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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)

#461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those are designed to have a service contract for continuous maintenance. Not the best idea for a home.

Most of them don't have a contract. And most homes wouldn't want the type of appliance that needs a service contract anyway.

On a thread about what the rich people do, not being able to afford a service contract isn't something the rich do. Ever have a IT person on call for your own house because you're to busy being rich? At some level of rich you want the service contract.

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

#462

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…

Next stage is to realize solid wood is better than veneer wood. Also miele has too much marketing hype. Want the ultimate appliances? Buy professional equipment. Like washing machine that are used in hotels.

Two things:

One, there are things you can do with veneer that you cannot be done in solid wood. You can resaw a board to get a book matched panel in solid wood, but you generally cannot get a four-way match because of either pattern shift, not enough thickness to start with, or basically creating veneer the hard way. This generalizes to radial matches with more pieces. That's the most basic example. There are many other things you can do with veneer that are impossible to execute in solid wood. See here[0] for more examples.

Two: professional equipment is not usually built to the customary dimensions of a private residence. A commercial range is a hell of a lot deeper than standard counter depth (about 24" in the US, probably 60cm or thereabouts in Europe because it's based off of how far you can comfortably reach). I looked into this after getting spoiled cooking on a commercial range once. It's not the cost of the range that kills you; it's the cost of the kitchen renovation to accommodate it.

There are vendors that build closer to professional quality appliances sized to residential standards. We lucked into a used Capital range a year ago for a number of dollars we could afford. It's built a lot better than a strictly residential unit and has a weight to match.

[0] https://ctfinefurniture.com/ I am unaffiliated other than owning his excellent book, which I regularly consult when I'm doing veneer work.

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

#463
post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really curious that something as personal to people as smartphones don't have a rich-person equivalent the same way cars do. What is the McLaren of iPhones?

There's gold plated / jewel encrusted versions of phones or graphics cards [0] but that's just making things look garish for the people that want to look rich. But as far as I know there's no 'bespoke' phone manufacturer on the same level as Swiss watches or hand-built cars. No real reason either; with a watch, any performance has peaked years ago so the only thing that remains is design. Phones are mostly functional…

Back in the day, Nokia had a luxury brand: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertu

It was exactly the "expensive watch" model; priced absurdly high on the Veblen good theory. It didn't work.

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

#464

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…

Miele is a pretty well known standard german brand no? I'm sure they have higher-end stuff but i dunno, maybe you could have researched it, or just didnt find the need before?

There's a pretty good saying about 10$ boots that last a year or 100$ ones that last 10 years

If you're well enough, you can probably afford more things that you can use anyways, so it makes sense to optimize for those that give you the most kicks for your bucks, even if they're technically more expensive.

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

#465
post #353

I'm not from the US so I'm just curious why would anyone prefer to spend their time with a senator or president?

The other responses are correct, but they left out one important thing. People like to feel important. People like to go places other people can't. People get off on exclusivity. If you have an empty field no one will care. You put a big wall up and signs saying keep out all of a sudden people will risk their life climbing the wall just to get to that empty field. It's human nature.

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

#466

This was the most demonstrative part for me: PERSPECTIVE. The wealthiest person I have spent time with makes about $400mm/year. i couldn't get my mind around that until I did this: OK--let's compare it with someone who makes $40,000/year. It is 10,000x more. Now let's look at prices the way he might. A new Lambo--$235,000 becaome $23.50. First class ticket internationally? $10,000 becomes $1. A full time executive le…

> since they're most obviously stealing a whole lot from the rest of the world. What definition of “stealing” are you using here? It seems like it somehow includes owning a large equity stake in a profitable or rapidly growing company since that’s how most people that “make $400mm/year” are actually gaining wealth. Claiming that is stealing is pretty dumb considering it’s how everyone that holds equity gains wealth.…

The wealth should be going to the people who create it, which is the people who do the work and the customers that use the product. The only reason owners get to take a part of it is the power that ownership of capital gives them. Using power to take what others create is quite close to stealing. It's no different from some feudal lord taking what his peasants create. Legal within our system, but that doesn't mean they deserve it.

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

#467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was invited for coffee at a friend's friend. He seemed a pretty regular guy, very friendly: kids playing in the pool. Nothing out of the ordinary except as many house employees as adult guests (and house employees where calling guests by their name). I happened to know the artist Jeff Koons: not a big fan of the "inflated balloon dogs" but I do like his ballerinas. Well... Turns out the dude had one house destroyed…

Steve Jobs did this, he got a new car every 6 months yet for years only drove a 911, then an MB SL55. Why have to learn a new car when you like what you drive? https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/but-wait-theres-more/a1704...

he got the new cars every 6 months because he could avoid then putting car plates on it (california weird law on new cars) and then not be able to be given tickets when he would park on his disabled spot at cupertino

classy mfer lol

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

#468
post #464

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…

Miele is a pretty well known standard german brand no? I'm sure they have higher-end stuff but i dunno, maybe you could have researched it, or just didnt find the need before? There's a pretty good saying about 10$ boots that last a year or 100$ ones that last 10 years If you're well enough, you can probably afford more things that you can use anyways, so it makes sense to optimize for those that give you the most ki…

> Miele is a pretty well known standard french brand no?

Miele are German in fact.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miele

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

#469

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe a Miele dishwasher last twice as long at double the price. But it will become old after 10 years even so. It... won't support the new dishes that come out in the 2030s? Like, other than energy efficiency (and this is basically already into diminishing returns for appliances like dishwashers), what must-have progress are you expecting?

It won't require the Wi-Fi connection to operate (so definitely a reason to stick to my 12 years old appliances) I'm not even joking: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43463200 > It says options with an asterisk—including Rinse, Machine Care (self-cleaning), HalfLoad, Eco, and Delay start, are "available through Home Connect app only and depending on your model." This is happening now.

not miele

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

#470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The very wealthy had mobile phones years before they were commonly available/affordable. The only things they can't have are things that are technically/physically impossible. A Gilded Age railroad titan could not have had a mobile phone. But the wealthy had them in the 1940s.

The mobile phones they had were absolute garbage, service was abysmal, and the security was non existent. There was no way to get to a smartphone without cumulatively trillions of dollars of investment in silicon, software, network rollouts, and so on. A person with 100 billion in 1998 could not have bought one despite it being a decade away for the entire population. The very wealthy cannot get things that are that…

> A person with 100 billion in 1998 could not have bought one despite it being a decade away for the entire population.

Oh? What d'you call this, then? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator

Now, granted, most very rich people would probably not have _wanted_ one of these.

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