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

mf rooster next door woke my sorry jet lagged ass off too many times last summer & we didn't even get any free eggs out of it, ban the cock imo (actually cocks already banned but apparently they didn't know it was a cock because do rooster have penus)

maybe that zoning law was driven by a farming lobby in MS? I don't see how/why it would happen otherwise

chickens also no prob in london, problem is that london chicken coops are wildly popular with london foxes

i hear hunting those is nbd tho

get a horn, act rich

their only natural predator is extraordinary wealth

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/living-like-a-billionaire-if-only-for-a-day/?hp

hello

A raft of studies, including one in 2010 by Princeton researchers Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, has underscored the fact that the rich are no happier than the merely comfortable, and are often burdened by the same problems: health and work issues, family concerns and worries about making ends meet.

¶I reached out to Dr. Jim Grubman, a clinical psychologist who specializes in wealth, to help me understand this idea that billionaires are, in essence, just like us.

¶“It goes against what we’ve been told our whole lives,” he tells me. “But it’s true.”

¶Still, two hours later, when the billionaire and I touch down in Sea Island, Ga., it’s hard to see the similarities. As we deplane, a classic Mercedes convertible is waiting. We jump in, and he ferries me around the resort, with its multimillion-dollar villas and perfectly manicured golf courses.

¶Everywhere he goes, he gets four-star service. Doors are opened, luggage is carried away wordlessly, and at one point, warm chocolate chip cookies magically appear. When his brakes sputter and his convertible starts spewing smoke, he picks up another Mercedes.

“Somebody’s got to live this life,” he says, gesturing to the pristine view from his penthouse villa. “God decided it should be me.”

*cries* BUT I DON'T WANNA READ THAT ARTICLE

ugh

Wow. Wow wow wow.

I dunno, I thought that article was effective in making the point that a billionaire's life is not very different from the life of an American of above-average income. The guy has a car, he has a job, he has a watch. What does it mean that the watch costs $400K? I know a few very rich people and their lives are in fact not as different as I would have thought -- I mean, the people I know don't live on giant estates, maybe that's one thing, they live in houses I consider "normal=sized" in places where "normal-sized" houses cost as much as giant estates.

And, like, they have a stove that's much much more expensive than my stove, but in the end, their experience of it is "this is my stove, I cook dinner on it" not "this stove is worth tens of thousands of dollars"

no way, the private-jet crowd do live differently from the upper middle class, and the (mostly pointless) article highlights a few ways. they just aren't necessarily happier for all that money, which is why we need the top tax bracket rate to be 80%.

<3

freedom from want is a luxury

the best things that come with money aren't really covered in the article -- it's not just like you get to wear a nice watch. you can buy all the nice dumb watches you want, whenever you want. and you can buy them as extravagant gifts if you want. he complains his day was stressful because he didn't have a personal assistant. but rich people have all the assistants they want. it's not just you get a nice meal. you can have insanely nice meals whenever you feel like it, and don't have to think twice about it. you can control every aspect of your life. you can control other people's lives.

a sparsely populated plane ride and some surf & turf followed by a fancy gym or whatever doesn't really capture it. that's more like a wheel of fortune prize than a plutocrat.

they just aren't necessarily happier for all that money, which is why we need the top tax bracket rate to be 80%.

― iatee, Wednesday, April 4, 2012 10:16 PM (32 minutes ago)

"Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about!"

eh most of those things don't bring sustained happiness either. managers at mcdonalds can 'control other people's lives'. 'nice meals' in the fancy restaurant sense is again mostly just a form of theater for the wealthy. once the 'worry about money' monkey is off your back the gains are all pretty marginal and it's just a stupid game.

worry about yr. money is a moving target tho, as this thread demonstrates on the regular. there are people that not only don't have to worry about their money, but don't have to worry about one day having to worry about their money. but what they do worry about is how to use that money to fund the cato institute or i dunno air america or whatevs if thats more their speed, or to endow chairs and fund libraries, or build big churches in africa or...

well 'people with too much money have a new thing to worry about' is just more evidence that being a billionaire doesn't mean your day to day life is gonna be nonstop joy.

anyway dum article but hey dude convinced the nyt to pay him to pretend to be rich, wtg

got in an argument w/ my roommate about related issues. I said that I had a hard time giving a shit about Lena Dunham/Tiny Furniture/possibly Girls, because the ennui of being young and privileged was lost on me.

