WTF is Wrong with Rich People?

[Texacon]

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210028692

Wed Dec 27, 2017, 10:22 AM
Star Member HughBeaumont (24,380 posts)


WTF is Wrong with Rich People?

https://www.salon.com/2017/11/11/wtf-is-wrong-with-rich-people/

Friends of mine who have had a passing familiarity with this world over the years have told me stuff like, “money is the way they keep score.” Well, usually you “keep score” in games that have a beginning and a middle and an end, but this ******* game they’re playing doesn’t have an end. It just keeps going and going and going, and they keep accumulating more and more millions and billions, and they keep buying shit with it — Gin Lane estates, $1.5 million Ferraris, Gulfstream 550s, 220-foot-long mega-yachts.

I have a friend who takes care of a boat for a billionaire who owns a very well-known sports team. Every year, that boat — it’s about 32 feet and it cost a couple million — is put on a trailer down in Palm Beach and it’s driven up here for the summer. Last couple of years, the billionaire sports team owner hasn’t taken the boat out on the water for even one hour. It’s so underused that my friend has to “exercise” the boat every couple of weeks to keep the engines in good shape, so we take it out and zoom around — it will do 35 knots; it’s a hell of a lot of fun — and then we tie it up in an expensive marina. When September rolls around, the boat is put on a trailer and hauled back down to Palm Beach, where it goes back in the water and then . . . who knows? It probably just sits there.

Which brings us to the question raised in the title. I have to say, I don’t have a clue what’s up with rich people. I mean, I’ve got friends here in Sag Harbor who do stuff like building teak decks and painting houses and plumbing and electrical work, and every single one of them has trouble getting paid when it comes to summer people, which is to say, when it comes to rich people. Working for locals isn’t a problem.

But rich people? They don’t pay on time and they fight over the bill. I don’t remember asking for that concrete, they’ll say, pointing to the bill. Well, sir, you can’t put posts in the ground for your deck if you don’t sink them in concrete, so that’s why the eight sacks of concrete are on the bill. Or they’ll complain about paying two or three grand for pipe and have to be reminded that’s the stuff the water goes through, and building codes say it has to be copper, and copper costs money. The thing is, none of them — not a single one of them — will just take the damn bill and pay it. They have to nitpick things to death before they write a check on an account that’s linked to some offshore trust in the Caymans.

Ahhhh, more crying from the DUmmies.  Do they mention that these are the people who are providing jobs and they're glad to have them?  Nope.  The only thing they can do is bitch because they want to haggle on price, or it takes them longer to pay than they think it should.  Let the rich pull out of there and see how they like it.  They won't be doing those jobs for any price at that point.

Zoonart (1,899 posts)

3. Yep!

In the 90's I worked with two other artists painting interior and exterior murals for the rich of PA and NYC. We had the same experience getting paid. They would try to argue for a reduction in the bill if they found a single hair from a paintbrush in the work. They would pay one third up front and you had to chase them for the rest.

Finally, we began to charge them up for the inconvenience of having to fight for payment. We called it the AHSC- the asshole sur-charge and applied it to our estimates. IN our business, we found that they would generally not pay about $2000.000 on the final bill, just enough to keep a contractor from going to small claims to collect. My husband has a design build landscape firm at the time and had the exact same problem.

It's a game for them. They take pride in getting over on contractors and the little guy. Says a lot doesn't it?

But you kept working for them.  And, you figured out how to make more money off of them.  So ... what's the problem?  Bitch much?

KC

[BlueStateSaint]

If it wasn't for envy, the DUmmies would have nothing.

[FlaGator]

If it wasn't for envy, the DUmmies would have nothing.

There is a reason God put envy on His top 10 list.

[Old n Grumpy]

Money can't buy happiness.

However it is much better to be sad in a Maserati than on a bicycle. 

[SVPete]

So a handful of "rich" people represent all?

Freedom means "rich" people are not answerable to anyone regarding non-criminal uses of their money. Of course, Progs hate freedom that doesn't answer to them.

[Tucker]

What billionaire owns a mere 32 foot boat? Better add 100 feet.

[thundley4]

The rich didn't get rich by throwing their money around. They like to know what THEIR money is going for so they aren't ripped off by some DUmmie running a scam.

Seriously, we constantly see DUmmies bitching about repair bills or whatever and they brag about their haggling skills.

