When most of us boil down an average day, a decent chunk of it is spent earning money or doing auxiliary tasks to help ourselves earn money tomorrow. But a lucky few live a life so far removed from this that our lifestyles might appear mutually incomprehensible. 

A netizen was curious to hear the fabulously out-of-touch things the rich had said to people. Internet users shared all the weird, incorrect, and confusing flights of fantasy that they had heard from wealthy people. So prepare to cringe and roll your eyes as you scroll through, be sure to upvote your favorite post and comment your thoughts and experiences below. 

#1

“You’ve never been to Disney? Did your parents not love you or something” B***h my parents were raising three kids working two jobs on poverty wages.

Image credits: max-peck

#2

I was working at a car dealership and saw the owner pull up in a $250k Porsche GT3. Told him how much I loved the car and dreamt of owning one someday. Owner looked at me confused and said “what do you mean? We sell them right here you know?” Totally blew my mind that he didn’t realize his employees couldn’t afford the cars they were selling.

Image credits: tbh3900

#3

Me: Yeah I love flying. I have a nice flightsim setup at home. Wish I could do it for real.

Owner of the company: Yeah the real thing is so much better. You should buy a plane. I love taking mine out for trips.

Me: You sign my checks.

Image credits: Jefe_Bezos

Sometimes a wealthy person being deeply, deeply out of touch can come with marginal benefits for people in the right position. Service staff might, from time to time, encounter gigantic tips, or people buying used houses, cars and other physical assets might get incredible deals as the rich sellers don’t care to fight over every dollar.

On the flip side, the average experience in most of these cases is that the wealthy are notoriously cheap, leave the worst tips, and will be excessively greedy for no good reason. There are abundant stories of multi-millionaires underpaying their workers, trying to find the best possible deals, and treating their own, abundant, money as more valuable than anything else in the universe. 

#4

“Isnt it funny we are the same age but my dad bought me a condo and you have to work 2 jobs?”

Image credits: BopbopHereWeGo

#5

My dad, a boomer who has lived an absolutely charmed financial life, tells me every time we talk, “You should invest in real estate!”

Great idea, dad, let me take this $0.36 I have to my name and buy a house with it, I don’t know why more people don’t do this.

Image credits: StrangersWithAndi

#6

Boss: My wife and I decided that you and your wife should join us in the Caribbean. I’lll pay for everything.

Me: We appreciate the offer but we won’t be able to afford it.

Boss: Why?

Me: I’d have to hire someone to watch the kids.

Boss: What? Surely your nanny can handle that!

Image credits: nobody2u

This still doesn’t mean that rich people quite understand the impact and importance of money for most people’s survival. Wealth is a fantastic insulator, allowing them to “skip” entire sections of life that we go through daily, from commutes, grocery shopping, cooking, cleaning, coupons, thrifting, and practically anything else. 

#7

Me: complains about the cost of childcare

Boss’ wife: You should just get an au pair!

Me: Um, au pairs need their own room.

Boss’ wife: Don’t your kids share a room? You can give her the spare bedroom.

Me: There is NO spare bedroom.

Boss’ wife: Well, you could repurpose the playroom, or the office.

Me: Yes, we could, if we had them. But we have NO spare bedrooms!

She just couldn’t wrap her head around the idea of a family of four living in mere two bedrooms. Certainly there is a wine cellar or a hobby room or a stargazing room, or something!

#8

“Money has been tight so we have to wait a couple more weeks before we break ground on the new air conditioned stable for the horses”

Image credits: PM_ME_THEM_TOES_GURL

#9

I was talking to my manager about a mistake on a check.

Me: This isn’t even enough to cover my daughters day care for the month.

Her: Well what did you do with the money you were just paid?

Ma’am. Food, rent, electricity, and car payment. Boom, check gone.

Image credits: Lvsucknuts69

As a result, there isn’t just a gap in income, there is a gap in knowledge and experience. A long-time rich person might not have the slightest idea of what taking the subway feels like, or has never explored one-pot recipes to save on cleaning time. Similarly, they are pretty unlikely to have non-rich friends, disconnecting them from the majority of the population automatically. 

#10

“I have no hair on my body! You should have your husband take you to get laser hair removal! It only cost me $10,000”

…maybe in my dreams

She was the Mayors daughter and I was catering her dogs birthday party

Image credits: Open-Ad-189

#11

My boss’s wife grew up wealthy and then married an “heir to the throne” for a multi-million dollar organization.

