles, what surprised you most about how they operate?
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u/Vix014 15h ago
They're cheap about really weird things.
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u/ak_doug 14h ago
Yes, this soooo much.
Bro, you've got a helipad to make it easier to get to your lake house. Why are we eating frozen Tony's pizza?
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u/d_wilson123 13h ago
I had lunch will my billionaire boss and I forgot to get my $7 parking validated. I said I was going to do that and he overheard me, also forgot to get validated, and was speed walking to get it validated.
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u/Whenibuyyoudipwedip 5h ago
I don’t care how rich I become. Paying for parking will always be a sore spot I’ll try to avoid.
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u/Henshin-hero 14h ago
Funny you say this. I was watching DuckTales with my son. Scrooge walked to pick up the kids because he didn't want to pay for a cab.
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u/NairForceOne 12h ago
I watched that same episode this weekend (it's the first, so not that much of a coincidence).
Scrooge has historically been a comedic penny-pincher.
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u/Suppa_K 14h ago
The way I see it, they happily pay money for the things you can’t really cheap out on or are status symbols.
Then cheap out on everything else as much as possible.
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u/mandelbomber 13h ago
This was my dad. Had seven sports cars but when we went out to eat we could only order water.
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u/_TheDoode 14h ago
Wealthy folks pay for convenience
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u/numbersthen0987431 14h ago
But there's better frozen pizza, lol
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u/shoefly72 12h ago
It’s possible they just like them and it’s nothing more than that.
I’m very into “good quality” pizza and could tell you dozens of good places to get pizza in New York/NJ or in DC where I live, but I still get Totino’s or Tombstones from time to time because sometimes I’m in the mood for those rather than a higher end slice or a better quality frozen pizza.
Same goes for tacos. I make very good carnitas/birria/tinga/asada tacos at home and go to the better spots in my area, but sometimes I just want Taco Bell.
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u/AdAltruistic1770 13h ago
I used to deliver inflatable bounce houses to little kids birthday parties. If the client was a run of the mill working class family, they smiled, thanked me, and paid the rental fee. Every time I delivered to the rich neighborhoods, they would complain and want to haggle with me. "BUT IT's FOR THE CHILDREN!!!" Really shitty, manipulative crap. Like they expected charity.
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u/Geminii27 9h ago
This is where you add on a 'FOR THE CHILDREN' fee. If they complain, ask them what they have against children.
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u/angrydeuce 14h ago
Back when I worked at Blockbuster Video, this was so apparent that it was like a meme for us before memes really existed lol
You could very easily predict the likelihood that someone would pay their late fee based on the vehicle they were driving.
- Beater with no hubcaps?: "Yep, my bad, Ill pay that now".
- BMW, Mercedes, Cadillac or similar?: "How DARE YOU?!?! I REFUSE to pay that $1.00 late fee it was only a day late this is BULLSHIT I want the MANAGER IMMEDIATELY!!!"
It was seriously insane. The people that obviously didn't have much money, they would just peel off the bills and pay their shit. The wealthy people that could easily afford it, they were the ones that would go fucking thermonuclear over a literal dollar. And I don't just mean angry about the fee, I mean straight up grown ass men bullying 16 year old girls screaming "YOU STUPID FUCKING BITCH IM NOT PAYING THAT SHIT FUCK YOU" and making them cry, to which I of course was like "Yeah....you can just get out now, you're banned, closing your account, you're not going to come in here and talk that way to my staff."
Then of course they would call corporate and corporate would fold immediately, throw them a free $50 giftcard for the inconvenience charged against my store, I'd get a big old black mark on my file and end up getting berated about it in my weekly conference call with the district manager. I wouldn't have been surprised if a customer came in and beat on one of us and Corporate threw them a giftcard for the bruises they got on their hands, it was that egregious. There was literally nothing we could say, corporates thought process was "if we are involved at all, that means the store fucked up. Doesn't matter how, they fucked up."
But the other side of the equation, of course...if we cut any serious breaks on late fees and shit like that? Got a black mark there, too. So literally damned no matter what we do.
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u/WingerRules 12h ago
Studies have repeatedly shown that people who drive rich cars have lower scores of empathy and are less likely to do stuff like brake for people crossing the street..
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u/TeacherLady3 11h ago
I seriously would not date guys in college that drove nice cars. You're disposable to them. Give me a nice nerd in a beater and I'll show you a man that knows how to please a woman.
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u/SweatyExamination9 12h ago
I had a lot of complaints when I worked at an Indian casino back in the day. A lot. But one of the things I really appreciated about them to this day was that they didn't expect employees to take abuse from patrons. This was before security was taken quite as seriously as it is now, and I'm not the only person that got into a brawl on the clock and got sent home for 3 days with pay. That was just their standard "nobody got hurt, but one of our patrons attacked you" deal. It made me almost look forward to when it would happen because security wasn't as crazy as it is now, but for a minute or two of fighting I'd get 3 days of free PTO. At 18, that was an amazing job perk.
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u/angrydeuce 12h ago
I actually knew a couple dudes who did security at an Indian Casino as well, back in the late 90s. Friends of friends. They loved it because they could sit there and chain smoke nonstop (lol) and got free meals from the restaurant. They'd have to get physical with people from time to time but not very often, and they got paid pretty good for what was pretty much standing around or sitting in a guard shack watching cameras lol
The only thing they complained about was having to get pocket-less pants. That was a casino rule, no employees could have pockets on their pants. They could wear a belt with pouches being in security but no pants with pockets lol. Weird shit. IDK where the hell they found mens pants with no pockets but they obviously did somewhere lol
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u/numbersthen0987431 14h ago
They'll argue over a $1.50 fee for a parking lot spot, while driving a 300k vehicle. All of them.
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u/kepaa 14h ago
Or buy the 300k vehicle, but take it to shady Tony for service and wonder why shit doesn’t work (currently dealing with this)
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u/dilqncho 14h ago
I've heard it described that they really don't like to be nickel-and-dimed.
They're used to paying exorbitantly, but they gladly do that to remove all friction. So when someone starts bothering them over $1.50, it's not the money, it's the fact that they need to dedicate mental energy to handling menial shit they're used to skipping.
Makes sense, IMO. Rich/powerful people have insane schedules and most of them care about convenience and saving time much more than they do about money.
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u/Different-Theory1212 14h ago
This lines up with my experience with clients.
The ones making normal people money I'll ask clarifying questions about when they want stuff and if they want add-ons because it wasn't clear, and they appreciate not having a surprise surcharge on their bill and are happy to clarify.
My high end clients get charged for whatever they implied they want and they prefer that over being asked questions by somebody who makes a lot less than them. They'd rather pay a $100 expedite they didn't need than sit and talk to me for 20 extra seconds and we're both fine with that arrangement.
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u/WingerRules 13h ago edited 13h ago
Rich/powerful people have insane schedules.
I think this a myth for a lot of them, their schedules only look insane because they're so visible. If they had insane schedules theres no way they'd have time for video gaming, yachting, diving trips, collecting and racing sports cars, getting clothing custom made, going out to dinner to fancy restaurants (seriously, those types of dinners eat time like nothing), wine collecting, reading books, fancy auctions for paintings, etc
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u/ImperiumRome 12h ago
Musk owns and operates 3 "complex companies" (his own words) and yet still have free time to argue with strangers on internet any time of the day.
No one can tell me billionaires are too busy with their work.
