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.

Rich and Tacky: Better Than Poor and Tacky

Money can't buy happiness, as the adage goes, but it can buy your own version of misery.

Interior decorating in the Upper East Side of Manhattan appears to be that misery.

Via Gawker, an eye-searing glimpse into some of the atrocious home furnishings undoubtedly financed by fees you paid from your tanking 401k.

It's a damn shame that the real estate market has crashed, robbing these barons of millions in resale value.

A damn shame.

The Upper East Side's Garden of Tacky Delights

Shopping Cowards

With all the economic misery hanging in the air like a oily fog, what are the rich folks supposed to do when they feel the need to feed their consumerist monster?

One of the latest trends is discreet shopping.

Special salons or boutiques have sprung up that allow guests to splurge in anonymity, because no one wants to be branded as insensitive when the peons in the unemployment line see you strutting past with bags from Gucci, Prada, or Tiffany & Co. to load into the back of your limo.

There are also "invitation only" events being staged at hotels and conference centers where high-end wares are on display, awaiting a financial bailout package of their very own. Chic women carrying small dogs could very well be the economic stimulus this country needs right now.

Not only are these scions of society not taking up valuable space in the workplace, they are also filling unused hotel rooms, using banquet services, and keeping alive a tradition of opulence that will be sorely needed when all of these poor people stop being on the news all of the time, and we can get back to what's really important...shopping.