She is meandering around our office bullpen one day and brings me into the conversation, “How about you, where would you take your lady on a Honeymoon?”

Me: I dunno, go to the coast for a week and just enjoy the sun.

She laughed out loud at me and said “Oh my god, no woman will ever marry you unless you’re going to take her on a Hawaiian honeymoon.”

At the time I made $10 an hour.

#12

My boss is an attorney. A client who was filling out her financial statement for a divorce realized that she had forgotten to include her student loans on the report. Laughing somewhat ruefully, she said “I can’t believe I forgot to include that.“ And in a bright, sunny, voice my boss laughed and said “I sometimes forget that I own a boat!“ The client and I quietly locked eyes with a shared understanding of how out of touch that was.

Image credits: headcase-and-a-half

This also raises the curious question of how do the super-wealthy consume media, particularly very contemporary works where income inequality and the struggles of everyday life feature pretty heavily. Do they even understand why someone might work two jobs, or what gig work really is? 

#13

Built a 3mil+ house for a couple. After the neighbors built their home, we’re talking, and the wife says “that little house is so dinky. We have a joke going that we call it ‘the helps house’. ” Now this is still a 750k-1mil home no less. Just struck me as not very grounded ?

Image credits: nlights999321

#14

In college, I made most of my money cleaning and tutoring for rich families. Here are the highlights.

“It’s so much more convenient to have a sauna in your house.”

“We ordered our wallpaper from Europe. It’s the only way to go.”

“I just bought the empty lot next to ours so we won’t have neighbors.”

And my personal favorite:

Rich person’s kid: Gosh, I can’t find any babysitting jobs. They’ve been taken by the 1%.

Rich parent: Honey, you are the 1%.

Image credits: bombasticfox

#15

“It’s only $1,000.”

Ok, b***h. Then give it to me!

Image credits: BrushYourTeethHoe

Ultimately, we can see the results of money’s insulating effect in threads like this, from obtuse questions to head-scratchingly confusing ideas. The silver lining is that we at least get a decent laugh out of it. So if you are interested in continuing to see more of the bizarre thoughts held by the rich, Bored Panda has got you covered, you can find our other articles on this topic here and here. 

#16

I was between jobs and a bunch of my friends told me that I should take the time to go travel the world. Like a) just because someone doesn’t have a job doesn’t mean they can just up & travel the world- in fact the opposite is more likely, but also b) you m***********s thought the reason I wasn’t traveling the world because I *hadn’t thought of it*?

Image credits: Annual-Intern5669

#17

One of my former coworkers grew up in a wealthy family and married into more wealth, but they decided she should work anyways. She was outside her car crying one day, waiting for her husband to pick her up, saying she couldn’t drive her car because a light was on. My buddy looked, it was a low tire pressure light. He asked if she wanted help filling up the tire.

Her sobbing response “This is a Mercedes! You can’t just put air in the tire!!”

Edit: To everyone wondering why she would cry about a tire pressure light, I think that was second time the light came on in three months so she didn’t think it was safe or reliable anymore and traded it in soon after (I believe the next one was a Lexus). She was also very much the type of person who would cry because she had to wait 30 minutes to get picked up while everyone else could go home.

Image credits: scmillion

#18

i live in southern spain and here it’s so hot during summer months that u can’t even get out of ur house till 9-10 pm. a lot of people (including me) can’t even afford having air conditioners in their houses and they just survive the hot temperatures inside as they can do it, usually spending the days sweaty and tired. A friend of mine lives in a huge house (one of the hugest i’ve ever been) with many rooms and an air conditioner machine in each one of them. A few days ago he started complaining about how tired he was for having to take such a long walk at night in order to turn off all the air conditioners in the house. That day i’ve had to take 4 showers to feel just a bit refreshed and i recognise i felt violence taking up control of my body while he was speaking

#19

Guy makes 250k at least, probably low 300s.

Something something “middle class people like us”.

I make 40.

#20

“Where does your family summer?” I never knew summer could be used as a verb.

#21

l worked for Medicaid. The big bugs at the state government level had a “poverty exercise” where they had to try to budget at poverty level and live on it for 3 days. “My, that was SO difficult!” No s**t pal – that whole idea pissed me off so bad.

