Site New Answers Search Boards ILM ILE Answers New Question New Questions New Poll Blog View Register Login

do you know any Really Fucking Rich people?

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
I had a day off and did some freelance gopher stuff for a friend of the family, who happens to be very wealthy. Developed some pictures, moved a few pieces of furniture, went to the liquor store. Easy mindless stuff, five hours of work, total. She gave me $300 like it was nothing. I insisted that she was being absurdly generous and that I could not accept it, but she wouldn't take the money back.

I must meet more rich people.

What are your experiences with these creatures?

― Aaron A., Monday, 21 February 2005 20:04 (twenty years ago)

They suck, they're jaundiced and inbred and buy clothes at full price and I usually offend them within twenty minutes of meeting.

― Remy (null) (x Jeremy), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:06 (twenty years ago)

I have an aunt who's filthy rich, and try as I might, for my mother's sake, I can't stand to be around her or her family for very long. Of course, the fact that they're insane christians probably has more to do with it than their money.
A few years ago, I got a Christmas card from them that had cute little gold-embossed baby footprints on the front and read: "He was born on this day..."
and then you open it up and there's a similarly gold handprint with a big red splotch in the middle of the palm and the words "...to die for your sins"
thoroughly disturbing.

― Huk-L, Monday, 21 February 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

I had a hard time reconciling this lady's fantastic furniture and interior design with her appalling CD & book collection.

― Aaron A., Monday, 21 February 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

Remy, I hope that one day I will become extremely wealthy and prove your theory wrong.

― peepee (peepee), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

I had a buddy in high school whose dad was r-i-c-h and recently divorced. He remodeled their basement and set up this kick ass hi-fi system with 6-ft tall speakers and shit, and then he played current-era (like '92) Elton John.

― Huk-L, Monday, 21 February 2005 20:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to be rich, too, but I'll never be jaundiced or buy clothes at full price. My mother used chide me for being jealous of the wealthy when I was a kid, but (we were decently well-off) I've always had a huge aversion toward conspicuous class... meaning that when one buys trappings of success and surrouds themselves to the point of excluding other interests it's always stricken me as tremendously suspect.

― Remy (null) (x Jeremy), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:15 (twenty years ago)

All McIntosh components with B&W speakers. The Eagles like they were in your room (ack)! xpost

― Aaron A., Monday, 21 February 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

Most of them are annoying and cheap, but I do a good job of not offending them or getting overly frustrated.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

I know two. They're English and absurdly kinky. They fly to the States or Europe like I might go down to the corner shop.

― thee music mole, Monday, 21 February 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

yeah, you uh... you try your best to not be shocked by the satellite dish attached to their tree house that a contractor built for them. (as opposed to our piece of plywood nailed above crookedly that broke every winter.)

milo otm on the cheapness. holy deal hunters and penny pinchers.
m.

― msp (msp), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

My last boss was pretty rich. Not a billionaire, but somewhere in the multi-millions. He was a good guy. Totally fit the stereotype of the wealthy eccentric -- wore cardigan sweaters with holes in the elbows, his desk was always littered with cigarette butts and day-old half-full cups of coffee. His blue blood had a way of showing through when the chips were down -- he had an inherent belief that men in ties of a certain extraction (prep school/Ivy League) knew what they were doing and deserved to run the world -- but he was always willing to listen to other points of view. Plus, he paid me. I wish I knew more rich people.

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

holy deal hunters and penny pinchers

Dude, getting rich is easy. STAYING rich takes work.

― Huk-L, Monday, 21 February 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

Well I have friends whose parents are a successful lawyer and a successful doctor, but I don't think that's what you mean by "Filthy rich"

Otherwise, there is a family we used to have Passover with some years who has a very large DC house and actually has *help* in the home. What struck me most as a child though was their pinball machines in the basement.

My experiences with them? Well, I guess they're nice people, but I generally like the wife much more than the husband. The husband is very conservative in that distanced "Why can't the poor just fend for themselves" kind of way that I find pretty disgusting. Then again, I've heard that from people who were born poor themselves, or people who are just plain-old-middle-class. So I think it has more to do with your capacity for compassion.

Oh, I also have a friend who went to Brown and whose dad is some kind of textile king. She has a very bad case of guilt about her privelge, and is generally a very sweet person.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:27 (twenty years ago)

The bottom line, for me, is that I don't think you can generalize. And I also think everyone here might do well to consider that at least some of you might be considered "rich" by much of the world's standards.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

My experience is limited to those in the 20-50 million dollar range. Apart from some who have appaling political tendencies, I can't say I find them very different from other people.

