5 ms·

"Almost all of the clients are men, ranging in age from millennials to 70-year-olds, and they stick around for three to five years before going dark—usually due

"Almost all of the clients are men, ranging in age from millennials to 70-year-olds, and they stick around for three to five years before going dark—usually due to bad investments, dips in the economy, or divorce." This entire article made me sick to my stomach, money can be so terribly corrupting and empty.

cyberferret 8y ago
Absolutely none of the "rich person" activities in that article even remotely appealed to me. I am confident that even if I had a bazillion dollars, I wouldn't demand the sorts of things that some of these people were asking for. Their wants and needs sound almost like those you might have seen in a past era lunatic asylum - with the exception that these people have the $$$ to actually get people to acquiesce to their insane demands and normalise them.
- puranjay 8y ago
  Come on, throwing pin pricked lemons and oranges around your room until they start rotting has to be at least somewhat appealing /s
- ovi256 8y ago
  >Absolutely none of the "rich person" activities in that article even remotely appealed to me. I am confident that even if I had a bazillion dollars, I wouldn't demand the sorts of things that some of these people were asking for. That's nice virtue signalling, but how can you be so sure before you really are in that situation ? Wealth and power are known to alter brain chemistry and behaviour. Furthermore, these butlers will be happy to help you take to their absurd end whatever indulgences you find normal.
  - asdffdsa321 8y ago
    Because I've lived all my life not having a bazillion dollars
  - AnthonBerg 8y ago
    Accusations of virtue signaling are in themselves virtue signaling, where you ride forth on your little horse and neigh at people who make statements which your self-respect would not allow you to claim, little knight.
    - AnthonBerg 8y ago
      In light of downvotes and flagging I would like to reaffirm my position. Accusations of “virtue signaling” are hypocritical nonsense and don’t belong in civilized discourse.
  - bradleyjg 8y ago
    > That's nice virtue signalling You mean like a peacock’s tail? An expensive, and therefore hard to fake, action that demonstrates deep commitment to a particular value system?
  - dang 8y ago
    As you can see, the swipey bit at the beginning of your comment ended up derailing the discussion. That's too bad, because the point you went on to make was a solid one, and it got lost. This is why we ask people to edit such bits out of their comments here. If you'd review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and do that in the future, we'd appreciate it.
- gaius 8y ago
  Their wants and needs sound almost like those you might have seen in a past era lunatic asylum - with the exception that these people have the $$$ to actually get people to acquiesce to their insane demands and normalise them. Paying someone to wear pyjamas and read you a bedtime story seems pretty harmless. There’s a hotel in London that will provide people for you to pillow-fight with, which is a little weirder perhaps but still harmless.
  - nostrademons 8y ago
    Both San Francisco and San Jose do this annually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p70PsKwv1Cg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p70PsKwv1Cg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19DqyJCk86s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19DqyJCk86s That was my first Valentine's Day weekend date with my eventual wife - we went to the San Jose pillow fight together.
kreetx 8y ago
I was even wondering why this is posted here, but I guess one needs to know about both good and evil. edit: and maybe not evil, but just pointless.
chii 8y ago
> This entire article made me sick to my stomach, money can be so terribly corrupting and empty. but who are you to judge what somebody else likes to spend their money on? At least these people are merely indulging their fantasies and desires, and not spending it on acquiring more power or bribery.
- test1235 8y ago
  I imagine many are doing both.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mjfl 8y ago
I think you're looking at it the wrong way. I think it's an extremely positive thing for society that people who are dumb enough to squander their fortunes are given an opportunity to squander it, especially if those fortunes are unearned. It's very meritocratic. I hope Las Vegas is filled with the children of billionaires.
- yetihehe 8y ago
  I think that if they gave those fortunes for something more worthy like progress of science or charities, it would be much more positive for society. Squandering is just spending money on unimportant things, which DO NOT give benefit to society. Yeah, some of this money will make it into hands of other people, but most of this is just removing value from society.
  - mjfl 8y ago
    none of the money evaporates, all of it makes it into the hands of other people.
    - yetihehe 8y ago
      You are right, but goods represented by money can be destroyed. Maybe we should all break some windows [1] from time to time, to stimulate economy? This will transfer some money to the other people. Or buy some lemons and dump them in volcano. This will be very good for all lemon farmers and if we do this often enough, prices for lemons will increase, so farmers will have even more money... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
  - southerndrift 8y ago
    Where is value removed? The money ends up in the hands of casino companies that spend it on architecture and arts or it is paid out to shareholders who will invest it in new opportunities. It's really difficult to remove value from society. Even if they burn bills, it will only increase the value of every other Dollar because the supply of Dollars just shrunk. You have to maliciously commission bad art or create toxic waste to remove value.
jghjg 8y ago
Capitalism dude. While some people are playing with money, some others are dying
te_chris 8y ago
There's a great line from the book Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie where the narrator of the book remarks that (and I'm paraphrasing here), there's loads of ways in the world to be poor, but apparently there's only one way to be rich - indulge in the same 'luxuries'.
- beaconstudios 8y ago
  Someone should've let the founder of ikea know, he lived a famously cheap lifestyle.
jemfinch 8y ago
Is there a some reason why we should be interested in your particular brand of moralism instead of some other?
sidstling 8y ago
I think context is king with these articles. It’s not a sneak peak into the lives of the wealthy, it’s a peak into the very vip section of a casino. The article itself is written mainly to sell the drama and the sleaze, and it’s purposedly focusing on the worst bits. It’s fascinating, sure, but I think it’s also kind of useless informationwise, when you take the context into mind. If anything I think it’s more sad than sickening. I doubt those rich bastards are very happy, and no one is helping them find a better path in life. In fact the casino seem to have build an environment that specifically enables their bad behavior because it’s profitable.