Image credits: Nanatomany44

#22

“it’s not expensive, You just can’t afford it”

Image credits: Estradioldidthis

#23

I dated a rich guy who loved my authenticity, and he would pick me up in one of his dad’s cool collector cars and take me to record stores. When I went to visit him I showed up in my grandpa’s old Ford f150 truck.

He asked me why I drove around in that thing.

I shrugged and said “because I’m poor.”

And he said “no you’re not.”

It was like I ruined his whole hipster aesthetic and he realized I wasn’t grunge.

Image credits: char-le-magne

#24

It’s one banana, Michael. What could it cost, ten dollars?

Image credits: supermarino

#25

Had some kid in his early 20s start working at the restaurant I was at, total trust fund baby but his parents made him get a job or they would cut him off (Phone, car, apartment, school, credit card, everything).

We were talking about plans for the summer, I mentioned I was gonna take a weekend to head north and visit my mom, someone else was going camping, another guy was taking a long weekend to help his brother move.

Holy f**k. “You guys have no idea what vacation means, do you? I’m taking my GF to Spain for two weeks and then spending a few days in Italy before we come back.”

He got real upset when I asked him where he was gonna work when he came back. Apparently he didn’t understand that taking 3 weeks vacation not even two months into a job isn’t a thing, especially when part of that was during our busiest season of the year.

Even better when we all looked at him and told him we couldn’t even afford a week off, let alone in Spain.

He didn’t last long.

#26

“Your just letting money stop you” yes it does that.

Image credits: BriRoxas

#27

They lived in Boston and we were talking about how small condos are there. They were lamenting that they had no space and, as a result, they had to buy another condo (this was Beacon Hill) because they ran out of space to store their Persian rugs.

Image credits: SsurebreC

#28

My CEO’s daughter was talking to me and she now lives in the UK. She bought a place in London. I mentioned I have some family over there that I’ve always been interested in visiting, and hoped to see it one day.

Her response? Just go. Definitely, it’s as easy as buying a plane ticket. She had no idea why I hadn’t gone yet.

Image credits: Snoochey

#29

I was venting to a school mate about not being able to have a car.
She said “why don’t you just ask your mom?”

It literally broke my brain. Like yeah, why didn’t I think of that?

Image credits: batphomet_

#30

I worked for a very wealthy lady. Her son graduated college (with some useless degree) and she put him to work answering phones.

She also bought him a car.

“Can you believe it? I told her I wanted a blue car.” She didnt get him a blue car *so he asked her to paint it.* She refused.

I could see his naivete as he spoke since he truly thought this was something I could relate to.

Sorry kiddo, I had to work at Chuck E Cheese as a teenager to be able to afford to buy a piece of c**p that overheated if I drove for longer than 20 minutes.

#31

“oh yeah you can keep all of this since I’m moving out. I’ll buy new stuff for my next place”

Some dude I knew who was taking classes at a prestigious university in a very nice studio apartment, whose father had just flown in from Indonesia just to help him pack his clothes.

I got a full mattress set that was about 3k, multiple leathers for carpeting, expensive looking paintings, way too much ikea stuff, and a dyson vacuum.

#32

My boomer father insists that moms should not work. When someone says that a family needs 2 incomes to survive, he insists that they could manage if they lived within their means. He always cites these examples as “extravagant choices” – cell phones, disposable diapers, and paper towels. I cringe every time I hear this.

#33

“What’s your families private jet policy? They charge you?!?!?”

A friend from school had apparently grown up incredible wealthy. Freshman year we were talking about spring break and I mentioned I was hoping to afford gas money to drive somewhere. He thought I meant “jet plane” gas money and was curious why my parents would charge me to use the family jet.

We do not have a family jet….

2nd story: (years after the college one above. This was a handful of years back)

“You should join one of our golf club or country clubs this year. Initiation fees got reduced to only like $40k a person for some so its basically free the first year.”
(Yes, he was members at multiples of each. I don’t remember the exact cost but it was well into the 5 digits each)

I should mention this person and family do not show off the money and are very free with it to friends. It just comes thru unbeknownst to them a lot of time because they think thats the norm.

Image credits: Aulm

#34

“Your house is so quaint. I didn’t know that u could live in such a small place” lol

Image credits: freedomisgreat4

#35

“How often do you go sailing?”

Said by the guy that knows I was struggling financially.

Image credits: ZoharTheWise

Source: boredpanda.com