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> As many have noted: the truly wealthy don't really engage in gaudy displays I don't know about that... > one person take[s] a jet from NYC to Switzerland fo

• ggm 3y ago
  It's only gaudy if the jet is bright non-standard colours and you have a pink limo meet you. If the jet is anonymous, and you have a quiet take off and welcome experience its not gaudy, its just luxe. My experience of HNW individuals is they are rarely gaudy if its old money, and are sometimes gaudy if its very new money, but that gaudy and discrete lies across the spectrum.
  • triceratops 3y ago
    From my perspective, both of those people are absolute clowns. "Gaudy" is subjective and seems to roughly translate to "something that old money, for any arbitrary reason, thinks is beneath them".
    • sgift 3y ago
      Yeah, it's just a term rich people use to be able to look down on other rich people. "Oh, his family hasn't even had money for 100 years ... so gaudy. No wonder he sometimes eats up his whole plate, probably didn't always have food"
    • ggm 3y ago
      It has existed as a word for a very long time. I don't disagree to your meaning but don't think this is a new trend, the word has roots back in time. Vulgar displays of wealth have been a problem, which is why successive governments passed Sumptuary laws. At times, specific colours were forbidden to the hoi polloi which is of course also a derogatory term. From memory you'll find complaints about the gaudy new money in Edith Wharton's "the Buccaneers" amongst other novels.