[67 Rover]

What billionaire owns a mere 32 foot boat? Better add 100 feet.

Not to mention that anything >8.5' in width requires trailer permits in each state. There are also height restrictions.  Sorry I am calling this a bouncy with 0 bongs. 

[DLR Pyro]

What billionaire owns a mere 32 foot boat? Better add 100 feet.

That is probably the tender for the mega yacht.

Last couple of years, the billionaire sports team owner hasn’t taken the boat out on the water for even one hour. It’s so underused that my friend has to “exercise” the boat every couple of weeks to keep the engines in good shape, so we take it out and zoom around — it will do 35 knots; it’s a hell of a lot of fun — and then we tie it up in an expensive marina. When September rolls around, the boat is put on a trailer and hauled back down to Palm Beach, where it goes back in the water and then . . . who knows? It probably just sits there.

Why do you care if the boat sits unused?  I suppose you feel the boat should be offered as shelter for the herds of homeless people who have popped all over the landscape ever since January 20, 2017

[Old n Grumpy]

When the "ritch" spend THEIR money, wether is is spent wisely or pissed away it creates jobs and pays taxes. When you piss your $$ away on pot  and lottery tickets it does neither.

[Crazy Horse]

Not to mention that anything >8.5' in width requires trailer permits in each state. There are also height restrictions.  Sorry I am calling this a bouncy with 0 bongs. 

And on top of that, who spends a couple million on a 32' boat???  Hell a 32' Regulator tricked out is around 250k, on top of that a 36' Yellowfin is under 1 million.

I agree, bouncy and -5 bongs

[USA4ME]

The one who wrote the article, Lucian K. Truscott IV, was a graduate of West Point. Rather sad that someone from a military academy doesn't seem to have the ability to be honest about these tax avoidance schemes he rails about. And then he passes it all off on Republicans when you know good and well that for every R using a tax shelter there's 3 mega-rich Democrats doing the same or worse. But does he mention them? No, not all all.

He starts calling out his own and then maybe he'll say something worth hearing.

.

[Texacon]

The one who wrote the article, Lucian K. Truscott IV, was a graduate of West Point. Rather sad that someone from a military academy doesn't seem to have the slightest clue about what makes America the country it is, or at least what it supposed to be.

.

He probably hangs out with the cadet who wore the communist shirt under his graduation uniform and had some communist slogan written in his cover.

KC

[Tucker]

I just remembered john kerry, who was in Vietnam, tried to pull a tax avoidance by mooring his boat in a boarder state.

It's the democrat party way.

[zeitgeist]

There is a reason God put envy on His top 10 list.

And that DUmmies have no (I mean zero) clue that it is there.  The whole "Though shall not covert ..." thing has them all befuddled.  But they are all over that "Greed" thing.

[Wineslob]

I seem to recall the Occupoopers standing in Wall Street actually believing that this guy:




was up at the top of the skyscraper and he was going to give up his "billions".


Ya DUmmies you keep believing that.

Reality is not your forte.

 

[Delmar]

It just keeps going and going and going, and they keep accumulating more and more millions and billions, and they keep buying shit with it — Gin Lane estates, $1.5 million Ferraris, Gulfstream 550s, 220-foot-long mega-yachts.

Gin Lane--I had to google it to find out what that is. 

Running parallel with the ocean, Southampton's Gin Lane is arguably the premier street in the Hamptons. Settled starting in the 1880s, the winding, estate-studded thoroughfare has been the summer hideaway for many prominent families and their splendid homes.

https://www.newsday.com/classifieds/real-estate/southampton-s-gin-lane-10-facts-1.3751171

The writer has been pricing Ferraris, knows the model numbers of Gulfstream jets, and knows where to find the priciest real estate in the Hamptons. 

The guy should quit obsessing about what rich people are spending their money on.  He comes off as jealous.

[SVPete]

Gin Lane--I had to google it to find out what that is.  https://www.newsday.com/classifieds/real-estate/southampton-s-gin-lane-10-facts-1.3751171
...

Is Gin Lane where the Clintons have their house? Or is it on Chardonnay Lane?

[landofconfusion80]

Is Gin Lane where the Clintons have their house? Or is it on Chardonnay Lane?

I believe Ted Kennedy had a residence there.

[Zathras]

The problem with rich people is that I'm not one of them. However, unlike the DUmmys, I don't hate them for their wealth and am working hard to get there.