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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)

#41

Post by steveBK123 »

Having worked at a few 100~1000 person companies run by billionaires, this tracks.

Most of the difference in lifestyle is the quantity and quality of housing they can afford, and having people to take care of problems for them. But they ALL universally have messed up personal lives with multiple messy divorces, embarrassing affairs, NYPost Page Six appearances, etc.

The one thing you'd think it gives them is freedom, but they all pretty much end up working til they die so I don't know. I'm not sure if the money breaks something in their brain, or their broken brain is what leads them to chase the money. Likely some of both!

There's some level where you can afford 2-3 nice residences, flying private, and not lose your damn mind. I've seen some of the billionaire's lieutenants achieve this balance. Basically being able to be fabulously rich but anonymous. Like the Bill Murray quote about people who want to be rich & famous should try just being rich first.

I think these guys I've seen are probably in the bucket the reddit OP marks "Net worth of $30mm-$100mm". Adjust that upwards for inflation and also to account for many of these people being in VHCOL areas so maybe it's like $50-200mm.

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

#42

Post by hshshshshsh »

junon wrote: post #18
rco8786 wrote: post #4

> There is literally nothing you can't buy except. Love. I feel like Elon is finding this part out the hard way lately.

Given what we know about how he goes about making children, I don't really think love is the objective with Elon.

There are no objectives. Just conditioned patterns one adapt to survive childhood.

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

#43

Post by latentcall »

shiseiwon wrote: post #35
neilv wrote: post #7

> There is literally nothing you can't buy except. Love. Sorry to sound so trite, but it is nearly impossible to have a normal emotional relationship at this level. It is hard to sacrifice for another person when you are never asked to sacrifice ANYTHING. Money can solve all problems for someone, so you offer it, because there is so much else to do. Your time is SOOOO valuable that you ration it. And that makes you l…

[flagged]

LOL

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

#44

Post by lokimedes »

lokimedes wrote: post #34
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 was part of the ATLAS collaboration at CERN. We had an annual collaboration meeting in Copenhagen, perhaps in 2012 or so. Poul Allen’s yacht was moored in the harbor, across from the venue. It as the high point of CERN hype, and we knew that he was a patron of the sciences. So a delegation (our spokesperson etc.) was sent with some ATLAS merchandise to greet him, and perhaps suggest a sponsorship of some student ac…

Personally, the freedom to pursue my scientific curiosity is the only motivation to seek wealth. If I by virtue of satisfying wealthy people’s interests in fundamental physics could sustain my life and research, I wouldn’t care about accumulating wealth for myself.

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

#45

Post by throwaway20222 »

shiseiwon wrote: post #35
neilv wrote: post #7

> There is literally nothing you can't buy except. Love. Sorry to sound so trite, but it is nearly impossible to have a normal emotional relationship at this level. It is hard to sacrifice for another person when you are never asked to sacrifice ANYTHING. Money can solve all problems for someone, so you offer it, because there is so much else to do. Your time is SOOOO valuable that you ration it. And that makes you l…

[flagged]

First comment. No submissions. This is the first and only reply that you had enough motivation to make?

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

#46

Post by notahacker »

junon wrote: post #18
rco8786 wrote: post #4

> There is literally nothing you can't buy except. Love. I feel like Elon is finding this part out the hard way lately.

Given what we know about how he goes about making children, I don't really think love is the objective with Elon.

You'd think he'd have enough accolades without shooting for the title of "world's most fecund incel"...

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

#47

Post by Animats »

SJC_Hacker wrote: post #24
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 clean…

> The very rich have circles of people they rely on to take care of problems.

At the higher levels, there's a "family office" which takes care of such things. All bills go there, and anything that needs to be done, they take care of. The first big one was the Rockefellers', which was in Rockefeller Center in New York. (That turned into a business. Now it offers Being Rich as a Service.)

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

#48

Post by Ar-Curunir »

shiseiwon wrote: post #35
neilv wrote: post #7

> There is literally nothing you can't buy except. Love. Sorry to sound so trite, but it is nearly impossible to have a normal emotional relationship at this level. It is hard to sacrifice for another person when you are never asked to sacrifice ANYTHING. Money can solve all problems for someone, so you offer it, because there is so much else to do. Your time is SOOOO valuable that you ration it. And that makes you l…

[flagged]

I too like to live in lalaland

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

#49

Post by sarchertech »

HardCodedBias wrote: post #33
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

These are mostly positional items. The four seasons isn't materially better than the hilton next door. The rooms are basically the same, the fixtures at the four seasons are fancier, the bedding is prettier, some random furniture may be sourced from a different supplier. The four seasons will be in a location which has somewhat better views. The four seasons has prettier and more attentive staff, and there are less "…

I stayed at the 4 seasons a few years ago just to give it a try. Not even remotely worth it. The only real difference I noticed was the obsequiousness of the staff.

If you want hotel employees to kiss your ass and pretend to respect you, then this is the place for you. But the quality of the room wasn’t noticeably better than other places I’ve stayed.

I will give you a good example of something that most upper middle class people can’t afford or at least can’t afford frequently.

Disney World VIP tours. My wife has family who are club 33 members and they gifted us a VIP tour as a wedding present. The tour guide drives you around to the different parks and walks you backstage through tunnels and hidden areas to get you the very front of any ride you want to go on.

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

#50

Post by naveen99 »

SJC_Hacker wrote: post #24
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 clean…

I would pay to avoid flying : private or public…
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