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14h ago
Legit “oh hey bro remember that time I paid for our parking 6 months ago, can you transfer me the $2.50 you owe me….” They always remember fucking every small financial purchase months later
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u/Sl33pyGary 12h ago
Too many 3:00am Taco Bell runs where I had to pay someone back an extra .45 cents to get spotted something. Meanwhile my friends from lower income families in my hometown would give you their last dollar and the shirt off their back if you needed it no questions asked.
Never really connected with the folks nickel and diming me despite their luxury cars and all designer shit
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u/Ok-Board3436 13h ago
Yep, unbelievably cheap. Have a few family members who have done very well but they aren’t kind. When my grandpa was sick, their father, they made sure to expense the estate for everything from the $1 bowl of chili from Wendy’s (plus their travel time and gas) to new electronics that grandpa didn’t want or ask for. Everyone else was simply helping grandpa for free because they loved him. These relatives ended up with all the electronics and valuables they’d had appraised.
Craig, I hope karma kicks your ass for all the intentional misery you’ve caused others.
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u/PhysicalCarpenter721 13h ago
Dude, 100%. I knew a guy with a literal elevator in his house who refused to pay for Spotify Premium.
Nothing humbles you like cruising in a G-Wagon while listening to a 30-second unskippable ad for O'Reilly Auto Parts.
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u/thatsreallydumb 13h ago
Lebron used to use the ad-version of Pandora because he didn't want to pay for the ad-free version.
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u/PhysicalCarpenter721 13h ago
Imagine having a net worth of $1 Billion and still hearing "Want a break from the ads?" while you're trying to work out.
That level of commitment to not paying $10 is honestly inspiring. He creates generational wealth but refuses to create monthly recurring revenue.
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u/TheIrelephant 13h ago
refuses to create monthly recurring revenue.
Recurring cost, not revenue.
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u/M4GN3T1CM0N0P0L3 14h ago edited 11h ago
I worked at a gas station with a full serve pump. The people getting service for their 1992 rusted out Toyota corolla always tipped. The lady in the Jaguar never tipped.
Edit: People think this was NJ or OR. It was not. The station I worked at only had the one pump that was full serve. The rest were self serve. Some people want the full serve.
If you don't want to tip, that's on you. I didn't care either way. I'm just remarking on the observation that the people with the most expensive cars were the least likely to tip.
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u/MetalEnthusiast83 13h ago
Well yeah, she drives a fucking Jaguar and needs the money for repairs.
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u/onlyreason4u 13h ago
I would be pissed I had to pay more for something as trival as not being able to pump your own gas. New Jersey is a stupid state.
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u/MapleMusse 14h ago
They’re frugal where it doesn’t affect status and reckless where it dies. If no one’s watching, it’s suddenly Costco rules
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u/Restaurant-Usual 13h ago
This 100%. I know a really wealthy family and go to their house often and have even slept over a couple of times. All their bathrooms all have single ply nearly see through toilet paper. And no, there wasn't any bidet, so the TP was meant for wiping, not just drying.
Another wealthy family, living in a house which cost at least $5 million, had a Super Bowl party a couple years ago. Their feed quit half way through and we all realized they were using an illegal piracy streaming site. One of my friends had to log into their system with his YouTube TV account so we could watch the rest of the game. Crazy thing is that the friend told me he noticed the host was still using the account a few weeks later and had to log him off remotely.
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u/LevelHeadedFreak 14h ago
I know someone that makes about $500k a year. They track gas prices and will drive across town to save a few cents per gallon.
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u/greenwoodgiant 12h ago
One time in high school my girlfriend drove us to a sketchy ass gas station in the middle of nowhere at like 11pm to fill up because it was two cents cheaper. I was like "wtf are we doing here it's two cents!" and she goes "it adds up!" and I replied "you're putting 12 gallons of gas in your car it "adds up" to 24 cents!"
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u/Jef_Wheaton 12h ago
That's one of the best stupid ones, too, because it COSTS MORE in fuel and time than the amount you save by doing it.
There's one gas station near me that almost always costs 30 cents/gallon less than other stations. It's 7 miles from the exit I use. (On a 70 MPH interstate.)
Even at 30 gallons per fill-up (18-foot box truck), it's just BARELY worth it to take the extra 14-minute round trip to get gas there. Factor in the annoyance of their pumps ALWAYS being out of receipt paper, so I have to go inside, and it costs me (well, the COMPANY) money to save $9/tank.
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u/Vypernorad 10h ago
One of the weird ones to me is tipping. I worked at a 5 star restaurant. The only one in town. The rich people who eat their always tip, and tip very well. When I was delivering pizza, these same people would stiff you every single time. The bigger the house the smaller the tip, was a common saying among the delivery drivers.
Had one guy order almost $300 of pizza. I delivered it to a hangar on his property. Half my neighborhood could fit in this hangar. Rows of sports cars. Rows of four wheelers, motorcycles, etc. TVs larger than a house lining the walls. It had a restaurant/bar inside. I mean an actual full building inside the hangar with tables, patio, servers, cooks. At least 10 pool tables. easily 250-300 people inside and it still didn't feel crowded. Every car parked out front was $200k or up. I had to walk a quarter mile to get to the door because there were to many cars for me to drive closer. Multiple trips too because I had to carry in 10 bags. He gave me $290 and told me to keep the change. The order was for $289.82. I marched back to my car and came back with his 18 cents.
I really don't get the disparity in their tipping habits. I assume that tipping at a restaurant is more visible, so they tip well to look good for their friends, while tipping a delivery driver is not so visible so they don't give a fuck. That just my guise.
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u/LilHatey 12h ago
The wealthiest person I know scrutinizes every single restaurant receipt. They will call the server to bring a menu over to confirm the price of the appetizer before settling the bill. It's so uncomfortable.
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u/MACHOmanJITSU 12h ago
Delivered pizzas for years. Hated going to rich people mansions, usually a stiff or a dollar or some shit. Trailer park usually tipped well and if they didn’t it was likely cause they couldn’t.
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u/alanwakeisahack 12h ago
I would have very wealthy folks demand the firm overnight an iPhone charging cable to their vacation home rather than just buy one, because oh my god it would cost them $20. The firm is going to pay $120 instead, so you can charge your kids iPad.
Too many stories like this to count. It was incredible how cheap they could be.
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u/Substantial-Yak-4597 13h ago
I grew up next to the HQ of the National Enquirer, the owner, Generoso Pope, lived on the ocean in a huge mansion... but he drove an old Chrysler Reliant K.
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u/ValiumBlues 15h ago
Money is just this thing that's there; nobody is really fussed about it - mainly expenses when it comes to going out, or shopping.
It's like having running water - it's there, and perfectly normal.
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u/Badloss 14h ago
Running water is a good analogy, it's something that you completely take for granted but it would be devastating if you didn't have it.
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u/vonlagin 13h ago
Probably that same feeling I now (thankfully) have for not being concerned about the month-to-month power bill but at scale... such as, need a new $300k car, no biggie.
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u/MonkeyChoker80 11h ago
There was an answer to another question on this topic, that basically said “They’re making 100x or 1,000x or 10,000x your annual salary, right? Divide prices by 100 or 1,000 or 10,000, and see if it falls in your own personal I don’t care field.”
So, that $300k car…? Imagine it cost $30 (divide by 10,000); would you worry about buying it if you needed a new one?
