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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)

#611

Post by isleyaardvark »

pjc50 wrote: post #289
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.

The reason he got in trouble in the first place was when it turned out he didn't have that money.

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

#612

Post by potato3732842 »

rfrey wrote: post #525
Damogran6 wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In covid had a whirlpool dishwasher that lasted less than 3 years (4 subsystems failing all at the same time)...it was either wait 2-X months for the Miele we wanted, or pay twice as much to have it today. ($2k vs $1k) I'm uncomfortably enamored with this dishwasher. (Bought it over a Bosch as the percentage needing repair in the first year was 8% instead of 12% and I was flat done with it.) The dishwasher is fully e…

Do I understand from this that they lock you into... proprietary soap?

You can toss a spoon of powder into any dishwasher before pressing go.

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

#613

Post by song »

alexey-salmin wrote: post #572
bluGill wrote: post #433

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of things aimed at the middle class are better than what is aimed at the rich. There are not enough rich people pay engineers and so you end up with a $30,000 appliance that has the same features as the $1000 version and is lower quality because the few people who can afford to spend that much isn't enough to work out all the over time, while the lower priced models they release a limited run and then watch to…

Sure. I'm not interested in high-quality appliances per se, it's just an example of something middle class people buy that poor people aren't really aware of. The original question still stands: What do insanely wealthy people buy, that ordinary people know nothing about? By the definition of the question I can't know the answer myself: I am "ordinary people" so I must know nothing about it. So what's left to me is t…

> A governour for the child maybe?

That's very much country dependent. I live in a country where anyone middle class has a house keeper either from Phillipine or Indonesia (cost about 10-15k usd a year if you're not an asshole and don't pay the lowest possible salary). That housekeeper's work is to take care of the children and do the housework. Upper middle class people have two. Then the next level up is to also have a private driver.

Governor/Governess is after that, I know two people who do it, they hired someone directly from UK for about 45k usd a year. That person takes care of their child and helps with education/homework etc.. Main advantage compared to the housekeeper is that the governor is more educated and so will be able to actually teach things to the child. But it's not necessarily super common and I know plenty of rich parents who decided not to do that and instead invest more heavily on tuition/activities and later (starting from 9-10 years old) summer camps at Oxford, Cambridge, John Hopkins, etc...

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

#614

Post by dagw »

LandR wrote: post #446
ccppurcell wrote: post #377

You too can live a life where you can buy whatever you want. All you have to do is change what you want.

All I want is time to go climbing and mountaineering. I mostly can't because I have to work and getting 4-8 weeks off at a time is impossible.

If that is really all you want, either get a job where you get to go climbing and mountaineering as part of your job. Or reorganise your life you that you can live off of whatever you can earn in 4-8 month of working and then spend the other 4-8 month climbing.

I like to pretend that all I really want is to go skiing, but it turns out I also want to live in a nice house and be with my family. And for some reason I actually want that more.

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

#615

Post by Aeolun »

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…

Our house is full of second-hand 50s furniture though. At least some of it gets a second life, even if not from the children.

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

#616

Post by song »

d--b wrote: post #436
sellmesoap wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a person who's installed quartz countertops for a living, I'd shy away from IKEA kitchens. I agree with your point, but I'd take exception to the general quality of their cabinets in Canada at least.

Idk, I've seen 40-year-old Ikea cabinets being totally fine (in France). Nowadays, the trend is that people buy the cabinet frames from Ikea, and then buy the doors, handles, and bottom support from someone else who makes more durable ones. The thing is that with Ikea, I kind of know what I get. From a custom kitchen cabinet maker, I could get something that lasts a lifetime, or something that wears quickly.

There's been a severe decline in quality with Ikea though. I know that the cabinets prior to 2012 were significantly better than now.

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

#617

Post by pests »

TacticalCoder wrote: post #343
safety1st wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On a personal level I know several guys who are worth $10-30M, one who's worth probably $40M, and one who's worth around $700M, this is LNW. Not much in the Reddit reply checks out for me. It's true that the $700M guy socializes with "Senators/Congressmen/community leaders." He travels a lot, and comfortably, but has no ownership in a jet. He retired young-ish and no longer works so maybe that's why. He doesn't flash…

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…

I had a friend of a friend who made millions off FBA/dropshipping in the early days. He has the exact set of about 4 cars at multiple of his properties, all wrapped in a location specific color. Miami they were gold, LA they were purple, NYC they were black, etc.

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

#618

Post by BlueTemplar »

johnisgood wrote: post #532
fragmede wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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 time if you need it to go for a while. Hardly the stuff most people will replace a microwave for, but definitely a feature expected of newer microwaves. How old are we talking…

Yeah, I have one like that from 2010-2013.

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

#619

Post by potato3732842 »

mrguyorama wrote: post #581
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Similarly it took me a long time to realize just how much better the veneer wood furniture and doors are compared to laminated chipwood. Price is 3-4 times higher but it lasts 5-10 times longer and is much more pleasant to use. Unfortunately you need years to notice such long-term differences, unless someone tells you. Isn't this also down to age? That is, stuff like that built 100 years ago is - in my head - bette…

>However, this may very well be survivorship bias - of course anything built 100 years ago still around today is good, because anything that wasn't as good is long gone. Like my ikea furniture will be as soon as I try to move it. It's a 100% surviorship bias. The knockoff "ikea" style flatpack dresser that I assembled (incorrectly) when I was 12 lasted 20 years, and only finally went away because I was moving in with…

It's hilarious of you claim survivorship bias and then go on to cheerlead for Toyota. Take a step back and apply the same logic.

Of course a brand that sells appliance commuter and family hauling cars to people who are generally rich enough to buy enough extra capacity they're not flogging it and just pay to have it well maintained is gonna have them go to high miles. The first owner or two are basically "free" from a wear and tear perspective.

Meanwhile the average Nissan is getting driven hard right off the lot, missing fluid changes and the owner's kids are doing WWE in the back seat all right off the lot.

Unless you really wad it up any car will keep going until you stop maintaining it and get in a maintenance hole. If you never neglect to maintain it you'll never be in a hole where the sum total of needed maintenance is more than it's worth barring exceptional circumstances relevant to specific models with exceptionally high costs or low values.

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

#620

Post by randomcarbloke »

atwrk wrote: post #385
randomcarbloke wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we didn't arbitrarily select people to make rich, they are externalities of our wants and needs, and a sign that those things are being ~ satisfied.

They are decidedly a result of the taxation system of a country. The country decided they wanted to have this class of people to exist. (The degree of) Wealth inequality is always a product of society.

This is reddit level oversimplification.
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