cyberferret 8y ago

Absolutely none of the "rich person" activities in that article even remotely appealed to me. I am confident that even if I had a bazillion dollars, I wouldn't demand the sorts of things that some of these people were asking for. Their wants and needs sound almost like those you might have seen in a past era lunatic asylum - with the exception that these people have the $$$ to actually get people to acquiesce to their insane demands and normalise them.

puranjay 8y ago
Come on, throwing pin pricked lemons and oranges around your room until they start rotting has to be at least somewhat appealing /s
ovi256 8y ago
>Absolutely none of the "rich person" activities in that article even remotely appealed to me. I am confident that even if I had a bazillion dollars, I wouldn't demand the sorts of things that some of these people were asking for. That's nice virtue signalling, but how can you be so sure before you really are in that situation ? Wealth and power are known to alter brain chemistry and behaviour. Furthermore, these butlers will be happy to help you take to their absurd end whatever indulgences you find normal.
- asdffdsa321 8y ago
  Because I've lived all my life not having a bazillion dollars
- AnthonBerg 8y ago
  Accusations of virtue signaling are in themselves virtue signaling, where you ride forth on your little horse and neigh at people who make statements which your self-respect would not allow you to claim, little knight.
  - AnthonBerg 8y ago
    In light of downvotes and flagging I would like to reaffirm my position. Accusations of “virtue signaling” are hypocritical nonsense and don’t belong in civilized discourse.
- bradleyjg 8y ago
  > That's nice virtue signalling You mean like a peacock’s tail? An expensive, and therefore hard to fake, action that demonstrates deep commitment to a particular value system?
- dang 8y ago
  As you can see, the swipey bit at the beginning of your comment ended up derailing the discussion. That's too bad, because the point you went on to make was a solid one, and it got lost. This is why we ask people to edit such bits out of their comments here. If you'd review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and do that in the future, we'd appreciate it.
gaius 8y ago
Their wants and needs sound almost like those you might have seen in a past era lunatic asylum - with the exception that these people have the $$$ to actually get people to acquiesce to their insane demands and normalise them. Paying someone to wear pyjamas and read you a bedtime story seems pretty harmless. There’s a hotel in London that will provide people for you to pillow-fight with, which is a little weirder perhaps but still harmless.
- nostrademons 8y ago
  Both San Francisco and San Jose do this annually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p70PsKwv1Cg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p70PsKwv1Cg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19DqyJCk86s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19DqyJCk86s That was my first Valentine's Day weekend date with my eventual wife - we went to the San Jose pillow fight together.

kreetx 8y ago

I was even wondering why this is posted here, but I guess one needs to know about both good and evil. edit: and maybe not evil, but just pointless.

chii 8y ago

> This entire article made me sick to my stomach, money can be so terribly corrupting and empty. but who are you to judge what somebody else likes to spend their money on? At least these people are merely indulging their fantasies and desires, and not spending it on acquiring more power or bribery.

test1235 8y ago
I imagine many are doing both.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

mjfl 8y ago

I think you're looking at it the wrong way. I think it's an extremely positive thing for society that people who are dumb enough to squander their fortunes are given an opportunity to squander it, especially if those fortunes are unearned. It's very meritocratic. I hope Las Vegas is filled with the children of billionaires.

yetihehe 8y ago
I think that if they gave those fortunes for something more worthy like progress of science or charities, it would be much more positive for society. Squandering is just spending money on unimportant things, which DO NOT give benefit to society. Yeah, some of this money will make it into hands of other people, but most of this is just removing value from society.
- mjfl 8y ago
  none of the money evaporates, all of it makes it into the hands of other people.
  - yetihehe 8y ago
    You are right, but goods represented by money can be destroyed. Maybe we should all break some windows [1] from time to time, to stimulate economy? This will transfer some money to the other people. Or buy some lemons and dump them in volcano. This will be very good for all lemon farmers and if we do this often enough, prices for lemons will increase, so farmers will have even more money... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
- southerndrift 8y ago
  Where is value removed? The money ends up in the hands of casino companies that spend it on architecture and arts or it is paid out to shareholders who will invest it in new opportunities. It's really difficult to remove value from society. Even if they burn bills, it will only increase the value of every other Dollar because the supply of Dollars just shrunk. You have to maliciously commission bad art or create toxic waste to remove value.

jghjg 8y ago

Capitalism dude. While some people are playing with money, some others are dying

te_chris 8y ago

There's a great line from the book Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie where the narrator of the book remarks that (and I'm paraphrasing here), there's loads of ways in the world to be poor, but apparently there's only one way to be rich - indulge in the same 'luxuries'.

beaconstudios 8y ago
Someone should've let the founder of ikea know, he lived a famously cheap lifestyle.

jemfinch 8y ago

Is there a some reason why we should be interested in your particular brand of moralism instead of some other?

sidstling 8y ago

I think context is king with these articles. It’s not a sneak peak into the lives of the wealthy, it’s a peak into the very vip section of a casino. The article itself is written mainly to sell the drama and the sleaze, and it’s purposedly focusing on the worst bits. It’s fascinating, sure, but I think it’s also kind of useless informationwise, when you take the context into mind. If anything I think it’s more sad than sickening. I doubt those rich bastards are very happy, and no one is helping them find a better path in life. In fact the casino seem to have build an environment that specifically enables their bad behavior because it’s profitable.