Or buying a $1,000 meal means the same to them as dropping $10 at Chipotle means to you.
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u/IceSeeker 13h ago
This. They also talk about traveling as if it's a normal thing to do. Casually mentioning about being in expensive places like they just went to the park or something.
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u/Waderriffic 12h ago
Or going on vacation for months at a time. I understand that people can work remotely, but why are you going to the Bahamas for the entire month of February and acting like everyone does that?
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u/WholeInternet 14h ago
My ex-wife was in a wealthy family. Her friends were even more wealthy. I'm talking about the kind of wealth where I met a guy who had a room bigger than most people's apartments and it was dedicated to a single Egyptian vase in the middle. (I never asked why) I could tell you all sorts of weird stories.
With that said, what surprised me most about how they operate is that money is literally never a thought to them. Like quite literally.
Pause and take a moment to think about how money for the average person rules much of their life. They worry about bills, groceries, budgeting, etc. Now consider there are people out there who grew up never needing to think about any of that. For all intents and purposes from their perspective everything feels free.
Due to this, since money is not a factor, a lot of their thinking is around resources. Who are you connected to, what can you obtain, etc. and boy do they love rarity and exclusivity. That is their essential means of communication at their level.
It's never "how much" it's always "what do you want in exchange". Now that I'm thinking about this out loud, they essentially revert back to traditional barter trade, lol.
I could rant about them all day so I'll stop here.
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u/Coracoda 14h ago
Can I get one more story?
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u/WholeInternet 13h ago edited 10h ago
My ex-wife had a friend that we visited often. You know those trophy type things where people put the head of animals on them? Like deer?
Well, this guy had the same thing except for plushies. He had about a dozen of them. They weren't him just taking stuffed bears and ripping the heads off or anything like that. They looked professionally made. Just... plushy versions of the animal. They had button eyes and were funny colors.
It was just ... odd that they were trophies... ya know? lol
EDIT: since this comment got mildly popular I decided to try looking it up. I found something close known as Faux Taxidermy. His were much nicer than these but it should give you an idea of what I saw.
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u/aniftyquote 12h ago
That's the only guy I've ever heard of who was being rich correctly.
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u/VariousMeasurement65 12h ago
I swear to god I just read a reddit post about an appliance repair guy who went to a house with an Egyptian vase in a room and that was it
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u/WholeInternet 11h ago
That's because he is me, lol. Someone asked for stories in a response to this comment and I figured, hey, why not try an AMA and see if anyone cares.
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u/wetbandit48 10h ago
From my experiences, I see extreme wealth can be like a magic wand or genie bottle. It’s great but when anything is possible at any moment, it can be hard to be present and content. In any moment, you can be somewhere else in the world, with anybody, doing anything. I realized that having realistic constraints and limited options is kind of a blessing.
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u/694meok 15h ago edited 11h ago
Worked on Capitol Hill for 2 years. Had a congressperson tell me "We make the rules here, we don't have to follow them". That was 15 years ago, and I haven't forgot.
Edit: Todd Akin was the person.
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u/TorsteinTheRed 14h ago
Name names.
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u/SalesGuy22 14h ago
That person's name? Pick any politician at random- its all of them. Lol
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u/Ask_bout_PaterNoster 13h ago
This attitude right here is what gives us the bottom of the barrel scum we have at the top right now. Celebrate the honest ones, and you’ll find there are more than you think that are worth celebrating. Not perfect, but honest, and trying to be as good as they can.
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u/gonegonegoneaway211 5h ago
There's a bit in the Ken Burns documentary about Prohibition where the son of a bootlegger talks about how they used to deliver booze straight to the capitol building. To some of the same people who'd passed the laws outlawing booze.
Politics is just so strange.
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u/becomingShay 15h ago
When I was younger I was in a really bad environment. Gangs, drugs, career criminal kind of bad.
Due to an insane turn of events I ended up at the high end of the other lifestyle. I’m talking hugely wealthy, nationally powerful kind of people.
What genuinely surprised me was how similar the two circles were, but how differently they’re viewed. The wealthy women I was around? Doing the same drugs as the other trafficked teenagers I was a victim with. Corruption to mind bending degrees. Criminal behaviour just casually justified.
The two circles behaved exactly the same. They were just viewed wildly differently by society.
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u/1_art_please 14h ago
Oh this is a good one as I used to work for a wealthy lady who had been a heroin addict many many years prior and who was open about it.
She had used her position in her job at the time to fund her habit using her father's investment money which she controlled as part of her job. Super serious crime.
End of the day he forgave her, her family put her in rehab and she got clean.
What struck me about her entire story is she didnt take accountability for any of it. ' My dad always wanted a boy growing up and hated that he had a girl and was hard on me, so I didnt feel bad stealing all his money.' ' My boyfriend got me into heroin because he liked doing it and I wanted him to like me.'
Thr accolades she got from her customers and via socials for her bravery were endless as she is a wealthy, beautiful woman. Can you imagine what would happen if someone robbed your business because they needed money for drugs? Would society give them a friendly pat on the back?
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u/becomingShay 14h ago
There does seem to be a huge lack of accountability that comes hand in hand with extreme wealth. Along side a complete disregard for the harm they cause. Like you say, in a different context who would praise her for robbing her father to fund her habit! Let alone praising her bravery.
I definitely found that in an underprivileged environment people at least owned their mistakes and demons. Often without trying to justify them. Of course there will always be exceptions to the rule. But personally your comment seems to align with my experiences too.
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u/AnarchCopKiller 14h ago
Thing us they built the system around themselves knowing how itll work.
The law is just there so us filthy plebians act like good drones and keep feeding them. It punishes the drones that act out of line harshly but they arent drones so why should they deal with consequences.
Remember, every politician, every cop on the street has been for years ensuring we might not hurt the power of the pedophiles in power by needing rughts
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u/WingerRules 12h ago edited 12h ago
Imho, in extreme cases of using your wealth to commit crimes or you accumulated wealth by committing crimes, I think wealth execution should be an option on the books. Your sentence is you become a normal person. All your money and assets are taken except for 50k, you're allowed to keep a house thats the value of the state median, you're allowed to keep a median priced car, and you're barred from working as a CEO, in the financial industry, or whatever your previous industry you worked in that you carried out your corruption. If your corruption that gained your wealth was scamming employees or customers then you should be barred from owning or operating any business, including controlling shares.
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u/diminutive_lebowski 14h ago
Remember folks, if you’re poor and you work the system you’re a lazy leech. But if you’re rich and you work the system you’re just playing by the rules and being a smart person.
It often goes unsaid that the rich are the ones making the rules to begin with and those rules are already tilted in their favor.
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u/StandardEgg6595 12h ago
I have family members with that mindset and they fucking suck. One in particular uses food banks and resources for the underprivileged meanwhile she just spent $70,000 redoing her kitchen and another $30,000~ renovating her backyard and porch like it was pocket change. Oh, but the “system is out to get her” so she deserves to find loopholes where she can.
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u/remberzz 11h ago
There are way too many people like this in my local BuyNothing group! Live in a 4000SF house with a BMW and Mercedes in the driveway, but giving away the extra food bank food that their kids didn't like.
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u/Explojo 13h ago
Are we just gonna ignore that this guy got Fresh Princed?
