'Go have a word with the captain...Tell him who you are': 20+ Wealthy people who were so out of touch with reality

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    TWENTYR 100 GUESS
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    What instances have you observed of wealthy people who have lost touch with 'reality'? I've had a few friends who have worked in jobs that required dealing with people who were wealthy, sometimes very wealthy. Some of the things I've heard are quite funny/bizarre/sad and want to hear what stories others may have.
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    ChenDuxiu I live in Hong Kong. Back in the early 2000s, a local gym/fitness club changed their regulations so that only people with paid up membership could enter the premises. Why? Because tai tais (a colloquial term in Hong Kong for a wealthy married woman who doesn't work) were bringing their maids to the gym to help them undress and dress.
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    bigfriendben I wasn't there, but my friend told me how one of his classmates said "I feel sorry for them, because they have a budget" in reference to a couple planning a wedding.
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    [deleted] Upgraded to 1st class recently on a flight that ended up delayed on the ground for an hour (wasn't even mad). A woman in front of me turned to her husband at one point and said, "Why don't you go have a word with the captain and see if you can get him to hurry up? Tell him who you are."
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    I had no clue who he was, but at least he understood that that wouldn't work even if the woman he was with didn't.
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    kiloechoalpha When I was a supervisor for Starbucks, we had a regular who ordered the same (extra modified) frappuccino every day, three times a day. She had to have it all the time and only liked getting them. from a few stores. When she would go on road trips to her cabin, she would come in the night before and we would pre make a whole bunch of frappuccinos and
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    not add ice or blend them. This would be so she could blend them in her car on the way there and back. Did the math, she spent over $8000 per year on this For the record, she was an heiress and only stayed home all day watching soap operas.
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    [d... Last year, I lived in University Accommodations with a boy whose father was a high ranking member of the Chinese government. Perhaps due to the fact that I was also Chinese, or as the result of the excess privileges lavished upon him. from an early age, he immediately established me as his 'best friend' and started to stalk me to and
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    from lectures, to the extent where I had to vary my routes every few days. I'm a girl, so it got, to say the least, a little disconcerting. Anyway, this chap was intelligent, however, had difficulties using common household appliances. He did not know how to use a microwave or a toaster.
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    One day, at 10pm, I heard a rapid knock on my door, which of course, was this guy. He had microwaved a bowl of ramen in a ceramic bowl, and did not know how to get the bowl out because the ceramic was far too hot. Sarcastically, I replied that he had better let it cool. Half an hour later, he knocked on my door again, and started whining, in the most piteous of voices, that now the bowl
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    was cool enough to handle, his ramen had also turned cold.
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    Ja... On the hill from Hampstead tube station, some Joan Collins 1980s clone of a woman parked her Range Rover outside a shop on a double yellow line (no parking on that road) with her hazard lights flashing. She was coming out of the shop carrying her frou frou little paper bags as a traffic warden was fixing the parking ticket to her window.
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    She snatched it from the windscreen and said in a posh but aggressive voice, "I don't care. I can afford it." Threw the flapping paperwork into the vehicle and roared off down the hill. To most of us, parking meters and Do Not Park signs and road paint are parts of society with a financial penalty to keep the system going. For this
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    woman, it was like having a park-where-you-like system that occasionally had a fee that made her bitchy and wasted the time it took to write out the cheque and post it for the fine.
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    SqueezyCheez85 Just whenever people can't comprehend that I might not have $20 to spend right now. And after I let them know: "But it's only $20." ...
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    BlueHighwindz I used to go to middle school in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Staten Island. The local kids who lived right next to old mobster mansions thought they were middle class. One of the teachers had to kindly explain to them the difference, diplomatically calling them "lower upper class".
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    chedeng There was this incident I heard about a couple of years back about a local socialite who married into one of the richest and most powerful families here. The story goes that she was at a bank's main office to meet with the CEO. Instead of taking the elevator like a regular person, she had her bodyguards remove all the people inside the elevator so
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    that she could go up alone without people bothering her. She said something along the lines of "Get out of my elevator." Funny thing is, one of the people she had forced out the elevator was the bank owner's wife, who decided to take another elevator with
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    the rest of the people who were forced out. Once the socialite got to the office, the bank owner's wife was already there, and promptly told her to "get out of her building."
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    [deleted] "Why would you take the train?" This a sentence that led me to believe that a lot of rich people have lost touch with reality. Though they can still be good people. As I learned over the week. Several years ago I was a contractor in Afghanistan. I was in my early 20s and
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    making a bunch of money. I decided I'd go to the Monaco Gran Prix. I flew from Dubai to Paris then to Nice. On my flight to Nice I sat next to a Jordanian guy in his mid 30s. I could tell he had money because of his Patek Phillipe watch that probably cost around $50k. We got to talking and I jokingly said "nice watch. Private jet in the shop?" He laughed and said "actually
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    my father is using it so I have to fly commercial." We chat for the rest of our flight about attending the Gran Prix and movies and whatnot. When we go to get our bags and I say my goodbyes. I tell him I gotta catch the train to Monaco that's leaving soon so I can get to my cheap apartment I rented on the edge of town. He looks at me and just says "why
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    would you take the train" I tell him I can't afford a taxi so I have to take the train in and he just says to take the helicopter with him. I put up a half assed protest (who wouldn't want to take a helicopter into the city?!) and eventually go with him. It ruled. He had is driver, who drove a Rolls Royce, drop me off at the apartment. We exchanged numbers even though I never expected to
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    hear from him. The next day he invites me to the docks to attend a private party on a yacht. Lewis Hamilton was there! 10s everywhere. Sadly I didn't get to hook up with any of them. What was originally supposed to be a few days of me hanging out and watching the races from the stands turned to me attending parties with celebrities and formula 1
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    drivers and the richest of the rich. Hanging out in the pits and all sorts of cool On one drunken night he confessed that he invited me because it's the first time in years someone treated him like a person. Not kissing his or being fake.
