Yahoo News 43 Bizarrely Out-Of-Touch Comments From Wealthy People That Show Just How Detached They Are From Reality
Recently, Reddit user MonthIcy1 asked about the most out-of-touch things people have heard from the wealthy. People did not hold back and absolutely skewered the rich. Check out what they had to say:
1."While working for a valet parking service in the Santa Barbara area years ago, a woman hired us for a jewelry showing she was having at her giant house in Montecito. While waiting for guests to arrive, my boss informed me that when the guests got in their cars to leave, I needed to be sure to close their car doors. Otherwise, they would just drive off with their doors open because they're so used to people closing their car doors for them."
2."I was at a high-end kids' clothing resale store. ... The store only buys Nike, Adidas, or other well-known brand name kids' clothes, and only kids' clothes. Everything must be new or barely worn, or they won't buy it; usually, when you bring in a bunch of stuff for them to buy, they'll only buy 10% of what you bring in. I once saw them say no to a beautiful custom-made dress that an Indian couple had spent $300 on for their daughter because it wasn't a brand name. So. At the store, some Mom was selling a bunch of clothes and finding out what the store was taking and for how much. Her 8-year-old had wandered off into the store and came back with something she wanted to buy. Mom: 'No, sweetie, we don't shop here. We only come here so poor people have nice things to buy.'"
3."A coworker asked me what bank had my safe deposit box. I said I didn't have a safe deposit box. She said, 'But where do you keep your jewels, then?' This was twenty years ago, and I still remember it."
4."'How could your family accountant let that happen?' when talking about how growing up, we couldn't pay the bills and had our water/electricity shut off multiple times."
5."Living outside Jackson Hole, my friend's sister told me how hard it is to live there because you have to fly in your 'help' (cleaning, yard work) from Salt Lake. I had no words."
6."I needed a bicycle to get to a new job. I found someone online selling a really nice bike for cheap, so I got in touch. I took two trains to their house to buy the bike, and when I got there, it was a mansion. The bike was in a garage full of supercars and classics. They asked me where my truck was to load the bike on, when I told them I was riding the bike home they laughed and before I knew it everyone in the house had been called to the garage to hear how I was riding the bike 3 hours home in the dark. No one offered me a lift; they just acted blessed because they didn't have to do such things."
7."I was at a cocktail party at a beachfront house on Isle of Palms, SC. Everyone was in private equity, Manhattan-based. I was chatting with someone, and they asked me, 'Where is your beach house?' I was a 25-year-old associate with two years of experience making about $75,000, but I was supposed to own a multi-million dollar beachfront property."
8."Once had a college-age coworker explain to a bunch of us in EMS ... that his family wasn't 'that rich' because they 'only have a beach house, not a summer house' and then explained the difference between the two. Another coworker then went to pull up his apartment complex and pointed out the trailer park next door. Rich coworker then remarked that it must be nice to live next to a storage facility (referring to the trailer park). He didn't believe us when we explained that people lived in those trailers. He thought that was only something that happened on reality TV shows. We all hoped that inner city EMS would help bring him back down to earth, but it had no effect."
9."A doctor told me to work with my personal trainer to figure out a routine that wouldn't make my chronic autoimmune disorder worse. I asked if he was going to cover the cost of a personal trainer out of his own pocket because insurance sure as shit won't cover it, and I've never been able to hold a job in my entire adult life because of said chronic autoimmune disorder. The dude was SHOCKED poor people exist, and one was in his office."
10."My girlfriend, who is from a wealthy background, just implied that having a barbecue is 'hick.'"
11."During the pandemic, senior management held company-wide calls about mental health and wellbeing. One piece of advice always stuck with me. They suggested stopping the tedium of working in the same space and moving your desk to another room in your house. I had a choice between facing different walls."
12.'Rich friend: 'Just take Friday off work and fly out to visit me this weekend; I know it's last minute, but I'm sure there are seats available.' Me: 'Ahh, I don't think I can make it this weekend.' Rich friend: 'Oh yeah, I looked and saw it was only coach available. Don't be embarrassed; I don't blame you for not wanting to sit next to them.' Me thinking: 'Does this guy truly think that's why? Lol, I just earn average money.'"
13."It's just so easy to just drop a grand at Target, y'know?" –my Starbucks coworker in Calabasas (Kardashian-land), after he spent $983 on toys for his 4-year-old nephew's birthday. I don't know why he worked at Starbucks, except maybe his rich family finally forced him to get a job."
