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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)

#481

Post by rsynnott »

fragmede wrote: post #454
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?

IoT, and in the near future, arms for self loading and unloading. Who knows what advancement in UI will happen? If we knew what they were beforehand, we'd be doing then already. For example, the microwave. Older microwaves have a cumbersome enter time, hit start procedure. Newer microwaves also have a "quick start" button for 30 seconds which you can just press four times to get it to go for two minutes, or enter the…

> IoT

Has no place in a dishwasher.

> and in the near future, arms for self loading and unloading

Pure fantasy for now; if it's ever not pure fantasy, go ahead and replace the dishwasher, I suppose?

> Older microwaves have a cumbersome enter time, hit start procedure. Newer microwaves also have a "quick start" button for 30 seconds which you can just press four times to get it to go for two minutes, or enter the time if you need it to go for a while.

... I'm 40, and every digital-control microwave I have ever used has that 30 second quick start button. So, okay, maybe that was an advance in microwave UX in, like, the 80s, but it was apparently the last advance.

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

#482

Post by drfuchs »

tough wrote: post #467
humanpotato wrote: post #435

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No, they always had legit California "temporary plates" for the allowable (at the time) 6 months. They were very ticketable; his motivation was to keep his car relatively anonymous when driving around. Source: Me, living near his house and walking by regularly.

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

#483

Post by tough »

drfuchs wrote: post #482
tough wrote: post #467

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

No, they always had legit California "temporary plates" for the allowable (at the time) 6 months. They were very ticketable; his motivation was to keep his car relatively anonymous when driving around. Source: Me, living near his house and walking by regularly.

oh ty ty that does make much more sense than my absurd simplification

(note that they owned the parking, so its moot if they parked on a reserved spot on private property of theirs)

I guess not being localizable by press/random people is a nice plus if you can afford.

but didnt he buy always the same model?

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

#484

Post by bluGill »

nixosbestos wrote: post #398
amelius wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertisements are constantly changing what I want ...

[dead]

Not always. I have a mouse problem, none of the existing mousetraps are a good solution. If an ad can tell me about a better mouse trap I'll want it and that is a good thing. Mouse is of course a generic thing above where as technology marches on once in a while it would make my life better if only I know about it.

Now when ads make me want a "pet rock" that is a bad thing.

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

#485

Post by fragmede »

sien wrote: post #153
azlev wrote: post #15

With billions, can I be Batman?

Yes, in a computer game. Just like the rest of us.

To be fair though, the VR setup the rich can afford is a bit better than something that doesn't have a treadmill and a dedicated room.

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

#486

Post by em500 »

yen223 wrote: post #315
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…

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?

The problem was that technological advances made this a very tough market. Nokia used to have a separate marque called Vertu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertu) to serve this market. But rapid technological progress meant that next year's $300 phone is batter in most functional aspects as last year's $5000 luxury model, so even the very wealthy would probably prefer this year's iPhone 17 Air to last year's diamond-encrusted iPhone 16.

The market might get revived when the tech improvement flattens flattens. like they did for cars.

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

#487

Post by myself248 »

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…

My mom worked at a law firm where one of the partners retired, moved to England, and bought a castle. As one does. He told this story while back in the States for a party:

Castles are old. And drafty. And need a LOT of renovations to bring them up to a modern standard. So he had immediately set upon this work, hiring contractors, picking out high-end appliances, arranging for the import of Italian marble countertops...

And once the place was looking nice, he threw a housewarming (castlewarming?) party, and invited all the folks from the neighboring castles. And at this party, he was regaling one of the old-money guests with how nice the downdraft range was, and how it really felt special with the new counters.

"Fascinating.", replied Old-money. "I have never been in my kitchen."

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

#488

Post by bane »

Grew up poor, made it a little in life - could maybe retire now. The things I and the people I grew up with don't know how to do at all can be shocking. People who grew up similarly and ended up in middle class seem to be similar unless they put real time into it:

- how to buy stocks, what ETFs are, what a 401(k) is, etc.

- hiring people to clean your house, do yard work, etc.

- traveling out of the country, or in many cases, how to take a plane to a part of the country that's too far to drive

- how financing works, ranges from personal credit cards to mortgages, and thus what TCO means. The number of people I grew up with who were fine with 12% on a car loan and what that meant to the final cost of the car is flabbergasting

- how to buy high-quality (expensive) stuff vs brand recognition (expensive) stuff

some anecdotes:

- a friend of mine recently did retire after 30 years in the government, wanted to buy stocks, had no idea what a brokerage was

- another guy I know, an airline pilot who grew up in a broken home and ended up with a business degree, figured out how to buy stocks, but didn't know what index funds were or that they exist outside of his 401(k)

- perfectly middle class people who will spend all weekend cleaning their house and doing yard work, and hate it, who thought hiring a cleaning person and lawn mowing guy would be too expensive ($35k-50k/yr)

- a lot of people I know are afraid to travel to non-English speaking countries even if they've been outside of the U.S., they can't fathom that you can get by in most places with English, a translate app, and pointing and smiling. Even tourist friendly places with plenty of English signage and English speaking help like France or Japan are unfathomably exotic

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

#489

Post by fragmede »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #195
fy20 wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd disagree, once you get wealthy (and it doesn't even need to be that much), you can: - schedule beauty appointments to fix how you look - go on coaching sessions to increase your confidence and how you socialize - take people out on dates without thinking "oh that's a bit expensive" - buy dating coaches who understand the psychology behind dating and successful relationships - buy therapists to heal your past trau…

All of that doesn’t buy the time you spend with your loved ones, laughing at stupid jokes or reminiscing about good times.

Sure it does. Your friends are only available at their house on the day before Thanksgiving? Fly there and then leave to your private jet to fly to your parents for Thanksgiving.

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

#490

Post by dagw »

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…

Chamonix and ski next to kings, princes or industry moguls on same slopes they do, use same lifts, but you can ie go of piste for some extra fun.

This makes no sense to me. First of all Chamonix is hardly what I'd consider a 'rich' people ski resort. You're far more likely to be skiing next to a broke ski bum than "kings, princes or industry mogul". But beyond that, why can't the rich people ski off piste? In fact the rich people have the option to decide on a whim to take a helicopter to the really nice off piste runs and do 7 runs in a day if they feel like it, while you and I can only do one since we have to walk up. They can also travel to some of the finest skiing in the world, do two quick runs, decide the snow wasn't great and then just chill at the hotel bar and fly home early, knowing that it doesn't matter because if they want they can just come back in a few weeks.

Rich people can (and do) do all things you do, but they can also do a bunch of additional things that you and I cannot hope to do.

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