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    I sorta felt bad for him. He didn't seem like he had any real friends. I'd be lying if I wasn't envious. But little things he said made it seem like he was completely oblivious to how everyone else lived. But I don't think I can really blame him.
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    OfficePsycho Several years ago a job of mine led me to encounter a person who had come from a wealthy background, had a cushy job with a successful company, and rarely interacted with those below his socio-economic level. He decided to weigh in on a conversation about the economy I was having with some people. His opinions sounded so stereotypical
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    that I was waiting for him to use the term "bootstrappy" in a serious manner. The reason I share this is because he went on to say that with minimum wage what it was anyone could support themselves. He then revealed that he thought the minimum wage in the United States was $19.63 an hour.
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    It took quite a bit of effort to convince him how wrong he was with that amount, and I respect him for accepting his mistake, but it blew the minds of everyone there that he could be so out-of-touch.
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    The (mainly) Filipino maids. would sit in the changing rooms for an hour or more while their employer did a class, then help them dress (dry hair, etc) when they came back. The gym basically wanted to get rid of the Filipinos sitting around in the change rooms, but the tai tais simply bought them memberships!
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    thr... Sorry in advance for the weird phrasing, I'm trying to make the information as non-identifying as possible. Worked as a nanny for a 1% family. Saw some outlandish stuff. Remember having one parent complain how was a friend hadn't offered to fly them to Miami on a private jet for a weekend getaway, and they were it
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    'forced' to go first-class. Had the other parent tell me they thought it was really 'sweet' I was happy to help others and never be wealthy (I was working on a degree in social science). They would also spring last minute trips on me (and their kid) all the time, so I'd stay in the main house with their child while the parents were country hopping. Poor kid never had any sense of
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    who was going to be where - there were business related videos of the parents on youtube so it got to the point where I'd play them on an ipad so the kid had some sense of consistency (this was a very young kid). Just to be clear the kid was absolutely adorable and very sweet (which made it really hard to leave, I felt terrible), but it was pretty
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    disheartening to think they'd probably turn out like their parents in a few years. Edited to add: The best part about the parent complaining over the first class flight was when they asked me if I thought they were overreacting. Literally asked me 'Wouldn't you be
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    upset? Don't you think that's ? They've been doing better [financially] now that they have Company X money they could have sent a plane ect' and I'm thinking, well I'm pretty sure my entire year's salary couldn't pay for one chartered flight so you know I'm probably not the best person to ask.
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    LEPRON JAMES My classmate got three traffic tickets in two consecutive days. About $700 total, including fees and whatever. He paid the fines without batting an eye and cheerfully said it was a good lesson to learn. Pretty sure I was more appalled and upset than he was.
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    [deleted] My dad and I worked for the owner of a big beverage company. The owner's wife was yelling at my dad for tipping the garbage man 20 bucks while I was carrying a 20,000 dollar lamp she just purchased.
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    [deleted] I work in auto parts and a really flustered woman came in last winter. All she said was that she couldn't see clearly anymore cause the things weren't cleaning the glass. I go out to look at her wiper blades, it's a newish Mercedes and the rubber is torn clear off the frame. So I go back inside and while I'm
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    getting her replacements im explaining to her how you need to free the blades from ice before you turn them on or they'll tear like that. She gives me the most puzzled look I've ever seen - on a person think puppy hearing a weird noise for the first time, head cocked and all. She asks me what I mean... I said before you get in and turn them on, just
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    give them a gentle pull so they're not attached to the ice anymore. She gives me that look again and says... It's cold, you can't expect me to seriously touch it. Now it was my turn to be a little puzzled. She says.. I thought the car took care of that nonsense, you can't expect a regular person to work on it like that.
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    I said ma'am, the only way to prevent this happening again is to ensure the blades aren't stuck in ice... That's it. She huffs out loud and says, Fine! I guess ill have to talk to the help about being on top of that from now on. Then she pays and leaves before I can process and say anything else.
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    gatorblu Once asked one of the directors of my company to spot me for lunch (I had forgotten my wallet), he handed me two $100 bills and was legitimately concerned it might not be enough.
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    32deuce32 Kind of the same thing but flipping it around so a wealthy man puts another wealthy man back into his place. Kerry Packer, was one of the richest men in Australia for many years, up until his death a few years ago. Packer was an avid gambler and was in the high rollers room at a casino in Vegas, in
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    the high rollers room was a loud mouth Texan who was bragging about being worth $100 million (unsure of exact figure), was surrounded by all the beautiful girls and getting a lot of attention, Packer was fed up at this point and proceeded to say to the Texan 'I'll toss you for it'? To which the Texan shut up and walked out.
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    [deleted] My uncle who is really rich told me that if I wanted to change careers I should just take an unpaid internship or beg to work for free, well I need to pay the rent so I don't really have that option
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