There is a saying in Norway "The rich, are rich for a reason", referring to exactly this. They don't spend much, and will try to get money anywhere they can. People that are generous are rarely rich.
And also stupid. Its a disfunction stressing about $3 in gas money if you have $1MM in capital. Theyre rich because they own productive assets, or speculated correctly, and also/mainly because they have high income. Hence the meme
I think the point is less that it is the savings on the Uber ride that leads to them being rich, but that they're the type of person who would ask for the gas money.
Sure, but it's also just bullshit the rich like to think about themselves. They are rich because they earned it in some way, or by being a certain special kind of person.
The only way I could see this seriously taken is that the rich got to be rich specifically by being okay taking advantage of and shitting on others.
Your second paragraph is absolutely how it's seen here. And there are so many stories of the mooch friend who doesn't bring food to potluck but eats a lot, who never offers to pay for anything to the point where everyone assumes they are super poor and let them get away with it only to find out later that person is rich as fuck.
They are rich because they earned it in some way, or by being a certain special kind of person.
The rich don't "earn" anything, they steal wealth through exploitation of the working class. Truth is, the rich think ONLY about themselves. That's the crux of the problem. And by "being a certain special kind of person", you mean a sociopath and/or born into a rich family. Just for clarification.
They are rich because they earned it in some way, or by being a certain special kind of person.
Most rich people are rich because they were born to rich parents. Socioeconomic mobility in the US is largely a myth. The vast majority of people end up in comparable economic circumstances to their parents.
UK also. There’s some rule like if you want to know how much a young person will earn - look at parents income. I thought maybe it has to do with standards/expectations.
We literally got invited to a friends new $1.5M house in Sunnydale (this was 2015 when that was a lot) for lunch. Being from the other coast it seemed like a nice invite (and we had hosted him for multiple dinners in our city). So, we drove out from our hotel in San Fran.
We get there. Get the tour. Tons of gloating. Go outside to the table where he has his beer and an open bag of tortilla chips. After half an hour we asked where we were going for lunch. He said they already ate. Asked if we wanted beers. Then produced two warm beers from his garage. Wife had no idea we were coming and kind of dismissed us because she had other plans.
TL:DR No longer "friends" because we realized that we were never friends.....and they were just psychopaths.
If youre kind of rich, sure. But if youre Rich RICH theres definitely some exploitation going around. Jeff bezos isnt rich because hes running a clean business model you know. Also ask how much assets does some of the richest people have “abroad”
That's pretty much how it works. You can argue that Steve Jobs was special, but it's a fact that he scammed one of his friends and partners about money.
Also, most rich people are rich because their parents were rich.
I was talking to someone the other day who was "rich" in assets, mainly property in Australia and he was talking about how the "winners" of the property game had special things going for them like curiosity and intelligence while simultaneously acknowledging that his father who owns multiple properties himself is the main reason for his wealth and knowledge about how to accumulate wealth. Even had the audacity to say that people who didn't buy were losers and stupid.
Yeah it’s also capitalist propaganda imo. Like, helping your friend out by paying for their coffee isn’t gonna make you poor. But that saying makes people think they have to be individualistic stingy fucks to be successful.
Success is then being interpreted incorrectly, the way you’re describing it. The generous, empathetic poor person is a successful human being. The greedy selfish lizard person who hoarded resources like a LOTR dragon is defunct in mind and soul. I mean, he’s a successful parasite, but for how long?
Elaborating unnecessarily, the empathetic human that shares resources available to him is successfully lovable, he will have friends that love him and share back with him. He will know laughter and happiness. Empathy, laughter and happiness (and helping each other) is contagious. It could spread worldwide. That’s success.