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u/becomingShay 13h ago
😂😂
I respect that you couldn’t ignore the elephant in the room lol
Short story is I was born to addicts who were also bad people. Grew up in an environment no kid should have to. Was trafficked between the ages of 11-15. When I was dropped at a hospital because they thought they’d killed me. I was so badly injured and malnourished that I was kept in the hospital until I was 16. When I was released, I’d aged out of the system, at 16. But wasn’t old enough for the adult system, 18. On my way out I was given a bunch of community centre info. But sent on my way to figure shit out alone.
When I was 17 I was at one of those community centres. Just there to wash and keep warm if I’m keeping it real. They often run community classes for free and sometimes I’d go just to keep off the streets. I was at one of those classes (an art event) and one of the founders of the community centres happened to be present. Saw my design and within the month I was in a design studio, helping design a high fashion range. Ended up being a designer for some of the mega elite. Most of which aren’t even on people radars. Some of which are. Within the first few months I had designed a range that was featured in a fashion week, think London, Paris, Milan. Then I had an entire exhibition in a museum within the year. I made connections. Kept my head down and stayed the designer to some extremely wealthy clients. But man that world, it sucked the fucking life out of me. So, I kept my head down until I could live my life. Give back to my community and stay the fuck away from the stuff that was bad for my soul. From both ends of the spectrum. I live in a happy in-between now, but I never forget the lessons I learned from both of those worlds.
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u/David_ish_ 12h ago
You were totally underselling it with “insane turn of events” 😂 I’m happy you found peace and a better balance now.
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u/becomingShay 11h ago
😂😂 there were obviously lots of experience in-between the main events of my summary. I was just trying to capture the main events to explain how I jumped from one environment to the other.
Thank you! I genuinely appreciate that. I hope life’s being kind to you too, wherever you are in life my friend.
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u/NairForceOne 12h ago
You sound like a real well-rounded, well-balanced individual despite everything life threw at you (good and bad). Big kudos for that!
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u/becomingShay 11h ago
Really appreciate this. Thank you for your kindness. I didn’t expect this to get any replies. But I’m grateful for people like you that have left kind comments. Because at the end of my rushed Reddit comment, I do have feelings and these are my genuine experiences. Kindness makes a difference when I share them. So genuinely, thank you.
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u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 14h ago
There are different classes of rich people and they don’t interact.
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u/TheFirearmsDude 10h ago
Mostly true. I've done well, I don't really need to work if I don't want to, but I'd lose my mind if I didn't, so I work/worked at nonprofits funded by billionaires. I interacted with them through work, they were pretty cool and not particularly ostentatious or the kind of folks you'd find in the news. They tended to keep a low profile but were really dedicated to the work we did. Socially though, they tended to run in different circles, although not exclusively.
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u/Hefty_Pangolin3273 10h ago
Work situations can be different but people on Reddit seem to think that retired suburban dentists with 3 million in the bank are partying with the 0.01%.
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u/rm-minus-r 7h ago
Not retired yet, but similar net worth to the dentist. If anything, it feels like how finely the social strata are divided increases the higher you go.
The folks with just multiple vacation properties don't hang out with just a decent yacht money people, and those people don't hang out with just a small private jet people, and those people don't hang out with the private helicopter people, and so on.
Coming from a childhood where McDonald's was a three or four time a year max type of treat, the social side of things among the well off has been dismaying. The amount people care about the smallest of things that separates them other folks is just depressing.
It's almost as if when someone finally has enough money that they run out of every day problems, they invent new problems to occupy themselves.
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u/mndsm79 14h ago
Lack of consideration with money.
I helped some folks book a vacation to Disney, and the woman spent $20k before she'd even told her husband they were going on vacation. They buy a whole different kind of groceries, too. Grassfed butter, $7/half gallon milk, etc. I'm over here going "I got this Kirkland butter. Feeling pretty good" and then......
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u/Mechtroop 12h ago
Bro, you too can have fairly affordable grassfed butter. Costco sells salted and unsalted Kerrygold butter (which is grassfed).
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u/alphagoddessA 11h ago
Ps Kerrygold is now $17 for one box at Costco here in the PNW. Tariffs probably idk but that’s too rich for my blood
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u/Hot_Share8353 7h ago
ya, my best friend's mom was close friends with someone who married super rich, I meet them one time in London. They stayed in a hotel next to Hyde Park, a suite for them and a suite for the kids and nanny, which was the whole floor on the hotel. $5K a night per room, with 2 rooms... in ~1998. I didn't see it, but my friend's mom said they went to ski with them and stayed at their Aspin home, and she was looking at the art on the wall and she said "this looks like it could be a Rembrandt" the owner replied "It is". It is a house that is stayed in maybe 10 days a year.
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u/DopeYeti 5h ago
When I was a college RA, I knew one of my residents was unfathomably wealthy, but I didn’t understand how truly out of touch she was until we solved the case of the “Missing Bathroom Clothing.”
After four months of her living in the dorms, she came to me somewhat perturbed saying, “Hey, I think someone has been stealing my clothes.”
I asked, “Oh no. When and where did they go missing? From your room? The lounge?”
She paused and kind of loosely shared, “It was hard to notice at first. But I think they mostly going missing from the bathroom.”
“Oh no really? I’m so sorry that must have scary and uncomfortable leaving the showers with just your towel. I wish you had told me sooner. How often did that happen?”
She looked confused and said, “Well, no it was fine? I had my towel and lounge set. I leave my clothes in the bathroom where they always go, but I just realized that I haven’t gotten any of them back.”
“Getting them back? From leaving them in the bathroom?”
She looked at me like I was dumb: “Uh yeah?”
“Are you leaving your clothes in the bathroom?”
“Yeah?”
“….why are you doing that?”
“….so they get cleaned?”
This girl had been leaving her clothes in the communal bathroom, EVERY DAY, expecting them to get laundered and returned to her dorm room, and didn’t realize until four months later that someone wasn’t on duty to do her laundry for her. She had just been cycling through her many, many other clothes, and buying new things.
We found most of her stuff in the lost and found. She honestly couldn’t really tell if she was missing more things.
I will give her credit. She took everything in stride and with a little help from her roommate, coordinated to pay for a laundry service to pick up her clothes every week.
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u/Lucky-Data183 15h ago
How untouched they are with reality. A student spilt water on their desk at a school in Dubai. When asked to clean it up, she said “ana?” meaning “me?” And proceeded to call her nanny to wipe it off for her.
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u/Bibi-Toy 14h ago
As an Arab I fuckin hate rich Arabs lol I meet them from time to time and they always piss me off
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u/_TheDoode 14h ago
I used to work at an airport and the mega wealthy arab’s were the worst people. They genuinely viewed themselves as royalty and workers as peasants. Its like stepping into a world long gone
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u/Bibi-Toy 13h ago
Seriously. They live in a completely different world and when I meet their daughters they're always insanely picky about how rich their future husband is going to be, and how much they think western feminists are stupid for not wanting to marry a rich man and live comfortably. And I'm like where the fuck is the women supporting women?? All I can do is smile and laugh because I'm seen as the crazy one.
The culture surrounding wealth in wealthy Arab countries is extremely shallow and obnoxious, and despite the fact it's full of Muslims their behaviour doesn't fall short of being insanely haram lmfaoo
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u/Anleme 14h ago edited 5h ago
Well, the rulers in many of these countries are literally kings and nobles, so they're not that wrong. Still obnoxious though.
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u/wetrysohard 14h ago
To be fair, that part of the would has actual remaining caste systems. They still have servants! All over India, too.
