Super Rich Kid
mindatrisk
Veteran
About a year ago a girl from New York randomly added me as a friend on Facebook and messaged me asking if I was one of the protestors who had scratched her Dad's car... I wasn't and I wouldn't and I also happen to live the UK, I explained. Then she started asking me questions about what I thought of bankers etc. and so we got talking a bit. Anyway, she turns out to be the daughter of a Wall Street banker and she has this super rich lifestyle... mansions, yachts etc. She says her Dad earns $29 million a year. Because i'm putting together a magazine that is, I suppose, anti-capitalist etc. I asked her if she'd like to have a regular feature in the magazine where she can share her lifestyle, attitude etc. and i'd ask her questions and readers could ask her questions. She agreed, so I asked her to write an introduction piece about herself and her life. What she wrote I found quite surprising. Very candid, very open, and quite unusual in parts. Here it is:
I am studying at Yale, so not that far away from my parents who live in New York during the weekdays and in the Hamptons during the weekends. The Hamptons is becoming more and more a gated community of well-paid Wall Streeters. The parties in the Hamptons are endless, during garden parties in the summer bottles of Dom Perignon en Veuve Cliquot are sprayed around like it’s water. The Memorial weekend in the Hamptons is famous for it’s champagne spraying. Wall Streeters see themselves as the new aristocracy, the homes in the Hamptons are the equivalent of the chateaus along the Loire back in the 18th century in times of the ‘ancien’ regime. Peasants are seen as loosers who should not complain about the bail-outs back in 2009, because bankers are doing god’s work according to CEO of Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein. Paying 10 million or even more for a Hamptons home is not uncommon for the masters of the universe. Because high placed bankers earn multi-million bonuses each year, nothing is impossible anymore. A penthouse in the Upper East side, a Hamptons home, a yacht in Monaco or Saint-Tropez, and buying Ferrari’s like toys, nothing can be too much.
My parents have a yacht in Saint-Tropez, which is close to Monaco and Cannes. Only during the summer time the yacht is used, most of the year, it is just laying there unused in the port of Saint-Tropez. A decent yacht will cost you more than 25.000.000 dollars. So we spent most of the summer time in Southern France where we also have a vacation home. When not being at the yacht, days are filled with shopping at premium designers like Chanel, Gucci, Versace, Prada, or partying in one of the beach clubs in Saint-Tropez like Club 55, Bagatelle or Nikki Beach where a bottle of Dom Perignon will cost you 1300 Euros. Nikki Beach is famous for its champagne spray parties, where the fun is to order as much as champagne possible and than just spray around. The fun is in knowing that the peasants would have to work for months for what there is blown away in just seconds.
Fashion and shopping I like the most, so that’s the reason why we fly sometimes to famous shopping cities like Milan and Paris to have a ‘shopping weekend’. My mum is just like me, she spend her days with socializing in New York and the Hamptons and is a complete shopaholic.
Nowadays bankers have such a luxury lifestyle that they need millions to fund it, a 1 million bonus is not enough anymore, such ‘’small bonuses’’ are seen as peanuts by the new Wall Street aristocracy. Owning 15 luxury cars. Several homes in America and Europe. A $30 million, 46 meter yacht in St. Tropez is not uncommon for Wall Streeters. So Wall Streeters simply cannot live without multi-million bonuses anymore.
Comments
@mindatrisk
Hmmmm.
What is interesting about it?
Why do you consider any of it as true?
And
Is there anything more inviting that she could have written to someone setting up an anti Capitalist magazine?
Is she complaining about herself living the lifestyle?
It's not an anti-capitalist magazine, but there is that element, and whilst I think she's aware of it, I don't think she cares at all. I think she regards me, quite literally, as a peasant, and she seems to like to flaunt her lifestyle. She's shown me plenty of photos of her and her lifestyle. She enjoys it, it is what she knows, and when I asked her why she'd like to do the feature she just said to share an insight into the lifestyle of a 'real wolf of Wall Street'. It's interesting to me because of that insight and because i'd like to understand the appeal of that way of life and that way of thinking.
I don't know. She definitely lives it up and flaunts it, and she seems quite boastful at times, but also there seems to be a crack there... a bit of self awareness and a bit of a sense that something is amiss with it all. Tbh, i'm really excited about where a dialogue might lead. I'd never thought of having such a feature in the magazine, but it fits in perfectly with what I want to do.
@mindatrisk
When something sounds like too good of a deal..it usually is just that.
