Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

old.reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

471–480 of 829 posts

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

#471

Post by nickd2001 »

elzbardico wrote: post #369
nickd2001 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened to that then? ;) We bought a Miele dishwasher to replace a Neff which broke down after 10 yrs (probably 16 yrs worth of "official" usage) due to a silly design fault that caused it to leak. Thought a fairly basic model Miele worth a shot, as because it a stupid built-in, there's extra costs getting it installed, so longer it lasts the better. So far, it seems to clean to fairly similar standard to the N…

Put some cups of water surrounding the oven in multiple directions from its front (assume that leakage from the back is less likely and that unless you have metal walls, it won't reflect in your direction). Measure their temperature and take note in your notebook. Put another cup away from the microwaves but in the same environment to serve as control. Measure its temp and put in a notebook . Turn off any air-conditi…

Thank you for this excellent scientific suggestion ;)

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

#472

Post by nickd2001 »

shrx wrote: post #422
nickd2001 wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened to that then? ;) We bought a Miele dishwasher to replace a Neff which broke down after 10 yrs (probably 16 yrs worth of "official" usage) due to a silly design fault that caused it to leak. Thought a fairly basic model Miele worth a shot, as because it a stupid built-in, there's extra costs getting it installed, so longer it lasts the better. So far, it seems to clean to fairly similar standard to the N…

What would make a microwave start to "leak" microwaves over time? Assuming the enclosure is still intact.

I honestly don't know, might be paranoia on my part, but stuff degrades over time right? Maybe less good a seal etc.

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

#473

Post by fragmede »

enneff wrote: post #379
KeplerBoy wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It’s your home. Nobody knows how it should be better than you.

There's at least one YouTuber that makes a decent living off of taking people's home design and improving it, so that's not universal.

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

#474

Post by fragmede »

jajko wrote: post #260
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.

That's easy - experiences. This is what many rich pay their last dime for. You can get much better experiences than they pay for, for much much much less. Going for an exotic tropical beach location? Well they normally stay in sterile 5* bubble which is boring beyond belief and very unauthentic. You can go ie to Seychelles or Bali, live with locals in cheapish airbnbs, swim on same beaches or go to same restaurants t…

That's European rich though. If you're American rich, you're Reed Hastings who co-founded Netflix, so you can buy up a ski resort in Utah for you and your pals so you don't have to ski with the poors.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/everettpotter/2023/09/17/netfli...

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

#476

Post by Lio »

oezi wrote: post #282
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.

It's not just how long it lasts.

When we redid our kitchen our fitter had to argue with our whitegoods supplier for us.

The guy in the shop couldn't understand why I wanted a built in Miele fridge-freezer over what ever generic he wanted to off load. His argument was that nobody would be able to see the logo so it didn't matter and we should just take the cheaper item.

My argument was that the Miele was much more energy efficient and would be running 24/7.

Given that enegry costs have risen substantially since then I think I made the correct choice and that the difference in purchase price has more than been offset.

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

#477

Post by rsynnott »

alexey-salmin wrote: post #441
rsynnott wrote: post #434

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.

Yeah, I mean obviously don't buy a dishwasher with a wifi connection, come on now. But that's not mandatory.

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

#478

Post by kiney »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #320
oezi wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> People no longer need 50-100 years furniture, because nobody wants to inherit old stuff anymore. I'm going to challenge this assertion: did anyone, ever? Looking around in my parents' house (retirement age), there's no furniture from their parents (post-WW2). I don't remember whether my grandparents had any furniture of their parents in use either. I do recall going to the charity shops and finding older wooden fur…

actually most of my furniture is either inheritend (mostly from my grandpa and an aunt) or just "was there" in the old house (1835) I bought... Couldn't imagine living with modern Ikea junk.

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

#479

Post by bluGill »

esperent wrote: post #370
notsydonia wrote: post #363

You know how a person on 'average' income might sometimes browse retail sites as displacement activity, while waiting for something/someone or a side-quest etc? Ultra-wealthy people also do that but they're trawling through Sothebys or Christies - eg: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&-manuscripts/b... They don't have time to read - say - a lengthy biography about a Civil War general but they can purchase…

> They wouldn't even have a brand on their dishwasher - it would be commissioned by an architect or interior designer quietly maintained at regular intervals by an appliance engineer I'm not sure that I buy this. It's not simple to make a bespoke appliance like a dishwasher that's better than a very high end mass produced one. Where did you get the idea that this happens from?

Their custom appliances often are objectively worse than the high end mass produced ones. However they have a maintenance person on staff to deal with that so it isn't a problem.

As other pointed out, they often just have the mass produced appliance if they are not trying to show off.

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

#480

Post by tough »

Lio wrote: post #468
tough wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

ty fixed that lol sounds frenchy to me (the name tho)
Post reply on HN