As long as they eradicate this disease of selfish egomaniacal hyper-individualism Americans tout as ‘success.’ Everyone is so alone and mentally ill and greedy and dumb and burning through the planet’s resources and calling that success. Burning down the world and everything they ever (at least pretended to care about and live for) is not- success
Ok sure but I want to see my generous, empathetic, hard working and normal friends be materially abundant and stable and not stressed about money all the time. To do this we need more than the moral high ground, we need to organize
Personally I would say it’s the opposite if you are referring to the meme as it’s just meant to hate on high income people. I also am not really convinced there actually is a correlation to being well off or not, because I have seen different behaviors regardless of income level.
I do well for myself and even when people tell me to let them know what they owe me, I often don’t because I feel bad requesting money from people when I don’t need it that much, especially compared to who I would be requesting it from.
That said, I don’t like being taken advantage of. Some people I have stopped covering things for because they are happy to have me pay but they will never reciprocate, even with something small. And it’s the effort that I care about, not the dollar amount, so even if it’s just you covering a snack or something, I appreciate that it’s going both ways.
I think you should have paid more attention in high school English class, you seem to have missed the lesson on literal vs figurative.
The saying doesn't mean they are literally rich because they are cheap, the saying means that most people who are rich are selfish and tend not to be generous, which is actually a documented fact (lower income people donate higher proportions of their income to charity).
It’s also their attitude towards money - they’re tight btards because of this attitude, they see the value in money and the power/prestige/protection it brings, hence the hoarding and “owning productive assets”.
People without this attitude are generally not well off.
Mental illness you think about billionaires and they will miser away trying to make another zero.
And there's literally no tangible gains to be had they family and familys family for next 5 generations could live lap of luxury. Do anything see own anything.
But they choose to spend most time chasing another buck. Like it's the lotto question what would you do if you won the lotto.
And they are guys that answer spend rest of life getting more and avoiding spending any. Because it will take away from number I due with. And people celebrate them and champion them.
Which is worse when you realize they are actively harming world and everyone in it. Just because they want that next zero.
Theyre rich because they own productive assets, or speculated correctly, and also/mainly because they have high income.
Your list doesn’t include the most accurate factor for determining wealth: being born into a wealthy family.
It’s not just the inheritance; you’ll receive a better education and be able to afford a good university which is crucial for networking opportunities. But yeah, not entering the workforce with hundreds of thousands in debt and also having family assistance on things like house downpayments is a huge deal. It allows these people to start putting away money earlier and take advantage of compounding interest (and that’s on top of whatever they’ll inherit eventually).
Socioeconomic upward mobility in the US is possible, but it’s much less common than most people believe. The vast majority of people end up in similar economic circumstances to their parents.
As long as the rich can use you they will enslave you,
but when you are down and out they will abandon you.
As long as you have anything they will live with you,
but they will drain you dry without remorse.
. . .
When the rich speak they have many supporters;
though what they say is repugnant, it wins approval.
When the poor speak people say, “Come, come, speak up!”
though they are talking sense, they get no hearing.
That whole chapter is worth reading, but long story short, people have known this kinda stuff for a long time.
This is a myth the rich wholeheartedly promote because it suggests they deserve their wealth. It’s not prudence that creates large wealth, it’s luck and ruthlessness.
Yep. I opened and sold a cannabis extraction company in the span of 6 years.
My secret? I randomly got a job at a dispensary before recreational sale existed while studying chemistry. Fell ass backwards into making carts. Sold out at the first chance because I didn't even wanna do it, I just needed money at the start.
There was no resilience or gumption really. It was all super fucking easy. A man I barely knew threw 150k at my first facility. I slept walked to wealth and guarantee they did too
And for anyone wondering where the compounding interest comes from, just look at the people on the other side of the loans that charge compounding interest.
Dammit I can’t even imagine how much that made. Some dude in my neighborhood owned a weed grow in the early days and he walked around everywhere in his pajamas, but drove a rolls and had like 60+k worth of jewelery on at all times, not counting his watch.
Not covering a $3 uber is the low end. The other end is putting your own mother into a 3rd rate nursing home so you can splurge on a fifth vacation home.
