chapotraphouse

I worked in some of the fanciest tech companies for a long time, so I met people making up to $400k/year who were pretty cool. The cool ones tend to quit very quickly though, since that much money rapidly pays for a nice house and a retirement, and people who want more than that are messed up.

I don't think I ever met anyone who wasn't a psycho above that line. Often amiable psychos, who you could have a normal conversation with. But something has to be pretty deeply wrong with you if you're making $1m/year and you're not retiring immediately. And you don't even get to that point unless you worked through years of a lesser shitload of money (should've retired already), have some sort of nepotism connection (ie raised into moneyed psychopath culture), or are just a transparently cutthroat monster.

(These are all wages from working, btw. I have no doubt that the cutoff is lower for people living off other people's labor.)

there's an inflection point at which the acquisition of money supercedes any alleged moral goodness. Idk what that point is, but I'd wager it's sub 100kpa

how much is tons

honestly like, not really, but idk, plenty of well-compensated office drones are nice, if not very imaginative people.

I never met but he seemed fairly cool.

Once or twice. But as a whole, not really. I used to go in and out of rich peoples houses for work. 99.9(99999)% of them were absolutely insufferable.

Tangent: I do ok financially and have the typical suburban life. Sometimes I have maintenance or service folks come out. They're always shocked when I offer them coffee, talk about working class struggles (light stuff, like being pro union), and I don't get mad when they give me a bill.

On more than one occasion I've been told we're the favorite family in the neighborhood.

no. I've met people with tons of money that are better people than some, and who I could tolerate being around or maybe even hanging out with for a bit, but never anyone that I would consider a "good" person in an absolute sense.

edit: damn people in here know people with tons of money. For me "tons of money" is making more than 100k a year.

Yes, but almost never one that wasn't legit poor for at least a year or more sometime earlier in their lives.

I do think they're exceptions though, and I've met plenty of shitheads.

Any person I've met who was born into money, been well off their entire lives... even if polite, well meaning, they can be so out of touch, condescending. Meanwhile people I've met who've known poverty, hardship, struggle.... way more down to earth, non-judgmental, willing to share what little they have

depends on the job they do. If it's something egotistical like programmer or engineer, no. If it's something like a medical worker, maybe, but I also know some who have a lot of money and are reactionary because the medical field is dogshit and they hate the wrong people.

And while I didn't meet him, the Castro family is mostly based. Raul and Fidel gave away their large family estate to ordinary Cubans to live and work in after the revolution, and their sister became so pissed off that she defected to the US and worked for the CIA against them.

No I’ve met some who were libs though. They inherited their money. Their politics were just left of liberal but they were nice enough. Kind of naieve i would say about the brutality of the real world.

Then there’s the people who made it somehow (luck and privilege) and they are almost universally assholes. That’s how they did it! But i meet a tech person who was rich AF and they are actually a chill liberal nice enough person. But they got rich quick and young and just being very lucky.

i used to work for/around 1% types. like trust fund and $100,000,000+ USD net worth from birth types. they were all absolutely terrible people, except one. one was basically OK/friendly, except extremely naive. still relatively young. when they decided to marry, they literally married the one person who had more wealth... some massive property scion whose family owned more than half the county and had some nepo gig as an insurance exec. so maybe the ignorance was an act, but i was sold at the time. i was young too i guess.

i saw a billionaire once. massive metro developer. complete asshole. hideous in appearance and manner. treated everyone, including "business partners" like game board pieces. i worked for a guy who was trying to suckle at his teats on a quasi grift. i thought it was one of those "smart, but not for me" type of situations. but my boss apparently started believing his own hype and spun out of control. i separated from him somewhere in there. so did his extremely clever wife. i dunno if he has actual friends anymore, but he sure knows a lot of shady billionaires and is still always into something with them. when former colleagues send me screenshots from social media, it all looks so hollow and pointless. and literally culty.

No.

Wouldn't say tons of money or good precisely but I knew a music producer/drug dealer who was a pretty decent person

No. And I have met and known a fair few. Invariably, their human flaws have been magnified by 1000x whatever the number in their bank account is.

They're more flaw than human, now.

no even if they seem good and everything checks out otherwise, they have their boot on your neck

It strips you of empathy so it’s hard to see how someone with a lot of money could ever be a good person. Homelessness wouldn’t exist otherwise.

All the people with lots of money I've known have been terrible. Granted, they were all rich because their parents were, which is surely a factor.

Actually making an effort to think of anyone like that. One guy. He's a capitalist realist, but still has sympathy for those down and their luck and hates the cops. The guy has helped me, for sure.

is 90k a year with huge debt and no savings a lot of money?

Half of my extended family mostly consists of millionaires. They’re all liberal professionals who have done quite well since our family settled in the USA around the turn of the 20th century. I don’t think they would have a huge problem with Bernie becoming president (just as an example) but that’s as far as they could possibly go. Only one of them was really passionately into Warren and she’s also the only one I’ve witnessed mistreating wait staff. I’ve barely spoken with any of them since the pandemic started. So yeah, these people will probably be nice to your face, but if you have a problem with imperialism, they are obviously not going to be your friends. They also definitely have TDS and I’m afraid to ask their opinion about Ukraine or China.

Yes, a few! They threw the best parties too!

I’ve met someone with a lot of money who is a good person on the surface