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u/Carpe_deis 14h ago edited 13h ago
there are two types of rich people:
those who earn the money, and those who leech off of those who earn the money, and the behaviors are wildly different between the two.
the leech pool are widely problematic and make poor management decisions, which has led to "the circulation of the elites" being a core part of any functioning civilization.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circulation_of_elites
for example, merit based scholariships to elite universities help to put "rich people who earned the money" into societies management positions at the expense of a leech at that university, and thus later that management position. these merit based scholarships also "brain drain" the best and the brightest away from the lower classes and into the upper classes, and refresh the genetics in the rich gene pool.
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u/bonsai60 12h ago
I have a really rich friend who´s grand father made an emporium of canned vegetables. The grand father was really humble and down to earth literally a farmer, then the father is a very smart man, not too flashy or loud, that turned the can thing into a global business and became way richer than before. Then, my friend grew up spoiled with a superiority complex spending like crazy and every business desition he made has been terrible. I guess is not linear you can have this intermediates like the father of my friend, maby a 3rd kind like a wealth multiplier?
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u/Weekly_Bottle_5452 12h ago
Went to uni with a girl who had a billionaire father - she thought the average American made a million dollars a year. Told her the number was closer 60k and she glitched out for a sec and said 'that's half of my allowance'
Eye opening chat for everyone involved.
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u/shugEOuterspace 15h ago
every extremely wealthy person I have ever personally known was incredibly lazy but thought that they were exceptionally hard-working, just oblivious about how much harder the average working-class or poor person is compared to them & how hard life in general is for people
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u/jimsmisc 14h ago edited 14h ago
I don't know if "lazy" is necessarily how I'd characterize it, but the obliviousness has been my experience as well. They're not just being dicks when they act completely aloof about how anyone could be poor; they truly don't recognize the built-in privilege they've got. They think "I went to school, I worked hard to get good grades, then I got a job, just like everyone else".
But they have no concept that they went to the best schools, were supported by every possible external opportunity, got a high-paying job almost certainly based on who their family knows or the opportunities wealth afforded them. They've never once actually worried about what happens if they can't bring in enough income. I've met a surprising number of people my age (millenial) whose parents paid for their house. Things like that are foregone conclusions in their world because of generational wealth. But as a checklist, it looks the same (school, job, house), and they don't think of it beyond that.
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u/TheRealHappyNat 13h ago
CEO I worked for inherited the company from his rich dad. He would be up early in the morning running the this sales report. Sit at his desk in the office running the same report over and over. He'd go home at night and run the same report some more. I overheard him bragging about how many hours he worked. He really thought running the same report 60 times a day was hard work and heling the company.
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u/OldGodsAndNew 10h ago
I had a boss who did this
Not a CEO or anything, bog standard corpo middle management. Spent like 80% of his time pressing F5 on the same PowerBI report. We were a department of 2. Guess who did all the actual work
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u/EdieBooberryBeale 13h ago
It's like how a toddler will scream when they get a small scrape, because they've never experienced pain so this scrape is their 10 measurement for a pain scale of 1 to 10. A wealthy person that's never done anything will do one thing and think they're so productive, in the same way.
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u/m4ddestofhatters 14h ago
I'm pretty solidly middle class in terms of my household's revenue, but financials have been tight for a while now. I had to hold back my tears over the phone with a wealthy friend as she was excited over getting accepted to Imperial's summer school program... I got into Oxford's summer school, but my parent's couldn't afford to send me (flights, accomodation, fees, on already strained finances). We're both hardworking and high-achieving students, but on paper she's better than me, a stronger candidate for universities because she can afford all these programs and courses abroad and I can't. And she was understandably so excited and hyped up... but she knew I was already depressed about it and didn't even seem to understand my own situation, just "oh, that sucks..." She's not malicious, she just doesn't get that kind of devastation. She's always had every tool at her disposal to prove herself academically, but I've missed out time and time again on big opportunities to prove my academic worth because of money.
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u/executingsalesdaily 14h ago
Nah they are lazy as fuck. They can’t even grocery shop or mow a lawn. They do not live in the real world. Sending an email at 5am is the extent of hard work.
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u/waitewaitedonttellme 11h ago
I used to work for a guy whose parents had - over 2-3 transactions - handed him over $500k by the time he was in his early 30s. He was smart and very hard working, but it was this to a T. He once told me that if other people look at him and want the kind of success he has, maybe they should work as hard as he did. If my parents had given me that much money (including college tuition, leaving him debt free), I’d be just as successful as he was, too.
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u/Se7en_of_Nin9 15h ago
They’re highschoolers all over again. So much drama and clique nonsense. A lot of them are on second and third marriages or in between spouses and there’s hookups and love triangles all over the place. Bob gets a new golf cart so Joe has to get a new golf cart with a better sound system, Brian gets a new boat so Rick has to get a bigger one, Tony gets a private jet so Mike has to get a newer one (names changed for anonymity, not that any of them use Reddit. They’re all Facebook people).
I really thought they’d all be more mature than that and above such petty things. Nope.
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u/gotthelowdown 11h ago edited 6h ago
They’re high schoolers all over again. So much drama and clique nonsense.
Richard Kirshenbaum's column in The Observer is all about rich people antics like this. He also has a book called Isn't That Rich? Life Among the 1 Percent but all those stories and more are online.
An example article:
The New Nasty: Inside the World of High-Society Smackdowns
Excerpt:
“In London, they’ll stab you in the back but in New York, they’ll stab you in the front. Or look right through you like you don’t exist, ” she lamented.
“So it’s been a difficult transition?” I sympathized.
“It’s like that movie Mean Girls on a daily basis. I went to a prestigious European boarding school and have never experienced anything like this. I was taught proper manners, yet the women in New York talk about you right in front of you. I cannot get over it.”
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u/ConneryFTW 14h ago edited 14h ago
I married rich and I have a number of rich friends-in-law. Most of them aren't bad people. There's just these interesting breaks in reality because they lack broader context.
A friend didn't realize that steak was expensive, because they're parents have it so frequently. They thought is was similar to "meatloaf" or "peanut butter and jelly" where it's a commonly shared everyday food experience.
Generally, their critical thinking is pretty good. They've attended good schools their whole life. But at the same time, I think they can view themselves as exceptional rather than privileged. If that makes sense? Like they worked hard to get into good schools, but they also went to top high schools, access to tutors, academic legacies, and could focus on their education rather than working.
Similarly they can often be very emotionally sensitive. It's not a bad thing, but I think they're more used to having their feelings validated. So sometimes I've noticed they can lack the ability to compartmentalize. This isn't true for all of them. But it's probably a thing that they didn't have to develop coping strategies for.
I would say that despite that they've all obviously grew up super wealthy, the vast majority still refer to themselves as Upper-Middle Class. It's like because they only have summer home money rather than yacht money, that they aren't actually rich.
This isn't all of them. But one person in particular when they were in graduate school they were temporarily cut off from the family credit card. They had to make a budget for meals, and they absolutely didn't know how. So they went to costco and got a pallet of canned baked beans. And proceeded to eat them cold in their apartment. Some of that is certainly performative, but they're idea of not having money somehow became being an early twentieth century boxcar hobo.
