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Back in 2010, I was invited to a party in a building down at the south end of Manhattan. We were 4 blocks from Wall Street. It was a new building, my friend had

Back in 2010, I was invited to a party in a building down at the south end of Manhattan. We were 4 blocks from Wall Street. It was a new building, my friend had just moved in. The building was for the "$400,000 a year working stiffs" of Wall Street, but that line is from 1987 (the movie Wall Street) and nowadays they all make a few million a year. I was surprised by the relatively poor quality of the building. All the walls were covered with carpeting, but the carpeting was falling off in some places. Some of the light fixtures hung awkwardly slanted from their slots. The door knob (of the apartment) was very cheap and was already showing signs of wear. Keep in mind, this was a new building, built for wealthy people. Something feels broken about this culture, where even the rich cannot buy nice things any more.

molopolo24 5y ago
It's just the illusion that the West is rich. Like, have you ever asked a Scandinavian about their country? People living like in identical dwellings, having identical tastes, going to the same bad food places and persisting on OMGZ we have the best countries!111 I once heard someone say the food he ate growing up in the SU was way fresher than anything that could be bought in a store or restaurant. The US is all about the pretension of "I can't believe its not Butter." "I can't believe it's not a luxury Apartment building."
JJMcJ 5y ago
This is a standard complaint about McMansions out in the suburbs. Appallingly poor workmanship, and everything looks like it was bought on sale at a second tier do it yourself store. And who would glue carpet to a wall and call it luxury?
bcrosby95 5y ago
Here's a joke an Urban planner once told me: what's the difference between condos and luxury condos? The price.
majormajor 5y ago
The vast majority of people buying expensive houses and condos are paying for prestige, location, and square footage, not quality of fit and finish. You can get stuff done better, it just costs even more, since the skills are rarer (as they are no longer needed for many projects, thanks to mass production and power tools). Unless you're self-managing your project, the people actually doing the work for your contractors are generally coming from pretty similar places/skillsets for multi-million dollar places as for "basic" ones. There's a reason "want something done right, do it yourself" is hardly a new aphorism.
- QuarterReptile 5y ago
  I think a useful rephrasing of this: base-level, meets-code work gets you a guaranteed market. Work above that level doesn't do well on resale, so you do it if you have a buyer up front; home owners, in turn, only do that work if they're planning to stick around a while (and even then, only certain people.)
jokethrowaway 5y ago
Rich people can buy nice things but they can be scammed like anyone else. The way it works is that some developer bought the plot, built a condo and sold it in advance to wealthy people. After pocketing the money they delivered something and that's the end of their obligations. If the finish is crap, what can the rich people do? They likely don't have ground to sue and they were probably aware of whatever materials they were buying. I've seen this happen with so many developers, I don't understand why people buy from developers at all. Ok, they buy all the plots and normal people have a hard time buying plots, but I'd still pick an existing house I can inspect now compared to buying the idea of a finished product which doesn't exist. I suspect the flow is something like: 1) Check real estate market 2) All the properties are crap 3) I don't want to deal with blue collars fixing my house! 4) This intriguing new developer with an ok track record is building something, we're going to have a new luxury home!

molopolo24 5y ago

It's just the illusion that the West is rich. Like, have you ever asked a Scandinavian about their country? People living like in identical dwellings, having identical tastes, going to the same bad food places and persisting on OMGZ we have the best countries!111 I once heard someone say the food he ate growing up in the SU was way fresher than anything that could be bought in a store or restaurant. The US is all about the pretension of "I can't believe its not Butter." "I can't believe it's not a luxury Apartment building."

JJMcJ 5y ago

This is a standard complaint about McMansions out in the suburbs. Appallingly poor workmanship, and everything looks like it was bought on sale at a second tier do it yourself store. And who would glue carpet to a wall and call it luxury?

bcrosby95 5y ago

Here's a joke an Urban planner once told me: what's the difference between condos and luxury condos? The price.

majormajor 5y ago

The vast majority of people buying expensive houses and condos are paying for prestige, location, and square footage, not quality of fit and finish. You can get stuff done better, it just costs even more, since the skills are rarer (as they are no longer needed for many projects, thanks to mass production and power tools). Unless you're self-managing your project, the people actually doing the work for your contractors are generally coming from pretty similar places/skillsets for multi-million dollar places as for "basic" ones. There's a reason "want something done right, do it yourself" is hardly a new aphorism.

QuarterReptile 5y ago
I think a useful rephrasing of this: base-level, meets-code work gets you a guaranteed market. Work above that level doesn't do well on resale, so you do it if you have a buyer up front; home owners, in turn, only do that work if they're planning to stick around a while (and even then, only certain people.)

jokethrowaway 5y ago

Rich people can buy nice things but they can be scammed like anyone else. The way it works is that some developer bought the plot, built a condo and sold it in advance to wealthy people. After pocketing the money they delivered something and that's the end of their obligations. If the finish is crap, what can the rich people do? They likely don't have ground to sue and they were probably aware of whatever materials they were buying. I've seen this happen with so many developers, I don't understand why people buy from developers at all. Ok, they buy all the plots and normal people have a hard time buying plots, but I'd still pick an existing house I can inspect now compared to buying the idea of a finished product which doesn't exist. I suspect the flow is something like: 1) Check real estate market 2) All the properties are crap 3) I don't want to deal with blue collars fixing my house! 4) This intriguing new developer with an ok track record is building something, we're going to have a new luxury home!