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[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

My favorite F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, from "The Rich Boy" (1926):

Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves.

[–]kingsmegLiberté, égalité, fraternité 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Also, becoming wealthy almost invariably turns people into raging assholes. Not even Karens, I mean levels of assholishness far and above the "I need to see the manager!" when Karen gets the wrong sauce with her McNuggets. The kind of asshole who doesn't pay tradespeople because he thinks he's better than them and deserves the money more than the guy who just sweated for 10 hours to fix his entrance.

[–]RandomCollection[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

https://archive.is/nMZXB

Much of what the wealthy claim as brilliance is nothing more than the good fortune of living in a multi-decade era of ever-rising asset valuations.

Some friends inherited portfolios of dividend-paying stocks that had been on auto-reinvestment of dividends for 50 or 60 years. Small stakes invested back then are now worth $1 million or more. Others inherited gold purchased at low prices decades ago. These are just two examples of many transfers of wealth that rarely get mentioned.

Yep. This sort of thing is never discussed where people pretend to be living in a meritocracy.