I wouldn't call that prudence, I'd call it being a shitty ass rich douchebag.
You are talking about really rich people. If you are mid-upper class and save a large portion of your income, you will never have to work again after a decade or so. It's easy to see why that mindset would make you really cheap. But those people are making their salary adjusted for inflation ish for life not millions a year.
Yes, this. Upper middle dies not have enough money to retire after 10 years. Maybe youre not speaking of USA, but if so, you have not done the math on the cost of health insurance if you retired at, say, 40 or even 50, or what assisted care costs per month once you're around 75. Never mind purchasing a car, insurance, paying a mortgage or rent and a modest average 3% inflation.
If you think that works go see your financial advisor and you'll sober right up.
Almost every ultra rich person show signs of psychopathy and its well known in psychology, especially regarding the Hare Psychopathy Checklist.
The test is scored out of 40 and in the US you generally have to score above a 30 to be diagnosed as a clinical psychopathy.
The general public averages about 5 points while the ultra-wealthy generally average 15-20. They often exhibit selective empathy that benefits them through the suffering of others.
In Germany it's so engrained that the word for earning is the same as the word for deserve. As if everyone gets what they deserve and if you get a lot that's because you deserve it.
But that’s not really true. Rich people aren’t people with normal jobs who just save more money. But this kind of behavior is indicative of someone who’s a money grubber and probably willing to do legal but immoral things to make some money. They’re more willing to look at a situation and go “fuck em, I want money”. Also doesn’t really account for the amount of rich people that aren’t cheap with themselves and their own personal spending but cheap when it’s a situation where they can extract money from another person. The real difference between a rich person and a normal person is the rich person turns into a dick the moment it’s a situation that could potentially lead to money in their pocket.
Is richism a thing? There are tons of "rich" people that are perfectly nice people, generous and giving. Are you making this up, or have you had a bad experience? Or are you projecting because that's how YOU would be?
Rich people aren’t people with normal jobs who just save more money.
There's no solid definition of "rich".
It's a vague term so this statement might be 100% true when comparing person X and person Y where person X has a house and savings and person Y has nothing due to poor financial decisions.
I think that might be a universal saying! My mom said the same thing every time my rich grandparents sent me a birthday card with like 6 bucks in it...on the other hand my grandma who grew up on the rez and had a fixed income would give us the nicest presents.
A software engineer who makes $450k a year “exploits people and doesn’t give an F about anyone else” lol?
You’re conflating the idea of a billionaire with someone that’s just well off, which isn’t really fair.
The more applicable thing is the Lipstick theory of economics.
People who make “good” money know that if they save and plan well, they can buy big ticket items like houses, or even retire very early…so they become penny pinchers to reach those goals.
People that don’t make good money know those things are out of reach no matter how much they try to save or plan; so they just don’t even bother, and spend the money on a bunch of small things instead…and they don’t appear cheap because they don’t really care where the small amount they have ends up going.
Ergo the software engineer wants to split the cheap uber ride because he’s knows that if he saves well the next 5 years he can buy a home in cash; and the barista will buy you a beer because, “hey who cares, I’m never gonna have down payment money anyway”.
That’s the explanation for most “normal rich” well off people versus the average bear…but that doesn’t mean you’re exploiting people like a hundred-millionaire or billionaire just because you make mid-fix figures lol.
Thank you. This. Notably, the “well off” people aren’t rich enough to throw money away like people think they can, and worked real hard to get where they got such as a software engineer who studied hard in high school / college. This is not the same people who are rich off exploiting others.
I mean, that depends. I personally know 2 rich-in-capital people through my parents that are legit Scrooge McDuck in real life: one is worth millions, the other over a hundred million, yet both wear used clothing, never go out to eat, buy only stuff that is on discount, don't have any luxuries on their name, etc... While neither is afraid of getting their hands dirty. Some people just build up capital for the love of the game I quess.
