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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)

#261

Post by InfiniteLoup »

Elaris wrote: post #206

I thought this article would tell me about things that wealthy people buy that those of us who aren’t as rich would never even think about. But in the end, it mostly talked about things that are somewhat obvious like how wealth brings access, influence, and luxury. It was interesting, but not as surprising or revealing as I expected. I guess it’s something we can all imagine to some extent, even if we haven’t experie…

>I thought this article would tell me about things that wealthy people buy that those of us who aren’t as rich would never even think about.

In case you want to look those up, I know for sure that FaceGym masks were popular with the affluent demographic for a while.

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

#262

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

viraptor wrote: post #163
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 has saved millions of lives through his philanthropy, and the internet is full of malicious rumors about him. But that's not related to his philanthropy mostly. There's evil business stuff he actually did and there are some conspiracy freaks. Those would exist anyway. But I've never seen a significant number of people with criticisms because of the programs he enables.

The conspiracy freaks around vaccines wouldn't exist if it weren't for his philanthropy. I just don't like to see someone punished for good-faith efforts to do good.

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

#263

Post by portaouflop »

alexey-salmin wrote: post #179
ludicrousdispla wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many tennis players, love means nothing.

So it does for many ordinary people. Money can't buy happiness but nether could the absence of money. It's not really a good argument against money.

>Money can't buy happiness

It always depends on the circumstances and the person but generally I would say that money can definitely buy happiness. I think that sentiment is mostly cope by those less wealthy.

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

#264

Post by hgomersall »

tinco wrote: post #199
IshKebab wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but I really wanted to know what rich people buy that I don't know about. The top answer - while vaguely interesting - didn't actually tell me anything I didn't already know. I think the conclusion is probably that they don't buy anything we don't know about.

One thing I didn't quite realize is that they accidentally spend significant amounts of money. At a party I talked to someone who was like a financial coach for super wealthy people and he helps them clean up their shit. The way we might accidentally have a running $50/mo subscription for something we don't use any longer, they might have a $500/mo club membership they never go to. Or prebooked vacation rentals they…

This is it really. Being wealthy is the ability to live financially inefficiently without concern. That is very liberating.

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

#265

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

isaacremuant wrote: post #259
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…

This is a disingenuous post. Philanthropy is often used a strategy to lobby politicians and drive policy that benefits other investments while avoiding most taxes. Nobody voted people like Bill Gates to have such a massive influence over media and institutions via "donations". If you knew anything about NGOs and politics you wouldn't simply go for "They're asking for or donating money so they're obviously awesome, th…

>Philanthropy is often used a strategy to lobby politicians and drive policy that benefits other investments while avoiding most taxes.

Forbes estimates that Gates would be a trillionaire if it weren't for his philanthropy. Perhaps some philanthropists pursue the strategy you describe, but it's unreasonable to assume this is their strategy by default.

>Nobody voted people like Bill Gates to have such a massive influence over media and institutions via "donations".

In a free society, not everything people do needs to be authorized by the government. I believe that Gates has sincere concern about the well-being of people in the developing world, so it doesn't particularly bother me when he lobbies on their behalf.

Insofar as cynicism is justified, it should be easy to provide concrete and compelling evidence that Gates has bad intentions in his philanthropy. So why isn't there any such evidence in your comment?

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

#266

Post by 0xDEAFBEAD »

bjourne wrote: post #216
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…

Gates giving away his money is good, but it would be better for the billionaire class not to exist. Money is power is a zero sum game.

>Money is power is a zero sum game.

Just the opposite. By engaging in positive-sum transactions, society as a whole becomes wealthier. That's how economic growth occurs.

Not everything is accurately seen through this nihilistic, conspiratorial power lens.

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

#267

Post by DoingIsLearning »

dctoedt wrote: post #96

Brings to mind the famous Joseph Heller quote: "At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, 'Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.'" https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/1065…

This is arguably not very scientific but if we didn't have the media fascination around the power and influence that billionaires carry, we would like come to accept that rationally it is a mental disease no different from Plyushkin's syndrome.

You won, you can provide for you and for your whole bloodline if you so choose. You can choose your adventure, go fully epicurean or fund Humanity impacting projects. Yet they keep going and going unable to exit the carrousel.

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

#268

Post by kamaal »

toast0 wrote: post #177
kamaal wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>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 was having this conversation about this colleague a few weeks back about another colleague we knew who made it big working at a start up. You would expect he has lots of free time and mental space at hand to do whatever he wants, instead it turns out he has to now worry about managing that mon…

> You would expect he has lots of free time and mental space at hand to do whatever he wants, instead it turns out he has to now worry about managing that money. > And its not exactly a easy job. Managing big money can be hard as any loss even a small percentage is a lot of money. And that begins to weigh heavily on you in form of stress as there is a lots at stake. A three-fund portfolio pretty much scales from $100…

>that's a choice.

Yeah, thats the problem. Humans always want more. Its always a choice.

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

#269

Post by mellosouls »

alexey-salmin wrote: post #176

The referenced reply is dull. It's very pretentious but just reiterates common knowledge, it doesn't convey any useful information. For example I wish someone told me about the existence of Miele kitchen equipment before I accidentally rented an apartment of a well-to-do woman. She renovated it for herself but then rented out when circumstances changed. Similarly it took me a long time to realize just how much better…

I think you have a couple of good examples in your comment and I understand you would have liked more along those lines, but:

The referenced reply is dull. It's very pretentious but just reiterates common knowledge, it doesn't convey any useful information.

I disagree strongly - its not a multiple-gold answer that is now being linked to years later for no reason. I read it years ago and have always remembered it - one of those rare internet comments that I think is a classic informational moment, well-written and illuminating.

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

#270

Post by rightbyte »

alexey-salmin wrote: post #192
coldtea wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unfortunately you need years to notice such long-term differences, unless someone tells you. Hardly rich, but that "veneer wood furniture and doors" are much better than "laminated chipwood" is common knowledge. But back in the day, poor and rich alike wouldn't look twice at either, but opt for solid wood furniture.

Well that falls under the "unless someone tells you" part. It depends on your background. I grew up in Russia in the 90s, back then it was considered cool to put plastic panels on the walls of your apartment. Fresh and modern look, easy to wash, clearly superior to wallpaper. It was called "euro-renovation" as opposed to soviet-style or "grandma" apartments.

Worse material marketed as modern non-grumpy grandpa and what ever is so infuriating and so hard to argue against.

Hopefully I think this has changed though. Or I have become grumpy who knows.

Touch panel oven tops is my main hate object in this regard.

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