Rich Kids

Jake and I watched a documentary the other night about rich kids. This Johnson & Johnson heir decided to make a film about all of his other heir and heiress friends, to talk about what it is like to grow up so rich, with money so old, that in some cases their parents and their grandparents have never worked. So nobody in the family even understands what it means to have a career.

The guy making the film asked his dad what he should do for a career. I got the impression that the dad painted, but has never worked a day in his life. The dad suggested that he begin working on a collection, perhaps of old maps. It was so bizarre that the dad was so out of touch with reality that he thought that collecting things counts as a career.

Now to make a totally gross generalization, it seemed to me that the older the money, the dumber the person. So if the person's money was so old that his parents had never worked and his grandparents had never worked and his great-grandparents had never worked because they all lived off the fortune of the great-great-grandfather, the person just seemed so out of it. Whereas there were a couple of people in the film whose parents had actually made their fortune, and these people seemed to be the sharpest and most with-it of the group.

One guy talked about how it is important for him to be involved in bettering himself, being actively engaged in the world rather than just passively consuming. He gave, as an example, the fact that he goes to the tailor and spends hours with the tailor making sure that his suit is just right. That was his example of being active.

It was funny to hear people say things like, "If I were to date somebody, I don't know if I'd bring them to my houses." Just the way they throw around houses, plural, the way that most of us talk about our house, singular.

The heirs and heiresses keep within their own circle for friendships and dating. Which probably makes sense in a way. I imagine it would get messy trying to be involved with a non-heir. How would you know they weren't just a gold digger?

People with wealthy inheritances fascinate me in some weird trainwreck way. This is probably because I used to teach at a school that had a number of kids like that, and a lot of other kids were rich too, even though it was new money. These families tended to treat teachers like servants and I didn't respect their values. I have some old fashioned values about the importance of work, probably.

If I had unlimited money I think I would still work. Jake always says that he wouldn't but I'm not sure about that because he also has this weird man thing going on about how he's supposed to have a career and all. (After all, he could not work now if he wanted, but he starts work on Monday). I think one big difference is that I'd have more kids. I mean, I guess it's kinda late for that, but if I had a ton of money I'd probably have like 4 or 5 kids total, and just get a bigger house for all of them and hire the help that we'd need to take care of them. Big families seem like a lot of fun.