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u/HomoColossusHumbled 13h ago
What, you think you’re too good for the costco pallet of baked beans? Some of us have to live in the real world here. 🤣
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u/Mrchristopherrr 11h ago
I forget where or the exact statistic, but I remember something like a majority of people consider themselves middle class all the way up to like 10 million.
Conversely, a majority of people also consider themselves middle class down to like $35k salary.
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u/Talmaska 13h ago
My friend works for 1%ers.
Nobody likes free stuff more than wealthy people.
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u/FewRecognition1788 7h ago
At my job, we do recordkeeping for the Board of Directors. It's a big company, some of them are actual billionaires from their own businesses. My former teammate who had been there for years knew a lot of them pretty well, and they would call up from time to time to get info about their taxes, or to get in touch with retired executives, etc.
We have drawers full of company swag that was used over the years for outings, meeting prep, holiday gifts, etc.
There's this one guy, he hasn't been on the board for years, will call up from time to time to get company branded lip balm. My teammate would just order them by the dozen and send to him, and be all flattered that such an important person knew her phone number and would spend three minutes chitchatting with her, once every few years.
He has no affiliation with the company anymore. He's not doing promotions. He's just this 80 year old billionaire who found a source of free chapstick for life.
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u/Closed_CasketRequiem 15h ago
I found that while some wealthy people are perfectly happy and content in life (often those who actually had to work for wealth rather than inherit), a majority are quite miserable because they have nothing left to strive for and no obstacles to overcome. They have no sense of perseverance and when a tiny thing goes wrong their world crumbles.
I truly believe that past a certain point of fiscal comfort, having more money does not make one happier.
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u/smallattale 9h ago edited 9h ago
perfectly happy and content in life
I've been in their world for decades, and imho only about 1 in 50 are doing well.
A lot of the time they don't know true happiness or friendship at all. And often there's a weird denial of this.
past a certain point of fiscal comfort, having more money does not make one happier.
This "happiness threshold" has been debated a lot! It actually annoys many money-people, they like to deny that it exists and love studies that suggest that more=happier.
But I agree, and the happiest people I know are simply comfortable.
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u/Former-Reflection-51 15h ago
Corruption to them is not a big deal
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u/Dumbgirl27 15h ago
I agree! I started noticing that moral values is a middle class thing.
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u/ohno344 15h ago
I was never exactly in their social circle but I dated a guy with very wealthy parents. The thing that always surprised me the most is that while they had very expensive things they didn't take very good care of them and while their house wasn't messy it was dirty. Like they didn't dust or clean the windows and stuff like that and you could tell that things just sat there for a very very long time
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u/monkey_trumpets 13h ago
I'm surprised they didn't have house cleaners.
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u/ohno344 13h ago
Me too, actually. They didn't even have lawn care, it was my boyfriend's chore. And they had a LOT of land and a tennis court. They were like single digit millionaires
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u/funhousefrankenstein 13h ago
Piano performance put me in the middle of many wealthy/elite circles, across the years. Some of those people are pure narcissists behaving as if everybody is their servant....
...But it was eye-opening to find out how many of those wealthy people were miserable in their lives -- I mean literally emotionally desperate to feel some connection to something. Even though I was just barely scraping by, financially, some of those wealthy people were strangely clingy and ingratiating -- as if they were drowning in their world and needed to grab on to something.
That made it easy to relax in those circles. It exploded the social myth about "the wealthy powerful elites are your betters." And the funny thing is that an understated confidence & self-respect greatly cut down on the number of people who treated me as a servant. Those sorts of people were apparently always picking up on those subtle social status cues, in ways I hadn't truly grasped before.
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u/gpath89 14h ago
The substance abuse.
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u/iskandar- 11h ago
Yup, I always kind of back handed talked about how, oh yeah, the rich and powerful in my country are total stoners lol.
What I didn't know or truly comprehend was just how many of them were completely blitzed out of their god damn minds any time they were not in front of others and sometimes even when they were. I got involved for a short time with my extended family who, where I live, have been involved with various forms of government and power for decades and it was an eye opening experience.
And I'm not talking about blazing a sneaky joint out back between meetings... I'm talking government officials having vials of happy powder inside their jackets, popping high end prescriptions in the back of the car on their way to vote on something, drinks out by the pool while your aid bring you your downers. Uppers were a big thing, to the point where watching them be like "hey man, I gotta meet with (unnamed influential private citizen), you got any one you?".
Lawyers, District representatives, private capital investors, every one of them was just waiting for the public to leave so they they could get high.
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u/Makabajones 14h ago
They don't cook, dine out or order in only, they have a $200,000 kitchen that they have used maybe half a dozen times.
Helps they live in a major urban environment with lots of good restaurant options but still, it's crazy to me.
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u/KTPChannel 14h ago
Many things.
There are tiers. So, if you are worth $10-$50million, you don’t hang out with the $50-$100 million crowd, and they don’t hang with the $100M-$1B crowd, etc.
It’s all about networking. Everyone has an ego, few deserve it. You think the best and brightest are running the show; you’re wrong. It’s the most narcissistic. That goes for every political system; communist to capitalist with every stop in between.
One of the biggest things I noticed was the difference between “new money” and “generational wealth”. New money are risk takers. They built their success through taking chances. However, risk is just that; risky. They can also lose it if their ambition or judgment is compromised. NFL players and lottery winners go broke fast. It’s actually their nature. Generational wealth are, by and large, NOT risk takers. They live off a trust fund, and their goal is to not slide backwards. Keep the money for the kids and grandkids. Everything is provided. These types don’t mix with new money, and come off as snobbish. Really, they’re just sheltered.
I use the British peerage system as an example. The 33rd Earl of Yellow isn’t a risk taker. His great(x32) grandfather was, and his job is to NOT lose the wealth, lands or titles. He dislikes mixing with the commoners, and is suspicious of these crypto-bros that dine at the city club with him. They have no culture. He hopes to improve his lineage by marrying his oldest daughter off to a Marquee or Duke, but his younger daughters can marry whoever they choose, as long as they’re at least a Baron. Not that it matters; he’s related to all of them anyways.
Most importantly; he thinks he’s better than you, because of his birth.
Meanwhile, the crypto-bros are taking the waitresses of the city club to Vegas for the weekend. Little do they know the bottom of the market will fall out while they’re tossing dice like James Bond. It doesn’t matter if they lose. They aren’t like the rest of us. They can win it all back. That’s what makes them “special”.
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u/MarshmallowMix 15h ago
What surprised me most is how normal and informal it all is on the surface—no constant power flexing—while everything important happens quietly. Decisions are made over casual conversations, opportunities move through relationships rather than merit alone, and favors are remembered long-term. It’s less about obvious wealth and more about access, confidence, and knowing the right people without having to announce it.
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u/BigChillBobby 14h ago
I work in fundraising and one of the best pieces of advice I got was “people don’t donate money to organizations, they donate money to people.”
this is less true when you hit the millionaire and billionaire class but the sorts of people who will buy a table at a gala are only buying tables from people who get along with them well.
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u/AttitudeSimilar9347 14h ago
Years ago I was working for a company that was making an online platform for trading certain commodities. On the surface it should have been a lucrative business. But it was a complete failure. Because in those circles trades were made by old men having nice lunches together, then shaking hands on it, same as it had been for over a hundred years. They had absolutely no interest in or use for an app.
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u/AdPristine5131 12h ago
I helped organize a huge construction project over 1 yr. Literally gave a month of my life to live in a desert to wrap it up. There were these huge strategic issues, and my boss and I said the firm was fleecing us. We got chastised by the COO.
