8 Insane Things Rich People Think Are Normal

In this episode, Chelsea talks about how rich people's perceptions of what is "normal" is making life worse for the rest of us.

[teeada]

When I was in college, one of our social work assignments was to ride the city bus on something like ten different occasions and to document our experiences. This was to help the people in the class understand what their future clients would experience when it comes to having to depend on public transportation. Well, the rich kids in the class complained so much to the department head about our professor having the audacity to expect them to ride the bus with poor people that the assignment was shut down and other professors even questioned if that particular adjunct professor should be allowed to teach there the following year. Now, that's privilege! Smh.

[minagica]

Yeah, my mom's rich friends bought their daughter a house to live in while at university and then sold the place for a profit. Being rich is cheaper in many ways than being poor, which is ridiculous conceptually but true

[LisaSchnettler]

The confidence thing is HUGE and so subtle. I was a good student. Graduated with honors from college . But I was a nervous wreck applying to graduate school. Like textbook case of anxiety (sharpened An entire pack of pencils to bring to the GMATs, etc) I got into my school of choice, but when I was talking to a friend I made in the program about how relieved I was to have been accepted, she looked at me like I had 3 heads. People raised a certain way just assume things will go well. They waste no energy on worrying. Life is a trust fall. It's fascinating. (And not something I will ever be able to emulate) And they walk into every room with that as an invisible friend.

[endlessxaura]

#7 reminds me of Terry Pratchet's Boot Theory of poverty: "Take boots, for example. He earned $38 a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost $50. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about $10. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford $50 had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in 10 years' time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet."

[bibliophilelady]

My husband and I have reached the point where we don't have to worry if we toss a few extra yummy things in our grocery cart and that is honestly my definition of having "made it." Some people are motivated by objects, I am motivated by fresh fruit and mint chip Klondike bars.

[cinthiaham]

I always wanted to participate in extracurriculares but my parents couldn’t afford it. I wonder how many children had so much talent to nurture but just couldn’t afford to. It breaks my heart because when I was a child I totally didn’t understand the reasons why I couldn’t do it and now I know my parents did all they could for us to survive.

[ellefantine]

That's true. A rich kid hit and killed my mom in a "car accident." It was brushed off by the police, we were gaslighted, and sent death threats for even bringing it to court.

[NavaSDMB]

Working in Spain as a consultant, I had a coworker who our team lead thought was very good because "her husband is the owner of [company inherited from Daddy]". The rest of us didn't see how being born rich and having married rich made her any good at our job, but maybe we were weird.

Anyway, one day she arrived late and flustered. The English nanny had taken sick, therefore was missing work, and she had called the German nanny to take the kids in the morning but the German nanny had replied that one, she was not free to do so since she worked for a different family in the mornings and two, if she did she would have expected to be paid accordingly. "Can you believe it, she wants us to pay her extra just to spend more time with the kids?" "Uh... that's how being paid by the hour works. She's your contractor, not your mother, so she gets paid for the work she does. You know, just like we do?" "Oh, pfaugh!... So tell me, what do you do when any of your nannies isn't available?" "We don't have nannies, much less foreign nannies." "What? But... how do you take care of your kids then?" "I'm starting to wonder what planet did you drop from."

[kimberlyperrotis]

I’ve only known a few rich people and the one thing that stood out in them was their tendency to be really exploitative, mean and cheap. One rich woman, for example, made her poor Hispanic maid “work off” the cost of every $2 coffee mug, etc., that she accidentally broke. This was a woman whose designer, everyday lip balm cost $100/tube. I was happy when the maid quit.

[mhere]

Even the difference between middle class and upper middle class gets uncomfortable now.
My friends keep planning international birthday trips with the whole “ omg why don’t you ever have time to go” thing.

Like wth, how am I supposed to go to Bali, Amersterdam, and Mexico while also making 50% less but paying similar living expenses. Can’t we just go to dinner for Bdays...geez.

[sfkeepay]

Something else that is critical to this conversation: dentistry. A HUGE barrier to financial progress and a potentially VERY expensive (relatively speaking) obstacle that is also virtually always shamed and blamed. Heck, just look at YouTube presenters, anyone on TV, everyone in commercials...the norm of nearly perfect, straight gleaming white teeth has become an absolute prerequisite to participation and acceptance. And not having that look immediately shunts people into an inferior position, with all the consequences (financial, social, emotional, etc.) that result.

[AaronCMounts]

One thing to keep in mind is that rich people tend to mainly associate with other rich people because money can quickly become an uncomfortable, divisive issue between friends of different means. This is especially true, when financial hardships come up.

[KhanStopMe]

I just want to have enough money so I can go to the grocery store and just put things in my basket and not have to add up the total as I go

[sasamafrass]

It's really interesting because I had a friend that grew up poor but came into a situation where she was earning approximately $30k a month for doing nothing. Her attitude towards people that made less than her grew nastier the longer she made this free money and built her wealth. She once complained to me about a private handyman that charged $20 an hour and how that was outrageous. I explained to her that $20 an hour is barely $40k a year for him and his family. She still thought it was too much. She also started accusing everyone that made less than her of wanting her money or wanting to use her for her wealth. We aren't friends anymore.

[MK-hhvo]

I dated a person who grew up in a NYC Park Ave high rise. He said there was a hierarchy among tenants based on the floor they lived on (higher was better; he was upper middle rich 😄) and what views they had. He told stories of how his family members waited for each other to die so they could get stuff, example - "I want a new car, when is grandpa going to die?" But the part of this video that brought back memories is *the lack of regard for the law* . He never considered red traffic lights!!! 🤯 He always drove through red lights like it was a normal thing! He honestly didn't think it was a big deal and said no one had ever reprimanded him for it. He was annoyed at my insistence that we wait for green light!s when I was a passenger!!! Needless to say, we didn't last.

[windyhawthorn]

My activities as a child was with my grandma. I was dropped off with grandma and we would work her large garden. And when she died My activities was with my other grandma and that was a bunch of hard work. I learned how to can food, make soap, make fermented foods, do lawn work, how to bargain for stuff, how to kill a chicken for the table, cook, bake, and a bunch of stuff.

I wasn't related to either grandma's because my father's mother was dead and mom's mother lived so far away. But my parents wanted me to have something to do with someone who would care about me. To have that relationship with an older person.

My parents where poor and spending time with my grandmas didn't cost anything but me being willing to help them. I learned a lot and they loved me vary much.

[CandaceNguyen]

"[mistakes make us stronger] is only true for those who can afford to make them" - damn girl

[pinthetailproductions]

Me taking a cold shower at my grandma's house in mexico with no water heater: poor.

Influencer taking a cold shower for the physiological benefits: glamorized

[ravenswood]

My aunt and uncle are millionaires. Their 18 year old son keeps getting DUIs (he's had several and even crashed into trees, thank god he hasn't crashed into humans yet, but I figure it's only a matter of time). He's never spent a single night in jail or faced any consequences whatsoever cause mommy keeps paying for an expensive criminal defense attorney instead of rehab.

[annarboriter]

Out of university, I often got the unstated message: "If you cannot afford to take an unpaid internship, you probably really don't want the job enough." I worked at a nonprofit and the manager was generally shocked that I would leave when in order to deal with a revenue shortage, I was asked to return to volunteer status after having volunteered to initially be considered for the job.