Safety Cap's Journal: In Soviet Union the Rich Eat You!

I always had the idea that given enough hard work and a bit of luck, I could move up into the "upper class." I recently came to the realization that it just isn't going to happen.

Lottery winner? Please, you couldn't even buy your way into the club; the servant's entrance is around the back.

My better half, who runs a personal assistant business, just landed a client who is one of the top muckety-mucks of a F500 company. Part of the deal is they want someone "they can trust" to wire up their house for all kinds of electronic goodness (wireless/wired i-net, cable, stereo in every room, blah, blah, etc). She recommends me, so I go over to their house to see what they want and figure out how much to charge.

Okay, first of all, this house has something like 8 bedrooms (not including all the bathrooms, studies, storage areas, closets, *pant*). And it is just one of several homes they own.

How about the two closets (each one the size of my living room) that hold either the winter or summer clothes for the Missus? Yeah, her shoes have their own room, too.

Oh, and don't get me started on their five car garage. I thought I was in heaven when I finally got a two-car garage (my tools got a home! woot!)

So, I'm looking at all of this, and I'm thinking, there's no way. From what I understand, a lot of it is for "show" -- part of the rich thing is throwing lots of social events. The other part is that they can.

I'm not there, and I'm not sure I could ever be there. Throw down $10k on a shopping spree (clothes!) in one afternoon? No way. Blow $300 on lunch, every day? Get real. Fly to another state just to personally sign some papers, then get right back on the next outgoing flight (tickets all purchased that day)? You must be joking - overnight the papers to me. Hang a Picasso in your Foyer, because you can? I'll see it in a museum, thanks.

Different Strokes

[stoolpigeon]

I have to say, I don't think I could live that way in good conscience-- but I've never had the opportunity so maybe I am thinking too much of myself.

On an interesting side note. I've known a few rich people. One couple - the Solheims - were very modest and you would not guess that they were loaded. They gave a lot of it away.

A friend of mine in Florida knows someone who gives away 80% of his income and still has enough left over to live in a multi-million dollar home. The scale of riches in the U.

There are different types of wealthy people.

[Mr2cents]

My father's job includes making contracts for house sales. The kind of people you describe aren't necessarily rich (they can be, of course), they can make a lot of money but it gets spent just as fast. If the money-maker loses his job the family can get in a lot of trouble very fast. There are maybe more wealthy people who are just penny pinchers. My father described a couple you'd give some change if you'd meet them on the street. However, they bought and sold houses as if it were nothing. On one occasion,

Re:There are different types of wealthy people.

[ces]

That has been my experience as well especially with the self-made types or with 'old money'. Most of them don't blow their wad on a flashy lifestyle but instead invest it.

wealth

[SolemnDragon]

wealth is like health. Not having it can make you happy, but having it isn't guaranteed to bring you happiness.

I would love to be in that echelon, but the likelihood is that i never will.

I would also like to be able to work, dance, run, whatever, with the athletic energy of some of the people i see every day. The likelihood is that i never will.

I have come to the conclusion that i had better find other ways to measure my worth.

I'm not sure what those are, but i like who i am.

Considering that a fifth of

And worse yet

[Marxist Hacker 42]

What the hell do they need with eight bedrooms when the grand majority of them have less than 2 children? That's the wierd part to me in all this- it's kind of like you have to trade family life for money.