14."I work for a startup based out of San Francisco. I'm a remote employee halfway across the country and am, therefore, a sort of 'second-class citizen.' My direct peers who work in SF make at least double what I do, and they almost all had extremely privileged upbringings. They went to top 10 business schools, they 'summer' in Tahoe, that kind of thing. I was in the home office a few months ago for our annual kickoff meeting, and one of the speakers polled the room: 'Has anyone here worked at Amazon?' (Nobody raised their hand) 'Wow, I'm surprised.' I said, 'Does warehouse count?' And the entire room erupted in laughter. To them, I'd just told a very enjoyable joke."
15."My boss is an attorney. A client who was filling out her financial statement for a divorce realized that she had forgotten to include her student loans on the report. Laughing somewhat ruefully, she said, "I can’t believe I forgot to include that." And in a bright, sunny voice, my boss laughed and said, "I sometimes forget that I own a boat!" The client and I quietly locked eyes with a shared understanding of how out of touch that was."
16."'Look, if you're that stressed, you should just do what I've been doing recently. Every two months, I go on a Disney Cruise! They're awesome! Sometimes, I go even more often!'"
17."I was talking to the owner of the building where my old work/clinic was. He was taking his wife back to Germany on vacation for the third or fourth time that year. I mentioned how jealous I was. He told me that the only way I was going to go was to 'just do it.' He said that too many people wait for the right timing and don't just take themselves traveling. I was making ~$55K/year at the time, the single earner for a family of three with a toddler. Rent was about 40% of my income."
18."I was between jobs, and a bunch of my friends told me I should take the time to travel the world. Like A) just because someone doesn't have a job doesn't mean they can just up and travel the world — in fact, the opposite is more likely —but also B) you motherfuckers thought the reason I wasn't traveling the world was because I hadn't thought of it?"
19."I told my super-rich boss my car was finished, and I had to buy a new (used) one. He replied that he, too, was having car problems. The roof on his convertible wasn't opening. This was his third car."
20."I was working at a car dealership and saw the owner pull up in a $250k Porsche GT3. I told him how much I loved the car and dreamt of owning one someday. The car's owner looked at me confused and said, 'What do you mean? We sell them right here, you know?' It totally blew my mind that he didn't realize his employees couldn't afford the cars they were selling."
21."Back when I was in my early twenties, my beat-up old car broke down in my job's parking lot when I was about to drive home. I was getting paid $10 an hour as a pastry chef at a catering company. This was barely enough to cover my rent. I was obviously pretty distraught over my car dying. My boss (company owner) ended up saying to me, 'Why are you so upset? It's just a car! Just buy another one!' I couldn't even respond."
22."When we were hanging out in our friend group, our rich friend showed us his new expensive winter jacket that he'd gotten for 500€+. From time to time, he goes on a shopping haul with his rich dad, where he spends 1-2k. One time, we confronted him about his bragging and asked him if he didn't think that he was spending quite a lot on clothes. His answer: 'Well…I know some people who spend more, and I know some people who spend less, so I think I am average.' Statistics 101."
23."The 12 or 13-year-old son of one of my clients literally expressed confusion to me when I asked them where I could get more paper towels from when they ran out in the washroom of his parents' however-many-million-dollar yacht. He said something like, 'It's always there; what do you mean?' He was so disconnected from the process of cleaning and restocking that he just thought that stuff would always be there and never run out, lol. The look of genuine confusion on his face was just something else."
24."They lived in Boston, and we were talking about how small condos are there. They were lamenting that they had no space and, as a result, they had to buy another condo (this was Beacon Hill) because they ran out of space to store their Persian rugs."
25."'Why can't you just get a new couch? It's almost time for summer furniture anyway.'"
26."I occasionally drive minibusses for a private school in the UK. I have overheard some very privileged conversations from the students, but one that sticks out is when a tutor on the bus asked a student what he says when other students make comments about the very expensive watches he wears to school. He said his response is 'My dad has the same 24 hours as your dad.' He then proceeded to go on about how his dad inherited a massive entertainment chain and various hugely successful companies from his grandfather."