― Michael White (Hereward), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

Reading between the lines...Michael's telling us that he has $19 million.

― Huk-L, Monday, 21 February 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

My last job at a large NC law firm had several millionaires.

― Jeff-PTTL (Jeff), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:32 (twenty years ago)

I was at a reasonably classy fee-paying school. One guy who I was reasonably good friends with was from a very rich family. I went to his place once, the two of us sitting in the back of a Rolls with a TV there. He lived in a very exclusive block, four luxury apartments to a floor - except the whole top floor was theirs. The lift doors opened and there's this huge hallway with a white carpet and a grand piano in it. They even had their own jet. He was a nice guy, seemed to have no attitude about it all.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:43 (twenty years ago)

I don't know him anymore (and I heard he's died!), but I knew one of the world's youngest billionaires. At about age 14 I remember going to his dad's NYC apartment on 5th Ave across from the Park and the Guggenheim and being amazed--straight up JAMES BOND type shit in there. His dad took us to the Planetarium. I didn't realize they were billionaires. Why would the son be going to the freakin day school I went to? I figured they were just rich. The kid didn't strike me as particularly bright, but he was actually totally brilliant, graduated Harvard early, first in his elite Law School class, blah blah.

As a poorer scholarship kid in that prep school, my parents were all "you want to stay in touch with THAT kid." Didn't.

I've googled to see any death announcements, but have seen none, which is weird as he is pretty well known in the business and investing world.

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 21 February 2005 20:59 (twenty years ago)

Maybe he's gone all Hank Scorpio underground or something.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:01 (twenty years ago)

Michael White OTM. Of the millionaires that I've met, they are pretty much like anyone else. They get drunk and fall face down in their spaghetti, have civilized dinner parties, or take in a movie just like anybody else.

― Orbit (Orbit), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

...and manipulate world events for petty bets.

― Huk-L, Monday, 21 February 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

I don't know any billionaires--that tends to be their provenance.

― Orbit (Orbit), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

Yes, a friend from college who inherited quite a sum when his father died suddenly, so now after college he is now working on his second master's, has never worked a day in his life, and I was talking to him last week at a wedding where he has decided to BUY a company (oil?) in Kazakstan, only he doesn't know anything about business. His girlfriend is very sweet but has no money, so has maxed out her credit cards in order to keep up with his lifestyle. They buy matching ugly Banana Republic clothes, having matching wool peacoats and Burberry Laptop cases, and eat dinner at nice restaurants every single night. He's a nice guy, but has become so pretentious after college that it's painful.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:09 (twenty years ago)

yes

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:11 (twenty years ago)

I would like to be friends with George Soros. He seems like a cool guy.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

Hah, I see my old friend is targeted by Greenpeace. They want folks to send emails of complaint to him. I should send one: "HOWDY, remember me? Now **wag finger** stop polluting like billionaire RIGHT NOW"!!

If he's dead they don't know it.

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

I've known a few.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:27 (twenty years ago)

Dead people not widely known to be dead? ME TOO!

― Hunter (Hunter), Monday, 21 February 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)

A deep thought by Jack Handey: "If I ever get real rich, I hope I'm not real mean to poor people, like I am now."

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Monday, 21 February 2005 22:14 (twenty years ago)

hmm. no :(

― Sven Bastard (blueski), Monday, 21 February 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

I do know a few, and they'd be RFR by any standard. Some seem like "normal" people with (vast)additional resources, and some seem to be defined by their wealth, as though their self-identity is indistinguishable from their possessions and social position.

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Monday, 21 February 2005 23:39 (twenty years ago)

I plan on marrying one.

― jill schoelen is the queen of my dreams! (Homosexual II), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 00:15 (twenty years ago)

why restrict yourself?

― RJG (RJG), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 00:25 (twenty years ago)

xpost
it ain't easy street...

― lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

It's all relative...I go to school with a lot of people I consider rich (if you decide to fly to Europe over Thanksgiving break, or you have a new car, you're rich). But on the other hand I consider my *own* family rich sometimes because our amount of disposable income has gone up soooo much from when I was little (just due to my dad working for the same company for 25 years and getting raises), so I hope rich people aren't too awful :P Don't know anyone with millions of dollars, as far as I know, though.

Sometimes I want to marry a rich guy just because I get freaked out thinking of how I'm ever going to get a job that pays me and is something I like.

