Well being in the 1% for those just barely over the threshold is generally a temporary situation..as is mine ( rather, ours since its both my wifes and my income Im counting ) Only got to that category six years ago at the ripe old age of 56, and will be back to dropping below that this year, far below as a matter of fact , and for the foreseeable future . Also living in this insanely expensive place called the SF Bay Area / Silicon Valley, does not leave you anyway near with a boatload of money, particularly when more than half goes immediately to lining both the Fed and State treasury pockets.
So no opportunity to make a huge impact in my lifestyle, but you do end up not thinking a lot about gas prices being $ 3 or $ 5 and how that difference impacts your wallet . On the other hand a true boatload of money, as in sudden and substantial weath will probably change 90% of people into becoming more conspicuous consumers and indulge in quite of bit of excess . But I dont believe thatll change their moral fiber, not most of them anyway. Deep down you are who you are, money does not change the character, just some habits . Of course in Monterey car week were talking about quite a few people who have hundreds of millions or billions. In my observation those people do tend to go to extremes in flaunting their wealth .. come on, Mr. Ming has a duplicate Ferrari for each one of the numerous models he owns because he buys two at a time ?! Pure douchebaggery ! Eh, maybe Im not giving him the benefit of the doubt , perhaps for every million dollars he spends on a car, he might donate two million, to charities . Yeah, right ! But there are those who do ; Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos , and lots of other billionaire philanthropists. Hey, Ive also been called a philanderer ( err...I meant philanthropist) I do donate a lot of money to animal rescue and shelters causes, just none to humans ..Im not very fond of, nor have empathy for most humans.. So for those billionaires or multi millionaires who share the weath with the less fortunate ..and I dont mean that in a Bernie Sanders kind of way, lol, his ideas are as batsh*t crazy as the ideas of those on the far right of the spectrum, I tip my hat. Based on what Ive seen in Monterey though, I dont think there were too many of those rich but modest folks. A side note : my fried who owns a house in Pebble Beach , where I stayed , and who has quite a bit of money but never flaunts it or spends it foolishly , noted the difference in the demographic of the attendees at the Bonhams and Sothebys events versus the one at the Mecum event : he said the main difference in the Mecum crowd was that the designer purses were all fake and the boobs were all real ...
