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What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

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Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#21

Post by mjevans »

candiddevmike wrote: post #11
smitty1e wrote: post #6

All that wealth is great, and may even make a difference if you catch cancer. Or not. One famous chap who is nailing it is Shatner. Strive to be spreading joy like that guy, whatever your means.

Shatner has always been a jerk, the joy you're seeing is manufactured PR for a man who is worried about his "legacy" like any of the other older rich.

I don't know much about anyone, but the 1990s Star Trek captains were more my speed.

Picard, Sisko (spelling), Janeway

I hope none of them are bad people IRL, they didn't give that impression on the little screen.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#22

Post by globalise83 »

Immortalin wrote: post #13
HardCodedBias wrote: post #5

I really like this post since it shows how very little there is for the wealthy to buy other than status goods. The life of the rich, other than status, is very much like the life of upper middle class. The same phones, the same digital entertainment, the same appliances in their homes. We have very few items for the rich to buy. Honestly, it is a problem it breaks incentives and it drives the rich more towards statu…

> We should have expensive products which actually improve lives. Maybe the super rich should take up training LLMs as a hobby.

That's literally the case already: each tech oligarch has their own toy AI company.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#24

Post by SJC_Hacker »

HardCodedBias wrote: post #5

I really like this post since it shows how very little there is for the wealthy to buy other than status goods. The life of the rich, other than status, is very much like the life of upper middle class. The same phones, the same digital entertainment, the same appliances in their homes. We have very few items for the rich to buy. Honestly, it is a problem it breaks incentives and it drives the rich more towards statu…

I'd say it really depends on the mentality of the very rich person

The very wealthy are going to fly private. Upper middle class could swing this on a case-to-case basis, but not regularly and especially if not if they frequently travel

Other than that, the main difference is the very wealthy having a mentality of getting people to "take care of problems" to a much larger extent. For example, routine tasks like cleaning. An upper MC person might have a weekly cleaner at best. But they still have to load/unload dishwasher, do their own laundry, etc. A very rich person has a full-time housekeeper.

The very rich have circles of people they rely on to take care of problems. Like having "a lawyer" who they go to for and have known for years. There seems to be much more of a sense of personal relationships / loyalty. Almost like the old feudal oaths.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#25

Post by analog31 »

leftcenterright wrote: post #19

So, no wealthy person is buying a physics lecture or investing in experiments to better understand the nature of this universe we live in? /s btw does anyone know if places like Fermi lab, CERN receive donations from the super-wealthy?

I don't think directly, but wealthy people occasionally "buy a building" at a university, or fund an endowed professorship.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#26

Post by nativeit »

HardCodedBias wrote: post #5

I really like this post since it shows how very little there is for the wealthy to buy other than status goods. The life of the rich, other than status, is very much like the life of upper middle class. The same phones, the same digital entertainment, the same appliances in their homes. We have very few items for the rich to buy. Honestly, it is a problem it breaks incentives and it drives the rich more towards statu…

We should have 90% top marginal tax rates instead.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#27

Post by cperciva »

leftcenterright wrote: post #19

So, no wealthy person is buying a physics lecture or investing in experiments to better understand the nature of this universe we live in? /s btw does anyone know if places like Fermi lab, CERN receive donations from the super-wealthy?

Government labs, not so much. But universities and independent research institutions, sure. For example, the Perimeter Institute is considered to be one of the top theoretical physics institutions in the world, and it exists because Mike Lazaridis made a ton of money from Research in Motion (aka BlackBerry) and decided that Canada needed a top tier theoretical physics institute.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#28

Post by JumpCrisscross »

HardCodedBias wrote: post #5

I really like this post since it shows how very little there is for the wealthy to buy other than status goods. The life of the rich, other than status, is very much like the life of upper middle class. The same phones, the same digital entertainment, the same appliances in their homes. We have very few items for the rich to buy. Honestly, it is a problem it breaks incentives and it drives the rich more towards statu…

> We have very few items for the rich to buy

Goods, yes. Services, fuck no. Look at the Four Seasons and Amangani yacht and jet programmes for a <$10mm example of the sorts of experiences wealth opens up.

Re: What do wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? (2015)

#30

Post by cess11 »

HardCodedBias wrote: post #5

I really like this post since it shows how very little there is for the wealthy to buy other than status goods. The life of the rich, other than status, is very much like the life of upper middle class. The same phones, the same digital entertainment, the same appliances in their homes. We have very few items for the rich to buy. Honestly, it is a problem it breaks incentives and it drives the rich more towards statu…

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