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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)

#111

Post by nunez »

amarcheschi wrote: post #16
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 knew a son of two entrepreneurs with a ~30m yacht, they own a (ex) monastery they use, either for parties, events, or as a residence They have Miele appliances, but having "same appliances" doesn't make justice to the fact that there are deeper differences. Yes, they're status goods, but I think one's life might greatly improve by being very wealthy - even if your life can still be shitty as a wealthy person

Miele makes really good stuff. I have their stackable W1/T1 washer/dryer. It's unbelievably good at washing or drying pretty much anything. They also supposedly last forever, even today. I'll let y'all know how true that is in 20 years LOL

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

#112

Post by mvdtnz »

Gud wrote: post #86
0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The incentives for the ultra-rich are screwed up. I remember a few years ago Mark Zuckerberg announced that he was donating 99% to charity. The internet got very angry about it, based on flimsy reasoning: https://qz.com/564805/5-criticisms-of-billionaire-mega-phila... Bill Gates has saved millions of lives through his philanthropy, and the internet is full of malicious rumors about him. Other billionaires who do far…

Bill Gates gets a lot of hate for good reason. His business practices killed off a lot of good products. BeOS, anyone?

You're right. On one hand he has saved millions of lives and nearly eradicated some diseases in developing countries. On the other hand we could have had another computer operating system. Really tough to balance.

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

#113

Post by nunez »

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 "…

Depends on which one you go to. Supposedly the experience is insanely better internationally.

Regardless, at luxury hotels, the rooms are nice, sure [^0], but you're mostly paying for top-tier service.

If you want to travel somewhere within the US where you _know_ your room will be tip-top and don't want to lift a finger, the Four Seasons/Ritz/St. Regis is it.

[^0] They do have some huge, amazing suites that you won't find at a Westin, though.

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

#115

Post by thunky »

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.

And youth/health. Trump may think he's on top of the world but I bet he'd trade it all away to be 25 rather than on his last leg.

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

#116

Post by Animats »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #65
Animats wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.)

Family offices manage investments. Personal staff are typically separate.

Traditionally, yes. That's for the people who inherited a mansion, retainers, and trusts. Now there are family office concierge services. "Luxury lifestyle as a service" is available.[1] That's for people who made a lot of money all at once and need guidance in spending it.

(The people I've known with serious money made most of it themselves, and didn't need a family office. Except for one married couple who blew through 8 figures and went broke.)

[1] https://www.maisonbenjamin.com/familyoffices

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

#117

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Animats wrote: post #116
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Family offices manage investments. Personal staff are typically separate.

Traditionally, yes. That's for the people who inherited a mansion, retainers, and trusts. Now there are family office concierge services. "Luxury lifestyle as a service" is available.[1] That's for people who made a lot of money all at once and need guidance in spending it. (The people I've known with serious money made most of it themselves, and didn't need a family office. Except for one married couple who blew thr…

> Now there are family office concierge services

These are between multi-family offices and scams targeting new money. (The intersection between the best hospitality folks you can privately hire and the best money managers is roughly zero. Consolidating those functions makes no sense unless someone cannot afford them.)

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

#118

Post by chrismcb »

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'm not sure what you argument is here. But I world rather have inexpensive things that improve lives. There isn't a huge market for expensive things that improve lives. It are you trying to say you want rich people to spend their money trying to build things to improve lives? Some do. Why do you think we have star link, for example

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

#119

Post by rasz »

rglullis wrote: post #59
SJC_Hacker wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> A very rich person has a full-time housekeeper. So does any middle class family living in a developing country with high economic inequality.

Or an UN judge living in UK https://www.reuters.com/world/ugandan-un-judge-jailed-britai...

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

#120

Post by Animats »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #117
Animats wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditionally, yes. That's for the people who inherited a mansion, retainers, and trusts. Now there are family office concierge services. "Luxury lifestyle as a service" is available.[1] That's for people who made a lot of money all at once and need guidance in spending it. (The people I've known with serious money made most of it themselves, and didn't need a family office. Except for one married couple who blew thr…

> Now there are family office concierge services These are between multi-family offices and scams targeting new money. (The intersection between the best hospitality folks you can privately hire and the best money managers is roughly zero. Consolidating those functions makes no sense unless someone cannot afford them.)

> These are between multi-family offices and scams targeting new money.

That's a good way to look at it.

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