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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)

#281

Post by anthk »

KeplerBoy wrote: post #256
rienbdj wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best interiors feel lived in but not stuffy. A few old pieces of furniture can help achieve that. Part of the skill of interior design is making these pieces work together in new ways. You don’t want your home to feel like an ikea catalog surely!?

> You don’t want your home to feel like an ikea catalog surely!? Who wouldn't? The people that arranged the furniture in those renders have a much better idea of interior design than I do.

Design it's just a shitty word that means "I'm too poor to afford good materials".

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

#282

Post by oezi »

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…

> Price is 3-4 times higher but it lasts 5-10 times longer

The problem is that if an Ikea furniture lasts 15 years then that's enough. People no longer need 50-100 years furniture, because nobody wants to inherit old stuff anymore.

Life's circumstances change faster and buying quality often isn't worth it. Maybe a Miele dishwasher last twice as long at double the price. But it will become old after 10 years even so.

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

#283

Post by loa_in_ »

canucker2016 wrote: post #84
ofcourseyoudo wrote: post #80

This is a great answer. But I'm curious what the answer would look like if every strata in it was not "things you can buy" but "things you can do with the money" ... if the "IMPACT" section was delineated at each level. One of the things I envy the most about my rich friends is their capacity to be generous. They can materialize their compassion on a regular basis without having to balance their budget. I'd like to s…

Automation is for less wealthy rich people - so the company can serve more users. When you are rich, you get a real person who speaks your language well and has the authority/power to get things done. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-net-worth_individual

That's an opinion, but I would rather have a va

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

#284

Post by pjc50 »

aziaziazi wrote: post #251
anal_reactor wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but it lasts 5-10 times longer I find it such a weird argument. Ok, your furniture from 1900 is still doing great, fantastic. The problems are: 1. Your great-grandfather had a different sense of esthetics, so shit just didn't fit your modern apartment. 2. You moved to a different country, and shipping fees of the furniture were ten times the cost of brand-new chipwood furniture (literally). 3. The furniture was des…

Hum, that's fair points but don't contradicts OP's arguments: 1. OP finds it "much more pleasant to use" which I believe includes the aesthetic side. "your modern appartement" is your take, but is it? and how old modern? There's an universe of different styles that have been implemented in the past, in a multi dimensional sense: it may be influenced by the state of the art of that time (available tools, wood...), the…

> I'd like to point out a B&W tv is probably way cheaper and robust that and the 4K OLED one

Where would you even find such a thing other than as a curated, carefully expensively maintained antique? Sure you can buy them second hand on Ebay, but the shipping costs of CRT TVs are pretty big. Everyone has a "flatscreen" TV because that's the default cheapest solution.

Shipping and handling costs are a big factor in the death of large, heavy traditional items.

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

#285

Post by ta1243 »

drewcoo wrote: post #81
rglullis wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And it would be heartless not to. Those housekeepers need jobs and incomes.

Personally I'd hate the lack of privacy

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

#286

Post by alexey-salmin »

coldtea wrote: post #276
alexey-salmin wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> Well that falls under the "unless someone tells you" part Well, everything falls under "unless someone tells you" in the grand scheme of things. But as far as furniture knowledge goes, it's of the most basic type, not something "just the rich would know".

Not really, many things you can observe and learn yourself fairly quickly.

Some others are very hard to observe yourself (e.g. the poisonous effect of lead) but by now they are embedded into the collective consciousness.

My worry is with things that are neither. In this particular context these are things that you know if you grow up in a rich/middle-class family, but hard to come by if you become rich/middle-class later in life.

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

#288

Post by em500 »

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…

> 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.

Don't believe the hype. I got an apartment full with Miele kitchen equipment (from the previous owner, but less than 10 years old). They're nothing special, and I got a lot more random errors on the oven ("please contact service", tried that once, they were as clueless as you'd expect) than in my previous Siemens kitchen.

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

#289

Post by pjc50 »

ubertaco wrote: post #60

I think much of human history (not just recent US history, but that's a prominent example on folks' minds these days) proves that the biggest differentiator that the wealthy can buy is complete immunity from any sort of legal consequences. Even if you don't already live in a high-corruption society, you can either spend some of your wealth introducing that corruption (which pays dividends), or you can just go somewhe…

Sam Bankman-Fried believed this, and it turned out not to be that simple. But it's very noticeable how the US is trying to set up a system of protected Party insiders.

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

#290

Post by aziaziazi »

pjc50 wrote: post #284
aziaziazi wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hum, that's fair points but don't contradicts OP's arguments: 1. OP finds it "much more pleasant to use" which I believe includes the aesthetic side. "your modern appartement" is your take, but is it? and how old modern? There's an universe of different styles that have been implemented in the past, in a multi dimensional sense: it may be influenced by the state of the art of that time (available tools, wood...), the…

> I'd like to point out a B&W tv is probably way cheaper and robust that and the 4K OLED one Where would you even find such a thing other than as a curated, carefully expensively maintained antique? Sure you can buy them second hand on Ebay, but the shipping costs of CRT TVs are pretty big. Everyone has a "flatscreen" TV because that's the default cheapest solution. Shipping and handling costs are a big factor in the…

I agree, the rarity makes it more expensive today. The only cheap option would to "keep" one of yours/you family but that's not an option for the most, not speaking of the connectors nightmare. The electronics sector evolved way faster than furnitures, making a giant leap in a few decades.
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