I get that happiness crests at a certain point after comfort is achieved, but I don't understand how - and I kind of just chalk it up to the rich not living life right. If I've banked enough to live on for the rest of my life, I'm going to travel forever and basically just have a shitload of fun. (the fact that I'd stop trying to get richer in order to ride trains across the Australian Outback is probably reason one I will never be rich)
I guess, particularly with the young, you've still got the basic "will I ever fall in love" shit, but that's not a real problem. Worrying about paying rent or what happens if you get sick are real problems.

when I wrote "what they do worry about" I meant "what they do think about" because I imagine thinking about how to use your money takes some effort, but it is on the whole a very pleasurable thing. I mean c.f. the lottery thread here just the other day. In a society that's pretty much run by money, I find it perverse to argue that having and spending tons of money (and thinking about spending tons of money) would be anything less then modestly awesome, at least in terms of individual happiness and fulfillment.

you still have to be around yrself all the time is basically the problem

you kind of reach a point where your "problems" and "needs" expand to take up your time and resources. if you have no money, your problems are a little more sympathetic than "I need a personal shopper" though

“Somebody’s got to live this life,” he says, gesturing to the can of coke on the table. “God decided it should be me.”

I find it perverse to argue that having and spending tons of money (and thinking about spending tons of money) would be anything less then modestly awesome, at least in terms of individual happiness and fulfillment.

that's exactly what it is...modestly awesome. but my iphone is modestly awesome too, I walk around w/ a little gadget that has access to all knowledge in human history, plus angry birds, if a billionaire in the 70s saw this he would offer me a billion dollars for it.

I am pretty sure that jerry seinfeld got less pleasure out of buying his 324th car than I got from the burrito I bought last night. once you hit that level there's nothing you can do but be a stamp collector w/ really big stamps. not having to worry about money is a cool level-up, I hope to achieve that level-up one day (via time machine to 70s) but after you're playing the game w/ cheat codes a lot of things that would have been rewarding are not rewarding anymore.

I actually think I would not enjoy the kind of isolation and need for security that apparently comes with being a billionaire. But it's not like anyone forced these guys to become billionaire.

God did, I think

are you not reading, GOD did

Well, that's 'things' vs 'experiences' - buying your 324th Porsche might not be awesome, but having the money to learn to race Porsches would be. If you're not using your millions/billions to have a series of amazing life experiences that the rest of us could never have then you deserve to be unhappy.

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

I would definitely cultivate esoteric skills and interests. For example, I just saw this in the bio of RFK, Jr. (not a billioniaire but w/e):

"He is a licensed master falconer, and as often as possible he pursues a life-long enthusiasm for white-water paddling. He has organized and led several expeditions in Canada and Latin America, including first descents on three little known rivers in Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela."

i would be this guy:

http://www.wearysloth.com/Gallery/ActorsH/8434-23772.jpg

got in an argument w/ my roommate about related issues. I said that I had a hard time giving a shit about Lena Dunham/Tiny Furniture/possibly Girls, because the ennui of being young and privileged was lost on me.

Failing to find meaning in materialism shocker.

Also there probably is more in the mindset of billionaires than can be grasped through a single day where you ride in an expensive car, have a meeting, and see a personal trainer.

^^ plot of upcoming Delillo adaptation by Cronenberg, iirc

I would posit that many of the extremely rich have/make very little time for the sort of pursuits that we aspirant lottery winners associate with fabulous wealth. Which isn't to say they should be pitied or w/e, just that maybe these ppl have in addition to their wealth erected giant edifices that structure their "free" time.

vs oh say their children.

_“Somebody’s got to live this life,” he says, gesturing to the can of coke on the table. “God decided it should be me.”_

haha missed this

misspelled "key"

man i thought when i was a billionaire i could spend all my time just sipping champagne and learning how to heli-fence but instead i just post to some belle & sebastian msg board a lot... mo money mo problems

tbh i think the main anxiety of being fabulously wealthy is how to stay fabulously wealthy forever

heavy is the crown, poor bastards

Maybe don't buy watches that costs $45k?

wrong answer

the answer is to buy the watch company and ruthlessly all competing watch companies

if I was a billionaire, I would have three "baller" outfits that cost like $100K and spend the rest of my time in sweatpants and concert t-shirts

ruthlessly destroy*

45k is pocket watch change