riving in a Rolls Royce, getting a bodyguard, flying on a private plane: These aren’t normally things that New York Times financial reporter Kevin Roose gets to do. But as a guy who writes about billionaires, he wanted a chance to live like one for 24 hours, he explains in a first-person article. It’s a key “paradox” of our times: While many of us are furious at the rich, we’re still fascinated by them, he writes. Read more…
The term “classy” winks at, well, the upper class. When we say someone has “class,” we mean to say that such a person is refined or even elegant in their behavior and the way they carry themselves, in a manner that’s typical of a higher caste. It suggests that people who are born into, or climb into, a higher social echelon are better-behaved, have better taste, and are all-around better.
As anyone who’s ever read an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel or grown up in a wealthy setting can attest, that belief is downright laughable. Keep reading »
Rich people are having a hard time, y’all! Cutting back on helicopter rides. Re-soling shoes instead of buying new pairs. No new clothes, handbags or makeup. It utter cruelty is what it is! These are the tongue-in-cheek gripes of Lisa Unwin, who blogged anonymously at a blog called Austerity Mum about cutting back on expenses with her husband, Ashley Unwin, a honcho at PricewaterhouseCoopers in London. The 44-year-old former Deloitte communications director, who now is a stay-at-home mom, blogged jokingly about downgrading the family vacation from the Maldives to Morocco and her hubby’s disdain for Prada shirts. According to the blog This Is London, Lisa Unwin referred also to her two children as “the diva in waiting” and “the smallest man with the biggest attitude” — charming! — and told readers the Unwin’s new Georgian-style home in east London cost “squillions.” Keep reading »
Even though New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is a mega billionaire, he recently admitted that he only owns six pairs of shoes. He joked, “A story emerged recently that shocked many in your industry, leaving them confused, perplexed, maybe even a little bit hurt. I’m talking about the stunning revelation in the September 20th edition of the New York Post, that I, Michael R. Bloomberg, 108th Mayor of the City of New York, may not have purchased a new pair of work shoes in 10 years … I probably have half a dozen pairs, but it is true. I probably only wear one black and one brown and that’s about it.” Bloomberg said he was embarrassed about this, since Kenneth Cole is a close friend. I’m not sure how many shoes a man is supposed to own, but I suppose that billionaires are supposed to throw shoes out like they’re disposable contacts? [People Style Watch]
In celebration of cutting down on consumption, we’ve rounded up some minimalist celebs who don’t need much to get by. Keep reading »
Show me a person who doesn’t have at least a handful of characteristics she or he is looking for in a mate — or date — and I’ll show you the real-life leprechaun I keep as a mascot on my rooftop garden. Whether it’s brains, a great bod, or a timeshare in Boca Raton, we all have a list — some are even written down somewhere — of the things our significant other must possess. Topping the list for a lot of us is a great sense of humor, but exactly how important is having your funny bone tickled? AskMen.com recently compared “funny” against a host of other “most wanted” characteristics to see how a good sense of humor stacked up when women are doin’ the choosin’. Are those sitcoms that feature a beautiful wife with a pudgy but hilarious husband telling the truth? Find out after the jump. Keep reading »
If you thought the easiest way to tell the financial status of a woman was by the kind of car she drives, the size of her diamonds, or how affected her accent is, guess again. A new “scientific” study claims that wealthier woman have more sons than daughters. Um, ohh-kay. A group of Dutch researchers — it’s always the Dutch, isn’t it? — studied 95,000 Rwandan women to test an evolutionary theory that suggests “when conditions are good, and babies are likely to be healthy, a mother’s best chance of passing on her genes to another generation is to have boys.” When conditions are bad, however, and pregnant women are malnourished and more likely to have sickly or weak babies, it makes more “evolutionary sense to have a girl who does not face competition to become pregnant to continue the family line.” In the polygamous tradition of Rwanda where high-ranking wives tend to have more influence and income, they have, on average more sons than daughters (99 daughters for every 100 sons). Lower-ranking, poorer wives, on the other hand, have 106 daughters for every sons. So, there you have it — scientific proof that Victoria Beckham is rich. [via DailyMail] Keep reading »
There’s a new book out called Smart Girls Marry Money: How Women Have Been Duped Into the Romantic Dream—And How They Are Paying For It, by Elizabeth Ford and Daniela Drake. Forget for a moment that they annoyingly refer to grown women as “girls” in their title and check out their thesis: because, for a variety of reasons, men earn more money than women, it’s a wise move to marry someone who can provide for you and your family. Keep reading »
A new study reveals that when it comes to a woman’s pleasure during sex, size does indeed matter, but not in the way you may think. Apparently, men with large incomes give women more orgasms than men with smaller ones. The Chinese Health and Family Life Survey interviewed 5,000 Chinese people about their personal lives, including questions about their sex lives, income and other factors. Of the 1,534 women surveyed with male partners, 121 reported always having orgasms during sex, while 408 more had them “often”. Another 762 “sometimes” came while 243 had them rarely or never. These figures are similar to those for western countries. While there were several factors responsible for these variances, money was attributed as the main factor. Study author, Dr Thomas Pollet, said: “Increasing partner income had a highly positive effect on women’s self-reported frequency of orgasm. More desirable mates cause women to experience more orgasms.” Dr. Pollet believes this phenomenon “is an ‘evolutionary adaptation’ that is hard-wired into women, driving them to select men on the basis of their perceived quality.” So basically, he thinks women are biologically predisposed to be gold-diggers. Surely there are other reasons women may have orgasms more frequently with wealthy men. Perhaps men with larger incomes are more sexually confident; Maybe they have less anxiety about their flaws and, um, shortcomings, making them better lovers; Or, maybe, just maybe, this study is totally bogus. [Times Online] Keep reading »
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