Are you the bait on a fishing line, thinking you are just going for a swim.
Consider how coincidentally enticing this all is to your own ego and how difficult that may make you from seeing it all objectively.
Hungry Ghost springs to mind....
"Masters of the Universe"...? "Peasants"....? Oh please.....
She sounds utterly delightful..... Do venture to ask whether the Masters of the Universe ever actually do anything beneficial, for the 'Peasants'....
She may yet have some redeeming qualities....
I think I understand where you are coming from, and I appreciate the concern, but it's not really how I think you're making it sound. I'm glad that I have the chance to do this feature with her but it's not a big thing to me. It's not like its Beyonce or something, she's just some kid who happens to be very rich and i'm really intrigued by the mindset behind it all. Again, I appreciate the concern, but it's really nothing like how you've interpreted.
I'm curious. I've only spoken to her a handful of times over the year, but one thing that i've noticed is that she's never once asked me how I am at the start of a discussion and never asked anything about me. She just wants to know what I think of her lifestyle... 'What do you think of me spraying $3800 bottles of champagne?'... 'What do you think about my yacht?' and so on. The cool thing is - for both of us - is that I sincerely couldn't care less. As anyone who has been blessed to practice the dharma for even the shortest while comes to realise, the glitz of material things wears very, very thin indeed. It just doesn't impress me at all that she is rich nor do I condemn her actions. I'm just curious. I really hope it can become a regular feature because I think it could be quite enlightening.
I suspect the reality of who she is does not match the picture you're getting. I'm not saying that it's definitely someone playing with you, only that people spin false lives to strangers over the internet for several reasons and one of them is an attempt to take advantage. These people will have a dozen people at a time they're emailing, trying to establish emotional connections.
I'm just saying be careful. My wife had an internet friend, someone who claimed to be from her old school who emailed her out of the blue and they struck up an internet friendship. After about a year, a story about a boyfriend getting out of the service and somehow they needed money for him to move and such began to emerge and maybe my wife could help and she'd get the money back. I convinced her to stop being so trusting and contact the military base, and turned out this "boyfriend" in the service had no intention of moving and the scam artist was trying to get money from both of them.
I get that. It happens to a lot of people, but it's not like that with this, and it's certainly not a friendship. She messaged me a couple of days ago, but I hadn't spoken to her before that since last year. Anyway, that's by the by. I posted what she wrote because I thought it was an interesting insight into a certain attitude... everything else - whilst nice to be concerned about - is irrelevant.
I can put a link to her Facebook profile if people are interested? I don't think that's unethical as it's a public domain. Here she is...
https://www.facebook.com/kate.benett.1
If it's not ethical, don't click!
Well, what a coincidence....
Yes. The Hamptons are the playgrounds here for the rich. Any rich. Old money and new money may not party together, but please...even rap stars and reality stars have houses there now. It's not just Wallstreeters.
Yes..the more you make, the more you spend and the more you want more to fund what lifestyle you already have.
Shopaholics are a dime a dozen. Some people are asset rich, but cash poor. Broke people can be shopaholics....until the credit line stops.
What exactly is she shedding light on?
What in her writing has she exposed you to AFA her/rich people's attitude?
What do you want people to take away from when they read this in your magazine?
What is your intention in sharing this?
Self-aggrandisement... ...
This girl's description of her lifestyle sounds like taken out of a Danielle Steel paperback.
It sounds too frivolous an excerpt to be published in a magazine with anti-capitalist magazine.
It sounds even too frivolous for Vanity Fair, as a matter of fact.
Honestly, what's the point of preening a girl like this ego? What's the interest of such an essay?
Yes, you're right. Basically, it's a pile of Tosh.
(Sorry @Tosh....
)
I think you are deliberately being provocative @mindatrisk, and as you have published what she said on this site, you are looking for certain views from 'buddhists' that may vindicate yours...
Well I think if you did this in the way I have described - you are a despicable person, in your own right and your issues are yours to own.
I hope she is doing well in her studies and will use the education that all the hard-earned money that her father has put into her education benefits other human beings in a useful way that ultimately benefits society.
But that is a mahayana view, that I don't think you really understand.
Yes I am being provocative... http://www.besportier.com/archives/most-famous-boxing-matches-top-ten-legendary-bestfloyd-mayweather-vs-oscar-de-la-hoya.jpg
Everyone we meet has the opportunity to teach us something, even if they don't know it.
