Rich people, meaning those with an excess of money beyond the average person, will do some unthinkable things simply because of their wealth privilege.
Psychologically, people with incredible amounts of money often don’t see their own privilege. They think their wealth, and the lack of wealth in others, was simply due to their own morals, character traits and abilities.
The filthy rich are also at a high risk for depression because wealth can cause a relentless need for more that has been linked to unhappiness.
Redditor NeighborhoodTrolley asked:
“People who cater to the super rich; what things have you seen?”
We want to know what money really does to people.
They forgot a whole car.
“I’m a driving instructor and one group rented the track to drive their supercars for the day. At the end of the day they all partnered up and got into the cars to leave. After they were gone we realized that they had forgotten their Lamborghini Aventador at the track.” – skell15
“That was the tip.” – TheBokononInitiative
“If I had a nickel for every Lamborghini I forgot somewhere, I tell ya, I’d be rich!” – ShaughnDBL
“‘Dude… where’s my car,’ for the super wealthy.” – giddyup281
Just get it catered.
“Family friends were having marital issues. Their marriage counselor figured out a lot of their problems were over cooking meals.”
“The counselor reminded them that they are rich and can just cater all their meals, and it would be cheaper than getting a divorce. They listened to the counselor and now are happily married again.” – waterloograd
“‘Aren’t you guys like…you know…fabulously wealthy.’”
“‘…oh yeah, we’d completely forgotten about that.’” – Foxsayy
“This is some real curb your enthusiasm sh*t.” – emsok_dewe
“Until they get divorced anyway because someone falls in love with the at-home chef.” – bakarac
“‘Money does make you happy HAHAHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA.’” – poopellar
“Money doesn’t make you happy, but poverty can certainly make you miserable.”
“According to a 2010 study, a salary of around $75k – money buys security, after that there’s no measurable increase in happiness linked to money.” – Fraerie
“Oxygen is a better analogy honestly.”
“You know when you don’t have it.”
“All your priorities immediately shift to getting it.”
“You want an unlimited supply of it to never think about it again.” – PhotonResearch
Wouldn’t spend money on coffee.
“Client was a mega millionaire in the 60s so even richer when I met him. He’d ride the bus to the office to have free coffee. Every day.”
“He was the founder of a company that had it’s named emblazoned on shipping containers being transported via big rig trucks in the states, but also international shipping and logistics. Came into financial offices daily for the free coffee. Didn’t even talk about his finances, just for the coffee and then would skedaddle.” – sunlitglo
“He probably grew up in the 30s and knew to be defensive with his money.” – bingboy23
“My grandpa is one of those born in the 30s people and they’re a weird breed man. He owns a bunch of real estate all around Seattle and he cannot refuse a bargain of any kind & would be the one to ride the bus to get free coffee. Probably has 50 million in properties but still goes to the thrift store 3x a week hunting for a good deal.” – slapstellas
“Old neighbour had 7-8 mil. in cash and lived off of cooking potatores once a week and burning both ends of matches, hadn’t gotten a toilet installed in his house, still used one in the barn.”
“Was more than 90 when he splurged on a radio and tv. Dude would have been unhappy living a ‘wasteful’ life.” – Chiliconkarma
Private jet for a dog.
“A woman who owned a small private jet business told me one time someone paid them to fly their dog (by itself) to NY for about $45,000 for some training. No other passengers.” – aticho
“It’s silly to imagine an untrained doggo trying to manage at the baggage claim.” – tdriser
“I’ve had coworkers (in avaition) fly across the country for a lobster roll and coffee beans.”
“The trip there and back probably cost 60k minimum..”
“Unreal.”
“Private aviation is unreal. Let’s say you fly from New York to South Florida. (About 3 hours…give or take a bit). That’s 6hrs round trip.”
“Private jets can range from a few thousand an hour to 15k plus. Our company has larger planes..so let’s say 8k/hr. Round trip TRAVEL is $48,000. JUST AIRFARE.”
“That is more than a lot of people make in a year and these folks are spending that on airfare.”
“Private aviation has gone gangbusters since Trump’s tax cuts…. Good to know it helped some people….” – Guppy-Warrior
“See, this is why I roll my eyes when they tell us we all need to drink through paper straws to deal with climate change.”
“The problem isn’t me drinking through a plastic straw, it’s freaking Rupert Léopold Farnzworth III over here dumping massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere just to fly Sparky across the Western Hemisphere for an hour of dog training and some lobster bread, while Jeff Bezos launches a damn penis into space.”
“The straw thing was a bad example.”
“But still, even if Private Jets are only a small percent of global emissions, you gotta admit, the people that own them are probably the same people running the 100 or so companies responsible for 71% of global emissions, and if they’re cool with flying cross country because they’re too snooty for a damn cup of Folger’s, they’re probably spending a lot more time figuring out how to get out of paying taxes than figuring out how to make their companies stop burning the planet alive.
“I got no problem trying to reduce my own carbon footprint, but it feels a little disproportionate if those guys aren’t doing jack about their sh*t.” – adamislolz
Quite the tip.
“Old high school teacher of mine is an extremely successful private tutor and does a lot of work in the wealthy neighborhoods in the area.”