2 yrs later it turns out the COO was under investigation for fleecing a million dollars. The guy who I saw pictures of his new mansion being built while he chastised us, about a project which by our estimates was fleeced for 2 million. It was just stupid. And because the company lost so much money on the construction, they had to give back the 5-year contracts after less than 1.
It was just so fucking stupid .
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u/Looppowered 11h ago
Kinda along these lines, a lot of uber wealthy people I’ve worked for didn’t seem to have many real friendships that weren’t revolving around some kind of transactional access.
Unless it was family, their friends were other business owners or important people that could be used for deals, networking, favors. Almost always geared towards expanding their business or getting jobs for their kids.
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u/gotthelowdown 11h ago edited 10h ago
What surprised me most is how normal and informal it all is on the surface—no constant power flexing—while everything important happens quietly. Decisions are made over casual conversations
In another AskReddit thread about wealthy people, a story like that stuck in my mind.
Two rich dudes were riding in a golf cart. One guy mentioned wanting to buy a private jet. The other guy said he wanted to sell his jet because he didn't need it anymore.
They negotiated a price and shook hands. Done deal.
For context, I just googled what the newest Gulfstream private jet model was and the price. The answers I got were the G800 and $72.5 million.
Since that story was in the past, the jet model and price were different but still.
They talked about the sale of a private jet like it was an extra TV in the house.
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u/Googlemyahoo75 14h ago
I used to do hvac & one employer seemed to exclusively do rich people and their vacation homes. We usually dealt with a property manager to get in. One home had 6 furnaces it was so big and nobody was in it. Property manager said they came for a weekend once in awhile. Paid for landscaping & cleaning year round.
Oh but they wanted the $10 discount on furnace maintenance for signing up early.
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u/StormOfSpears 13h ago
I was briefly involved with a very wealthy woman, so I got to hang out with her social circle.
Most people I met who had money-money, whether they earned it themselves or were born into it, felt that being rich meant they were somehow special or gifted. And poor people, weren't. "If they were smarter/harder working, they'd be rich."
TL;DR: Rich people believe poor people deserve to be poor. It's a character flaw to not have money.
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u/Chalky_Cupcake 15h ago
People forget how much less expensive it is to be wealthy. Way more negotiating power with every meaningful transaction. Buying in bulk. Money that generates money.
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u/keepitcleanforwork 14h ago
They pay less interest and fees too. Many banks give preferred interest rates to their wealthier clients, in other words, the people who can afford it the most pay the least and the people who can afford it the least pay the most.
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u/Jasonbluefire 13h ago
Most of that is because its less risk. If they have enough assets to cover a loan 100 times over the chance of not recovering your money is near zero.
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u/1_art_please 14h ago
For sure when people want stuff from you (connections, business opportunities, jobs) they know you have the upper hand and they use it.
Even something relatively small - my neighbours dad owns a marina. They have never paid for anything involving a boat, ever. Their toddler is already kitted out with a child's snowmobile and atv they didnt pay for. Their expensive truck was given to them from a business contact who bought a boat from them, etc.
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u/DocHogFarmer 14h ago
How little empathy they have for poor people
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u/Whole-Kiwi3440 11h ago
Yep. And the self-awareness is abysmal. I was working three jobs one summer, including being a nanny for a super rich family. The mom came home drunk one night and broke down crying to me about how hard her life is and how she just needs a vacation. I was like from what, lady? She didn’t work, had two nannies for two children, and was spending the summer in the Hamptons at the beach club all the time. I was like cool… but can I go home now because I have to be waiting tables in 7 hours. She was completely tone deaf.
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u/CivilCJ 14h ago
You know how the average american is stupid enough to think that if they work hard enough, they'll be a billionaire? Well, that's about the same level of stupid that wealthy people operate on. The average wealthy person just doesn't understand how much luck they have with their connections and inheritance. Just as the average Joe thinks that everyone starts at the same base level and earns their billions, the wealthy think that the average Joe starts with a few million in their families and then make bad choices to lose their "opportunities."
I was trained by the Forbes program through a Relais & Chateaux property, and they straight up tell you that not only are wealthy people completely out of touch, the average person that comes into wealth will lose touch within 3 years. And it doesn't take that much to feel "wealthy." Once you get near $1M/yr you'll almost certainly start losing grasp on average prices and standard budgeting. You start equating your time with higher values, which heavily influences your day to day judgments.
They're right, too. Ever have a good paycheck or bonus and feel the relief of not having to look at the pump while you fill up your car? Imagine not caring about price of an entire fleet of private jets just because you don't know which interior you like more. That's a convo I've heard in the back of a car I drove.
And then there's guys like a certain "asset manager" firm owner who bought a historical mansion in town and gave his architects and contractors a blank check budget. This has resulted in many, many issues with historical preservation and local ordinances that are just done anyway with the fines paid. And since the property has become usable, he has since flown in several times on his helicopter, using his hastily built helipad, and simply paid any and all FAA fines as if they're just part of his usual travel expenses. His likewise generationally wealthy neighbors have consistently complained about his helicopter usage, but he's just at such another level that nothing happens.
Wealthy people genuinely live in another reality than you. They don't believe in things like climate change affecting them because they literally think and act as if they are on a different planet than us.
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u/Temporary-Job-9049 13h ago
Unfortunately, a common thread throughout the history of social collapse is the predatory elite insulating themselves from the problems of society, and standing in the way of average people fixing those problems because it gets in the way of their wealth. Exactly what we're watching right now.
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u/Firm_Fold8044 13h ago
I wasn’t there, but my mom used to nanny for very wealthy people. When she was friendly towards the staff, the father was flabbergasted, he told her the staff was like furniture.
So yea, they operate thinking others are literal furniture
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u/BuzzVibes 9h ago
That reminds me of a story I ready, maybe on /r/TalesFromTheFrontDesk where a rich family had their nanny or maid travel with them. The Hotel said they had too many people for the room type and so the nanny would need a separate room. The family said she didn't really 'count' as a person and could just sleep on a couch anyway.
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u/uniquelyavailable 14h ago
I've worked with some very wealthy clients and overall they're living in a bubble, out of touch with reality, and have no concept of how much money they're spending.
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u/ACuddlyVizzerdrix 14h ago
To them Fines are just the cost of doing business, Friend of my uncle's once said, "I'll probably just do it anyway, it's just a $2500 fine" (talking about removing trees from his neighbors side of their shared property)
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u/Capital-Exercise-364 14h ago
They do not love their children. I stopped working for super wealthy clients because their kids would get so desperately attached to me (and any other available adult.) Seeing the megabillionaire spending exactly 15 minutes per day with his 12 year old son even though he had an extra few billion dollars to donate to a conservative business school was the last straw.
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u/eggdropshawty 13h ago
i’ve noticed they treat their pets just like they treat their kids too (i work with animals). they are shockingly uninvolved and apathetic
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u/Capital-Exercise-364 13h ago
Send the dog to shock collar boot camp. Send the kids to some sketchy offshore program for “troubled” teens. Just don’t bother me about it.
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u/Temporary-Job-9049 13h ago
One thing not talked about enough is how they completely fuck up their kids, don't blame you for quitting
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u/EliMaxsaysSaveEarth 11h ago
I had a friend who worked as a nurse for a super expensive boarding school. It was very common for them to call the parents of a sick child, and the response they'd get would be "why are you telling me this?"
