Infuriating Rich People Are Better Than You

Let me begin by telling you a true story from my city.

My neighbor was explaining that some former residents of the neighborhood had moved on up to a much bigger house for their family of three, and they needed a plumber to put in a water supply to their new wet bar.

The neighbor recommended a good plumber who had installed an outdoor faucet for him previously, so the former residents decided to give him this plumber a whirl.

In the last year or so, the plumber had gone through a divorce, then lost his house as part of the breakup. He had hit a tough stretch, was living with his mother, and labored 10-12 hours per day to keep his head above water.

So the plumber shows up to install the water supply and notices that the homeowners lead a pretty luxurious existence. They are also very detailed and fussy about everything, providing excruciating detail about what they wanted, how they wanted it, tossing in their own ideas - just the thing that an expert working in a vocational trade like plumbing wants to hear.

The final straw was when the plumber was in the finished basement and they warned him not to make a mess on their newly installed dance floor.

They have a dance floor.

I admire the plumber's restraint. All he did was vent to my neighbor that he's working 12 hours a day to pull himself out of a crappy situation, and these folks have their own dance floor.

I thought this would be a good preamble to an article posted at Gawker concerning Peter and Billy Getty, heirs to the Getty Oil fortune, who have been deemed blog-worthy by the San Francisco Chronicle.

What's the blog's genre? What it's like to be rich.

Oh, yes. Begin heating up the tar and feathers.

Here's a little taste for you - get to know Peter Getty.

Since graduating from college in 1988, Peter Getty has flirted occasionally with real work, but finding it wearisome, has returned full time to his first love, watching television.

Not to be confused with serious responsibilities are Mr. Getty's infrequent forays into music and writing, nor is the obscure music blog he has kept pseudonymously for the past several years.

Make sure you add this blog, What The Butler Didn't See, to your feed reader. It will be perfect for those days when your blood pressure is running a little too low and needs a boost.