quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

lolling @ 'heli-fencing'

lol forks

heli-fencing would be really useful on big properties, save a lot of time trying to build all those fences by hand

sorry

I wouldn't buy an expensive watch, but I would wear a sweatband made out of shares of Berkshire Hathaway.

well you could already be traveling the world and living it up even w/o lots of money, people do it

I had no idea how big a part really expensive watches played in living it up as a millionaire/billionaire.

I once was looking at some luxury watch company's website for some reason and found myself desiring a watch that I then noticed cost $300,000.

what do you expect anyway, that he's going to wear a platinum vest?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsFHEK_o9U8

http://www.gemnation.com/watches/Patek-Philippe-Celestial-5102PR-15764.html this was the one I think

Retail Price $324,000.00
Our Price $265,000.00
Your savings $59,000.00

such savings!

See I wouldnt get a watch I'd get like a solid gold pocket watch on a chain that's hundreds of years old or something.

i like this one a lot:

http://www.gemnation.com/watches/Patek-Philippe-Complicated-Perpetual-Calendar-5140R-17046.html

i would hire an autistic manservant who can blurt out atomic accurate time when i point at him

I would hire nadal

i would publish long style section articles about how difficult it is to be alive and so very very rich, also which color of racecar is the coolest

omg lols forks

anyone want the crazy $5million diamond watch?

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-5-million-expensive-watch-20120308,0,6401826.story

xxpost I love the Patek Philippe supercomplicated pocket watch, it's so fantastic looking.

but I need to put my money towards my robot army

What's the watch company with the slogan that's like "You never own a ________, you merely safekeep it for the next generation" and then it's like a picture of some douchenozzle with his overdressed rich teenaged son.

I always thought that was pretty brilliant aspirational marketing

that is patek phillippe

and the next generation would probably rather have its inheritance in cash

i don't think i'd do much of anything if i had a billion dollars. eat out a lot. buy more records. that's about it. sure as hell wouldn't work anymore.

i would never cook again. that much i know.

i would take up killing people for recreation

having no money kinda keeps me going. if i didn't have to keep going i really wouldn't keep going.

i would sure as hell learn to heli-fence

having no money kinda keeps me going. if i didn't have to keep going i really wouldn't keep going.

Thus spake entire history of western civilization.

The small sample size of billionaires i've met have been people who simply could not stop working. It would drive them crazy to just relax and enjoy themselves.

in my world of billionaire people

Yeah, of the actual millionaires I've known, they didn't exactly lead lives of leisure.

rich people actually work more hours than poor people in america, because they are crazy and need help

there is a good way to help them tho, by taking away their money

I support this money confiscation plan 100%. Hell, 110%. I'm feeling generous.

it's important that we frame the tax issue as a way of helping crazy people

I think actually yeah you'd probably find that a lot of the merely wealthy and not super wealthy work all the time, because they are workaholics and/or the source of their wealth is some all-consuming position in an industry like finance.

One of the people I refer to was super-wealthy. He donated $33 million to have a science building put up at Stanford. He's signed on to Warren Buffett's "billionaire challenge." He is really, really, really rich.

He also used to take his own wine to restaurants and just pay corkage fees, so.

Obviously in comparison to almost 100% of the people on Earth, it's not a tough existence but there's definitely a strangeness and a couple of legtimate problems that come with being super-super-rich.

xp that's a sign that you're superrich tho! cuz you got better wine than the restaurant and somebody to carry that shit for you.

forks otm

I thought most really rich people inherited their money, not earned it being workaholics in an all consuming industry like finance. I'm actually sure of it, and will try to find a link.

haha wellll it depends on what you mean by 'rich'

tbh i'm more responsive & sympathetic to the plight of kids raised by elite super-wealthy parents than the plight of being super-wealthy per se, though i guess it's kinda hard to separate the two

rich kid plight not big on my plight list.

no plight list
you must be this poor to ride

xxxp, Yes. Aside from the obvious issues like the risk of kidnapping, it does seem to be a receipe for a fairly deep malaise and melancholy in a lot of young people. The ones who aren't braying and obnoxious, obvs.

forks otm'ing the hell outta this thing

yeah malaise of youth is hardly exclusive to the rich anyway and I have a hard time believing it's any worse than the malaise of being a high school dropout with a convenience store job or the malaise of a middling statue u. grad who goes to work for an insurance company.

malaise of pregnant high school dropout who can't get a job at convenience store wins plight prize!