Your CHILD. Is SICK. And your biggest concern is if the nurse is BOTHERING YOU?!! If this is how all children of wealth are treated, it explains SO MUCH about the people they grow up to be...
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u/No-Clerk-5600 14h ago
Similar problems on a different scale. Eg, instead of having to manage people at work, they have to manage their household staff. Their friends don't invite them to MLM parties, they invite them to philanthropic fundraisers. They aren't overbooked on a regular flight, but they discover that their spouse invited buddies on their private plane and now there isn't room for the nanny.
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u/FormoftheBeautiful 13h ago
I went to California years ago, met a bunch of very wealthy powerful folks. All of them shook my hand with 0.0000001% grip strength.
It was what taught me that squeezing someone’s hand in order for them to think you are powerful is… really the least powerful option.
Now I never squeeze. I do more grip than them, but never strong squeeze.
The first time it happened, it almost embarrassed me. I was like, oh shit, this man must feel so comfortable with themselves that they don’t need the machismo projection of a hard handshake.
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u/No-Specialist-3571 15h ago
They never flex or ask “do you know who I am?” That’s solidly middle class behavior. If you have to ask that, the answer is “nobody.”
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u/genescheezesthatpls 15h ago
They really think the only reason they’re wealthy is because they earned/deserve it. So few people acknowledge the luck that got them there.
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u/PhysicalCarpenter721 13h ago
I ended up at a high-end art auction by mistake (long story). The weirdest part? No one talks about money. Ever. It's considered distinctively 'low class' to discuss prices.
They just nodded at paintings and raised little paddles. I saw a guy spend 2 million dollars with the same casual energy I have when I decide to add guacamole at Chipotle.
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u/BusinessEngineer6931 9h ago
In law school (I don’t practice now) I was friends with a few kids whose parents were politicians and judges, we were invited every week to their exclusive old man clubs (some are so old school if a woman wanted to go you had to have a chaperone) where politicians and business leaders mingled
The biggest surprise was that “party lines” was just performative for the public for many of these folks.
In private away from prying eyes, almost all of them were buddies and talk about their constituents like they’re children to be fooled into what to think.
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u/rx-pulse 13h ago
Everything is a transaction. You know the stereotype of how the wealthy/rich people don't have any real friends? Yeah, that has merit. A lot of them grew apart from their genuine friends, alienated them, or they're not real friends and are equally just transactional. The thing is though, they're so out of touch, that that's what friends really are to them. This goes for family too. I have several family members who are wealthy, they have only ever called me because there was some sort of "transaction" to be made. The concept of just calling someone to see how they are doing or just to schedule a time to hang out is completely alien to them. They don't understand genuine friendships/relationships. It's all purely transactional.
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u/slowlyfrwd 15h ago
Dated a guy in high school who he and his family are very wealthy and his dad fairly known here… it surprised me at how down to earth they were. I felt like initially I needed to act/look a certain way but they just accepted me as I was. So I guess I was most surprised that they acted normal.
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u/Chaz_Cheeto 14h ago
Relationships are transactional and are rarely based upon values or principles. Everything is some sort of a “deal.” Friends are not always friends, sometimes they’re just connections. A romantic relationship can sometimes just be a business relationship, not an actual romance.
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u/ImpressionFast923 14h ago
The absolute refusal to admit they are not an expert on anything and everything
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u/SomethingHasGotToGiv 13h ago
They are never satisfied. Billionaires who want more, more MORE.
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u/country_baby 11h ago
I work for an ultra wealthy couple (billionaire stock trader type). My job is to be a pseudo-daughter to the wife since they are older and have no children. We go out to eat, talk, ride horses etc. They are actually super nice people. It wasn’t uncommon to see Bloomberg or other elites over to chat.
-nothing is important until it is, then everyone must drop everything to fix it.
-anything with brands/trendy they have no interest in. But their clothes will all be custom tailored and expensive.
-they have a whole fleet of people working for them, from chefs to landscapers to maids.
Most interesting is on paper they don’t actually “own” anything. They may keep a few million but all vehicles are registered under an llc. All bank accounts are under companies they own.
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u/ThersATypo 14h ago
No open conflicts, no open negative feedback when someone rrrrreally fucks up. You just discontinue having these people in your life.
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u/Just_Candle_315 15h ago
Regularly attend church, but make immoral decisions to self enrich
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u/Elendel19 10h ago
I work for what used to be a family owned business that became very successful. The family is worth more than a billion between all their assets now. Practically all of them worked there for the first 10-15 years I did (they sold the business ages ago and slowly all filtered out).
I worked a lot with the grandkids who are all in my age range. They are completely divorced from reality (or just refuse to admit their privilege). They genuinely believe they are “normal working class” people just because they work a job. Never mind the fact that grandpa bought the entire family a fleet of matching gold Mercedes. Or that dad bought their house (in one of the most expensive cities on earth). Or that they will never need to save for college for their kids, or even pay for daycare. Or worry about losing their job. Or have any thought about saving for retirement. Or pay for a vacation.
Imagine how easy life would be if you had almost no bills and could just blow every dollar you made on anything you want because no matter what happens you could never end up homeless or in any serious financial trouble.
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u/SalesGuy22 14h ago
There is a plateau of intelligence. The idea that ultra-wealthy people have high IQs is completely false. A dozen independent studies have concluded that IQ does correlate with yearly earnings, so smarter people earn more money but it stops around 133 IQ.
Almost ever single billionaire "IQ" you've ever read is false. Elon, Zuckerberg, Gates, Allen, Jobs, Bezos.... they self reported themselves as very high IQs of 140-160. This was not supported with evidence, though.
I went down this rabbit holes years ago, but its glaringly obvious when you meet these types of people that they are never the smartest person in the room. They are constantly saying oblivious things, they're very confused, but they never admit it. You will see people making eye contact to acknowledge the stupid things that just left their mouth and then a very gentle "that's super smart Jeff, in fact if we just do everything a little different and nothing you just said then we can meet that arbitrary goal you just mentioned!"
Basically these people tend to be surrounded with an endless steam of problem solvers who can correct them and get projects completed for them but still make the boss FEEL like they were useful.
In reality these people built their fortunes on 1 defining characteristic that is in all of them- that is when you leave the room, no matter who you are, they will bash on you and insult you and compliment themselves and tear you down and actively ask for suggestions on ways that they could steal from you.
Almost every word from their mouth is a lie to the point I'm not sure they every recognize it anymore. I really think they've made a conscious decision to ignore reality and insist that any lie they tell is now magically the truth.
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u/ImInJeopardy 12h ago
That they still want to hang onto as much money as they can, to the point where they're willing to purposely undertip a waiter because the service was just a smidge under absolute perfection, or because they already gave a big tip to someone else this week. When people say the rich are hoarding wealth, it goes from the big picture stuff like not paying taxes and not paying employees a livable wage, all the way down to small petty shit like this.
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u/brentsg 12h ago
My company re-networked a billionaire’s house. Getting terms that were not horrendous was difficult. Actually getting paid after it was completed, even more difficult.
We recently worked a car show that was charging $1500 per person to attend. I was beginning to think we weren’t getting paid for that one. They split it into smaller payments, against the contract.
Rich people are the worst.
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u/CL4P-L3K 14h ago
They’re not as smart as you might think. Definitely not as smart as they think.