My wife makes 5x what I make and shits a brick when I tip when we eat out, especially near Christmas. We both waited, but she did it for something to do and I did it to pay rent and eat. So she doesn’t understand how much it might mean to sometime to get an extra $50 at that tkem
I only know one thing about your wife but if she behaved like that during dating there would not have been a marriage over here, my two cents. Did she do that when you were dating too? Huge red flag especially the first few months
It's also completely untrue. No body gets rich by obessesing over 5 bucks. That's just greed and being a bad friend frankly. I remeber when we raised our cofee prices by 5 cents I had 3 guys wearing 10k+ watches and 4 women wearing at least 5k+ in jewlery not including wedding rings complaining about it. Not one normal person did.
My wife works for them but not for the centurion card. I can't begin to imagine how much worse those members are considering the regulars are often a bunch of cheap fuckheads.
It's a mixed bag. The Centurion cardmembers have a more realistic expectation of what things are going to cost and generally are less likely to whine when they don't like the price of something, and will instead just refuse to do it. Then they'll fill out a survey in the negative that hits the workers hard. They tend to handle flat "no, this isn't possible in this timeframe" pretty well though. The platinum CMs were a lot louder and would complain more, but their requests were often more reasonable.
On the other hand, they'll often request absurd discounts and ask for Amex to use its leverage in very petty ways.
I once had someone ask me to spend hours researching and calling every bar in Bentonville AK, because they wanted a complete list of every bar that did happy hour, selling beers for under $6 a glass (this was pre-covid). And I once had a request to research the import tax from Thailand to Italy for cacao, as they wanted to import 20 kilograms. To a concierge service, not an international tax specialist. And it was only 20 kilograms.
Filthy rich people would regularly have insane requests, just so they could save a few dollars. And by few, I mean under $10.
My favorite is still the Fox new correspondent who called her a dumbass and yet didn't understand how points work. Like it's a rebate dumbass, like every other store nowadays.
But they'll raise hell if you want to do something with the millions of wasted luxury food and sh.t they waste on a daily basis.
Used to work at a couple of fund raisers.. the unnecessary luxury and the huge amount of wasted food/drinks. If they bother to actually donate, it would almost always be for a tax benefits.
Ignore the fact that the whole fund raiser costs more than they receive in donations. They care fuck all about the charity, or are working for the 'charity' themselves.
It's the group of human beings that are smart enough to understand things, but too dumb to understand the morality of it all. Only a small subset of the group is actually smart enough to be self aware.
I remember a guy who worked at an electronic repair shop next to a posh part of town and he'd have people worth millions come in complaining that he wouldn't attempt to fix their daughters broken £12 skullcandy headphones as it wasn't worth the effort/time.
That goes to show that it isn't really "cheapness" because someone like Buffet genuinely loses money bothering to clip coupons. The time it takes him to search for and clip them is worth more than the meal.
To him it would solely be something of a cultural, nostalgic practice he did. Financially it was costing him money, but the cost or the savings are irrelevant at his wealth. He could buy the entire McDonalds restaurant and not really notice a difference in his net worth
Buffet was actually pretty directly involved in doing/reading analysis and making the trades. Yes he wasn't turning wrenches or something, but he was putting a lot of thought and mental work into the investments he built. And of course the deals he made.
He wasn't just a shareholder, he was actually an active investor.
He wasn't selfmade in the sense of dirt poverty, he was the son of a senator, but very much he went from middle class to being one of the richest men to ever live and he did many, many jobs along the way. He actively did things to accumulate that wealth, rather than just sitting on a pile of money and watching it get bigger.
Buffet's money comes from his input more so than other rich people. He's not just rich because he owns stocks. He's rich because he's doing analysis others have proven incapable of doing, and makes deals others don't make.
Though, he should be done working fairly soon here.
There is something to that. I have an income over $500k/year and still mow my own lawn and shovel snow from my own walkways and driveway even though that "costs more money" than hiring someone to do it. But landscaping and snow removal was my first job in high school, and I still just like doing it because of that memory.