27."I was a live-in super of a building in Boston. The building had 43 units, and 40 were occupied by college kids. One year, a young girl moved in next to me, and three months later, her electricity was shut off. She started pounding on my door, demanding that I turn her electricity back on. I checked her circuit breakers; they were fine. I went into her apt and immediately noticed the pile of electric company mail on her table...with big red letters that said 'last warning.'"
"Me: 'You didn't tell the electric company that you were the new tenant?'
Tenant: 'What's the difference? Why do they need to know it's me?'
Me: 'They need to send you a bill for electricity usage.'
Tenant: 'Now I know you're messing with me. YOU DON'T PAY FOR ELECTRICITY!"
She moved out two days later of embarrassment, her parents having paid for breaking the lease."
28."I used to travel for a glamping company (glamour camping) where we would set up huge canvas tents for fancy weddings and parties. We woke up really early one morning to a bunch of calls from some rich LA woman about how the tents were wet — no other explanation. We rushed over, and it turned out that she had no idea what the concept of condensation was in the morning. I can't control nature — sorry, lady, you're not getting your deposit back."
29."I was an assistant making just over 50k a year, and I heard someone on the board of directors say, 'Of course he [mayor of a city] stole the money. You can't live on 90k a year!'"
30."This guy I went to college with is actually a really good friend, but he has zero idea how the real world works. His family bought him this decked-out $1,000,000+ mansion of a house and sold it to him on a personal loan without interest for $300,000. I called him on that when he said his family wasn't really that rich. 'It was just good timing.' I really do like the guy, honestly, but holy hell, I wanted to strangle him in that moment."
31."'My dad bought me an apartment in [one of the most expensive cities in the world] that sits empty so I have a place to stay when I visit.'"
32."I once went to a company event where people with investment properties told us that you just need to save hard to get that deposit. 'Just don't go out to dinner with your spouse as much, or just go to the pub every other Friday.' Ah yeah, so reducing restaurant dinners from 0 to 0 and the pub tab from 0 to 0. Still broke. My colleague left the zoom mid-way through."
33."'How do you only have one dishwasher?' Imagine their shock when I told them the apartment I had just moved out of and lived in for 14 years didn't have one at all."
34."I taught high school math at a private school for wealthy kids. The lesson was about compound interest and how it's calculated. A student raised their hand and asked why should we know this. Naive me answered that you need to know when you get a loan to buy a car or mortgage for a house. They looked baffled and asked me why I wouldn't pay for it in cash like the last Mercedes-Benz I bought. I couldn't reply after that."
35."Last year at an elite university. ... I was studying in the library with the kid of wealthy landowners. She made the casual claim of how proud she was of us funding ourselves through uni. A little confused by this, I asked what she meant as I worked full time, and she lived off her trust fund. She clarified she made such a claim because she was choosing to spend her trust fund on her law degree, which was the same as me choosing to work full-time to pay for my law degree. Whereas everyone else was being made to go by their parents."
36."'I pay 13k for private school. They need to figure out why my kid has behavioral problems, not me.'"
37."This girl got genuinely angry and offended when people suggested she could take public transportation to the airport instead of paying for a $50 Uber. She posted on social media about it."
"The bus they suggested is very convenient and goes directly from our college to the airport, so it's not like she'd have to drag her luggage from bus line to bus line."
38."My boss at the time made between 5-10x more than I did. We were talking about big purchases like a car or house, and he said something along the lines of 'Well, you'll get a great deal since you'd be an all-cash purchaser.' I just kind of smiled and nodded, knowing that, on my salary, of which he was aware, I was not even an all-cash purchaser of groceries."
39."I did some medical volunteer work in Haiti post-earthquake. I stayed in a Christian missionary compound because the clinic I worked at was supported by the mission. At dinner, I was talking about the bathroom at the clinic (basically an outhouse) and how, instead of toilet paper, there was a bucket with torn-up book pages. The only reaction I got was a gasp followed by, 'I cannot believe they treat books that way!' I was speechless. Like if that's what you took away from that, I cannot help you."
40."Back in 2006, I was working at a movie theater. The guy gets a large drink and popcorn, which comes out to about $20. He exclaims how expensive that is (which is true) before declaring how glad he is to make $52/hour and handing me his card. I was 17 and making $6.25/hour at the time."
41.And finally..."My friend who grew up not having to worry about money once said, 'Oh, I don't really eat leftovers.' I told him that was one of the most entitled things I ever heard."