― Maria (Maria), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

where I come from, it's kind of considered rude to know how much your peers are making.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

you must be old money.

― Aaron A., Tuesday, 22 February 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

if I was, would I waste my time hanging around you plebes?

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)

I have found some of the truly wealthy - the not-famous wealth - are the nicest, humblest people who just dont flaunt their money at all. I have met family and associates of my grandfather in this category I didnt even realise were "rich" as a kid, because they didn't act it.

Its those new money, grabbing for success wealthy, and the famous of course, who act like dicks about it (often, not always obv).

― Trayce (trayce), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 01:52 (twenty years ago)

I very briefly dated one of the putative heiresses-apparent to the B@y3r pharmaceutical fortune. You wouldn't have known unless you were told, though (actually, I only found out months later); she was a total art-flake. She used to take me to the local art museums and stand in front of each painting for like five to ten minutes a piece, and we'd try to have a conversation about each one. Communication wasn't a strong suit.

Yeah, that lasted about a week.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 02:00 (twenty years ago)

when i was 9 or so, my family went to visit friends in manhattan. the guy owned a successful restaurant chain at the time, i think. they had a gorgeous big apartment, with huge windows and an amazing view. they'd bought broadway tickets for us, but their kids were staying home and ordering pizza, which seemed much more exciting to me, because i barely ever got pizza at home. so i said no thank you to the broadway ticket and got to eat domino's. they were very kind about it.

― JuliaA (j_bdules), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 02:26 (twenty years ago)

I've got Paris Hilton's phone number.

― James Mitchell (James Mitchell), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 03:37 (twenty years ago)

I work in a colledge for absurdly rich girls, they aint given me nout but an itch

― lukey (Lukey G), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 09:56 (twenty years ago)

The richest person I ever knew was an aristocratic lesbian whose family owns much of Scotland. If only I hadn't been spoken for at the time... (and if only she hadn't been mad as a brush.)

― Archel (Archel), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 10:18 (twenty years ago)

My mum's godfather had a six-storey townhouse in Brighton and SERVANTS, like, butlers and cooks and stuff. I don't think he was super-wealthy, though, and had retained his cash by being gay and childless.

My best mate when I was 17 owned an office block in Victoria which brouhgt in seven figures a year - if he's been careful with it since he's probably fucking rich by now.

My former boss appears in rich lists, but that doesn't count really.

So no, I don't actively know anyone super rich. Quite a lot of extremely comfortably off people, though.

― Markelby (Mark C), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 10:25 (twenty years ago)

A family friend is the primary heiress to a very, very huge corporation whose name everybody knows and whose employee uniform is a bit of an icon. She lives in a quite modest house in Palo Alto and you would never guess at the millions and millions and millions she's got which she doesn't personally touch- she oversees a charitable trust with the vast majority of it. She lives alone with her dog, and is very shy. It's weird to me when I think of what she controls and owns when I see her pottering around in her Acura.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 10:35 (twenty years ago)

My cousin inherited money from her grandmother and great-aunt and really doesn't need to work if she doesn't want to, and my best friend from school, well, her dad won a huge lawsuit back in the '70s and a couple of large science prizes but they don't pay and display in that obvious way - her dad wears the same clothes for weeks on end, they drive old bangers and went through being shockingly poor while the case was going through 10 years of court. But my friend has hella financial security and she knows how hard-won it was.

Other than that, shit yes: publisher with Austin Powers shagpad on Piccadilly, pop star with house on Regent's Park, countless people from college with Hollywood/Shepperton conections and one heir to a large health and beauty empire (think band-aids).

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 10:50 (twenty years ago)

::cackles like a sick duck::

x-post...

― Kate Kept Me Alive! (kate), Tuesday, 22 February 2005 10:52 (twenty years ago)

Hmmm, one of my dads closest friends Eamonn lives in a huge fancy house on Sandy Lane in Barbados. We went to visit him when I was there two years ago and I have never in my life seen oppulence like it.

We sat on the balcony overlooking the beach drinking punch, Eamonn passed me binoculars and said 'there's Michael Winner down there to the left. Keep a hold of those dear while your father and I chat, but hide them if my wife comes out'.

He was talking of investing in another property which was being built at the time, his 'small share' in it would have been $75 thousand.

What I want to know is why rich acquaintances can't give you a few quid? Not much, you know, just, a bit?

― Rumpy Pumpkin, Tuesday, 22 February 2005 11:50 (twenty years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.
Site New Answers Search Boards ILM ILE Answers New Question New Questions New Poll Blog View Register Login