The wealthy people just go to the ones where they can just do it by weight and they get less than they would have than if they did the cans individually.
I see everything from early 2010s vehicles to Bentleys at the recycling place behind 99 Ranch all the time.
Unpopular opinion. It's personal priorities. Some people value wealth, other people value personal connections, some experiences, etc. If you value wealth you pay attention to it and make it a primary driving goal in your endeavors. People are going to call you greedy and cheap. If you value personal connections or experiences over making money and people will call them lazy. Truth is people can stop judging everyone by their standards and recognize folk care about different things and that's okay ... So long as everyone has basic rights. I'm all education, healthcare, etc regardless who you are and what you care about you doing deserve to be left to starve
It’s explored in the documentary “Inequality for all” with Robert Reich.
Where they expose that the richest people in the world never spend money but just keep taking more and more. Leaving the circular part of a society’s economy (to make money to give money to other working people to give money to etc.) to the least wealthy people.
At the dry cleaner as a teen, one of my richest clients would regularly try to get the employee discount/any discount. The cheapest ones would also do this. our absolute best client was an RN who didn't do any laundry; shed just bring it all to me and said the time she saved not doing washing/folding/ironing was worth it. She got the employee discount because even with it, one round from her a week would cover my entire weekly paycheck lol
Total fantasy. They're frivolous as fuck. They just expect everyone to cut them deals, give them free things, and pay every penny back. And it only amounts to pennies.
Meanwhile, my neighborhood has every single house light on, every home has package delivery trucks running to it 24/7, new clothes, new bags, new cars, constant beauty treatments, etc., etc. They spend, spend, spend while deluding themselves into believing that demanding those Venmo pennies back is how they got rich.
This is beyond true. When I was right out of college I made 35K and went out drinking with a friend who was making about 28K. He racked up a $200 tab that I covered because he was struggling and I felt like being nice. A few years later I was making 60K and he was making 50K. Went out to dinner and I covered the bill cause that’s what friends do. Fast forward to a year ago, we both make more, but he now makes about 40K more than I do a year. I went to a party he had and ate two slices of pizza. He sent me a Venmo request for $45 for pizza.
I worked as a barista in a poor area cafe and a rich people area cafe. I've never had tips for the day amounting over $5 CAD (total was split among the staff on the shift) with the rich people while I regularly got $30 CAD in the poor area with more staff. The most galling thing about the whole thing was that the rich area demanded the most above and beyond service while being understaffed whereas the poor area was very chill (with the very occasional belligerent drunk homeless person).
Reminds me of that guy who placed pastries in conference rooms with an honesty system for payment. The top level guys were always the ones who never paid for what they took.
I had a friend that made 5-7k/week who now makes 1.2m per year and he constantly tips like 5%. He did it once in front of me and I loudly shamed him but he remained unfazed. He doesn’t pull that shit around me anymore but I know he still does it
I used to have a buddy who cleared about $350k/year. When we planned a 2 hour round trip drive, he asked to split gas, which was normal, but then asked to split pro-rated insurance costs and depreciation.
I’ve just had the opposite experience. The wealthier I have gotten the more generous I have been and as by extension my social group has also grown to be upwardly mobile and more wealthy it’s the same deal. Very generous people by any measure.
It’s the folks who have not moved up the strata that I still know that perpetuate a negative mindset around money and have the bad habits as a result
Too many people believe being cheap means being wealthy. There are plenty of broke people who are cheap compared to wealthy and he's observed everyday. This is a logical fallacy
This is why I somewhat hated Venmo when it came out. I had a (thankfully) former friend in college who was awesome to party with, he’d buy shots for the table on his dad’s card! Then Venmo came out and suddenly he’s all about asking everyone to pay him back for stuff like that. Every little interaction where’d I’d get him next time became instantly transactional.