Here is what caught my eye. She says she is living in NY. She refers to her mom as "mum." We don't do that in the US. That is a UK thing. So I am not sure how much of what she says I truly believe. Not that it's entirely impossible that she refers to her mom as mum. I just find it highly suspect. She comes across as a teenager who reads and watches shows about rich people and pretends she lives that lifestyle. She does NOT sound like someone who would get into Yale, no matter how much her parents make. She talks like my 12 year old son.
Also, you'll note the people commenting on her page (that are publicly available) are all posting in foreign language. She may be rich, but I don't think she is from the US. Not from what I can see of her FB page.
Ha! Such an English thing. Do Americans say 'Gordon Bennet'??
I like questions. It makes me feel like i'm someone important being interviewed.
What exactly is she shedding light on? I suppose that depends on your own lifestyle. I don't have any rich friends. I've never been around the rich lifestyle. It's interesting to me.
What in her writing has she exposed you to AFA her/rich people's attitude? What's 'AFA'?
What do you want people to take away from when they read this in your magazine? I'd like it to be a regular feature, so overtime i'd like readers (most likely anti-capitalist, Occupy Movement types) to see that there is nothing to envy in the rich lifestyle, that having yachts and mansions doesn't negate human suffering, not does it bring them any lasting happiness, that, in fact, their lifestyle simply reflects the logical conclusion of the mistaken view that fulfilling desires brings happiness. If Kate opens up over time then I hope people connect with her as a human being - not as someone to resent, and maybe, just maybe, she might begin to sympathise with those who feel so strongly about their lifestyles.
What is your intention in sharing this? Well, it just relates so strongly to Buddhism and, in particular, the cause of suffering. I don't know she said certain things, given all I asked for was an introduction to her life, but it's fascinating that she chose to say those things.
I'm not sure what you mean. Can you explain a bit more? I'm not sure how i'm being provocative or how i'm a despicable person, but i'm open to having it explained to me. Oh, and I love Mayweather (in terms of fighting skills), I think he's a genius. I find it really helpful to imagine my practice as a martial art, i.e. if someone attacks me then to have skilful defences, for example, not biting, remaining patient, having understanding etc. and then also to be able to 'attack' back, which in terms of practice means - having neutralised their blows - then being able to respond with love, kindness, compassion etc. Because Mayweather is the best at what he does, and especially because his defence is so good, I find his ability a real inspiration. I love it.
I think... think, that maybe she has some Dutch heritage, as she's spoken of spending time there and sometimes people post on her FB page in Dutch. So, maybe that's where 'Mum' comes from.
I'd like it to be an ongoing feature where readers can ask her questions, make points etc. so that insight can be gained into the attitudes and mindsets of the super-rich. From my point of view this is very important for 'anti-capitalists'. I just wanted an introduction to her and her lifestyle, and this is what she wrote. I found it interesting so I shared it, but it's not the whole of the feature, nor even the point of the feature, merely an introduction.
@mindatrisk -- My reaction was, bravo, mindatrisk! Whether this person is lying or not, playing a role or retailing a truth, is almost irrelevant to your magazine effort. To offer this essay in a magazine devoted to capitalism -- so often a screed against greed and corruption -- is a good idea.
If her bona fides make you anxious, just put a disclaimer at the front of the essay ... "I have no way of knowing whether this is true or not, but it was offered and I accepted."
If it's true, then there seems to be some reflection going on. If it's not true, there still seems to be some reflection going on.
A curious human trait is the difficulty in seeing what is beyond whatever bubble anyone inhabits: Rich, poor, strong, weak, well-educated, ignorant, religious, atheist ... whatever the circumstances, it is hard/impossible to live some place other than where you live. But then -- like Gautama taking a chariot ride outside the palace walls -- something, some incident, may open the door to curiosity or discomfort.
If nothing else, the story suggests a wider panorama than knee-jerk anti-capitalism: How could anyone hope to revise or defeat an enemy without studying and assessing that enemy's characteristics?
Yeah, I agree. I don't resent her or judge her in the slightest. She's a 23 year old who has been brought up in a certain environment amongst certain attitudes and perspectives. It takes a lot of good fortune to exist within such a circumstance and hold a questioning mind AND go against the grain. The good thing was that when I said i'd like to ask her challenging questions, she said 'ask whatever you want'. I appreciated that. I think there is a degree of curiosity there, and I really think it could be a very important dialogue... for all concerned.