“He told us once he was tutoring a kid and helped him get prepared and pass his college level physics class and at the end of their last session the kid told him to wait there and went into his dad’s office and came out with his payment and an extra $1,000. My teacher tried to deny it, saying it was too much but the kid said his dad asked him to give a tip.” – TexasFordTough
“I used to deliver Pizza and this big ass house was ordering 4-5 pizza every Sunday, the lady (a worker at this house) was giving us $100 tip. The first time, when I tried to refuse it, she told me the ‘master’ of the house insist on tipping $100 to the pizza guys.” – hos7name
“I tipped a pizza guy $100 once for bringing me a corkscrew. Not rich just drunk.” – rhet17
“Check out old fancy pants here, drinking wine from a bottle that needs a corkscrew.” – a**_scar
The shadow yacht.
“I live near a company that builds yachts. One day there was an odd looking yacht. A crew member explained to me that was a ‘shadow-yacht’.”
“You see, when you get hyper rich and have multiple yachts. You wouldn’t want to ruin the astetic of your nice yachts with jetski’s and helicopters.”
“Nor would you want your crew to sleep on the nice yacht. So you buy a shadow yacht to store your toys and to house your crew. This shadow yacht follows your fleet of nice yachts around.” – Doppar
“I was hoping ‘shadow yacht’ meant it used stealth technology or fought the pirates.”
“I am disappoint.” – HOA-President
A special sales person.
“When rich people want to buy a Jaguar in the UK they get assigned a special sales person who is incredibly knowledgeable, they meet in a special fancy office, and special arrangements can be made.”
“This was my friend Chris’ job, he had access to things that a normal Jaguar sales person wouldn’t have. Like he could ring up the manager of the factory for special requests level of access.”
“Well a Saudi Price wanted to buy this new Jaguar that had been released, so they met up and spent a full day specing the Jaguar out. I believe the final price was something like 125k for the vehicle.”
“Then came the decision for color, at the time the factory had 16 different color choices for this model. The Prince asked if he could sleep on it as it was getting late and almost time for dinner/prayer my friend Chris says of course and they set a time to meet the next morning.”
“The next morning the Saudi Prince is like, ‘I figured out an acceptable solution to my color dilemma,’ to which Chris goes, ‘And what would that be?’ the Saudi Prince goes ‘I’ll order one of each color’.”
“And my friend Chris is like, ‘Oh, well of course.’ They quote delivery time, Saudi Prince was fine and asked for his options and was presented with ocean travel options to which the Prince said, ‘What about air cargo?’”
“Chris thinking maybe they’d do 1 or 2 by air cargo and the rest by boat, the Prince was like, ‘No I want all 16 vehicles loaded on a plane, and flown to Saudi Arabia’.”
“So that’s the story on how 16 of the same Jaguar with different colors ended up being flown to Saudi Arabia. All in the total cost was around 2.5 million. Please note the prices should be £ not $.” – luther_williams
Gift giving as a form of love.
“I became personal friends with my boss and his wife; super nice people. The wife turned out to be an heiress and would buy me whatever I mentioned, like in passing during a conversation. I learned gifts were how she was raised to show love.”
“I’ve trained myself to only talk about things I already own, unless I find something useful she might like and suggest it for her.” – Lazya**bummer
“Can you talk about a new house for your new reddit friend?” – mollested_skittles
“I’m not super rich or anything, but I think gifts are kicka** and I’d much rather spend my money on a cool gift for a friend who can use it than on something extra I don’t need.”
“I was a software engineer while most of my friends are/were in grad school/med school/working low-paying jobs, so I’ve enjoyed being able to chip in or get nice things for them when they said they couldn’t.”
“I do always make sure they’re ok with it and ask if I can in advance so nobody ends up uncomfortable.” – Zephaerus
Down to earth rich people.
“My grandpa was a piano tuner. He couldn’t drive due to epilepsy so family would take him to jobs.”
“One day dad took him to a job and got talking to the owner. He said the guy lived in the biggest nicest mansion he had ever seen. Everything in the house was crazy expensive. But the owner and his wife were very down to earth and normal. If not a bit rough around the edges.”
“Finally his curiosity got the better off him and dad asked how they made their money.”
“The guy said he used to drive a truck and got tired of needing to carry around bottles of ketchup.”
“That’s how my dad met the creator of the ketchup packet.” – blitzbom
An acute sense of time.
“Some extremely wealthy people I have been around have a more acute sense of their own time and mortality, leading to impatience. Like they understand how awesome their lives are and therefore how short they feel.”
“I knew a guy whose vintage yacht broke down before summer so he bought another one strictly for that upcoming Summer. His reasoning was he likely had 20 full health summers left in his life and didn’t want to spend one of them without a boat considering he had the means to. Honestly can’t argue with that logic.” – cholula_is_good
“I am beginning to feel the awareness of being able to count the healthy years left and I’m not mega rich. Must be amazing to know you can pack those remaining years full of wonderful and wild experiences.” – Earthan
It’s wild to think that there are people out there, using their money to privately fly dogs to training or buying expensive cars in every color.
All the while, people are going on strike for better working conditions and fair wages across the U.S. Half a million workers walk off the job in South Korea in a general strike.
If we’re not paying attention to the ultra rich, we might end up in a real Squid Games.