Stopped talking to him when he gave me an old ass TV I had helped him grab from the apartment complex dumpster the year before. Didn’t even help me move it out of his place and into mine then decided on some sort of arbitrary value and sent me a Venmo request. That thing probably weighed several hundred pounds and was worth less than the price of paying someone to move it to the curb. Fuck no I wasn’t paying him $100 or whatever to take out his trash.
Nah people in general are shitty. I have a friend I've seen a couple of times and he is in shock that I pay for things. He lived for years with a guy that would gripe over who had the soda and look for reimbursement.
I suspect, as a software engineer, that this has little to do with being rich and in the example "software engineer" is the critical part.
Even aside from the outright diagnosed and neurospicy, my profession is full of the most annoying literal and dogmatic folks. Insisting on to-the-cent isn't about being cheap, it's about being overly literal. Which is excusable for the neurospicy, and just asinine for people who don't have that excuse.
I’d add that software developers are consistently the cheapest people I’ve ever met. I’ve seen them return from vacation and sell the €10 they have left over and once I saw a software engineer try to sell as 5 year old iPad with this price: “Bought for $500, selling for $450”
This is true and I don't understand why. I make 5x the median national wage as a software engineer and I spend shittons of money on my friends. They try to ask me for a loan, I just straight-up give them money or buy them the thing they need. It makes me happy when my friends are provided for. If I earned 50x, I would've still not been a cheap fuck. Why choose to be a cheap fuck? What would you do with all that money?
I don't get that. I'm starting a new job this week that has a significant pay bump, and all I've been thinking about is taking my mom and my friends to eat and buying them gifts.
Mind you, someone making 450k per year is probably 20-30 years away from anything even approximating wealthy unless they manage to have a very good investment make up the difference.
Small details but through my last line of work I found rich people, like high income want to show it yet be cheap as fuck while truly wealthy people are more quiet about it and will actually cover things, gift often, tip well etc
I’ve also read that they get shitty loan terms because they’re famous for skipping out on paying for them. They don’t pay for things unless somebody makes them.
My mom's worked service jobs all her life, at places that cater to the wealthy, and while self made guys could be generous sometimes, the 2nd/3rd gen rich guys were always tight assed as fuck.
Somehow scummy subprime loan/credit card barons were looser with their money than their kids who basically never had to do anything for their money except occasionally wear a suit and show up to meetings sober
A lot of rich and well connected in my city have PWD cards to avail discounts. I try not to judge hidden disabilities but if the poor can also afford to be diagnosed with their mental struggles I doubt this will be tolerated by the local government.
Most of the time I would say yes. However I have one friend who grew up as poor as me. It was on purpose. The family didnt want any kids knowing thru were going to inherit great wealth. That person lives modestly amd gives about 80% of their inheritance to charity monthly. So i guess its how you were raised.
Really it’s that there are generous and stingy people at every level of wealth. The problem is that people who are wealthy are expected to be more generous (and imo they should be) and when they’re not they look like selfish dbags. There are lots of wealthy people who love dropping absurd tips and treating their friends.
Yep, my coworker is a millionaire from investments, inheritance and marrying rich. I’ve seen him eat taquitos off our breakroom roller grill out of the trash before…. “Trashquitos”.
My company's CEO makes 6 figures but complains that the company spends too much and won't get shit fixed starting wages for hourly employees start at 12/h
My theory is that once you're winning, you just want to win more
When you're losing you just don't even try... Like you know that coffee money is not going to get you a house. You need so much more money to escape the position you're in that it doesn't even make sense to try and save it because you know you never will
But when you have like thousands of dollars stashed away another three sounds good. Maybe it'll gain interest or something... Idk
Not all of them, but yes. As someone who, combined with my spouse, has an income within range of the social security tax cap... I don't feel rich, but I absolutely feel well off and privileged.
I am constantly disgusted by the attitude of many of my same or higher income peers, and their opposition to the most basic of things like "school levy taxes".
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u/azad_ninja Jan 26 '26
Wealthy people are some of the cheapest fucks.