The Rich Drive Differently Than We Do

Have you ever felt that the rich are different?  Not just materially, as in the cars they drive and where they live and vacation.  They’re different in subtle, almost imperceptible ways… a sense of confidence, an arrogance.

Want proof?  Join me someday at my daughters’ private school at drop off time.  Normally my kids bike to school, but this morning I drove them because all of the middle and senior school students were leaving on a bus for a 3 day camping trip – as class bonding exercise they do at the beginning of each school year.

The parking lot and driveway was packed. And here’s my point (finally)… the rich behave differently in a situation like this. Rather than pulling into a parking spot (there were tons) most of them simply stop in the middle of the driveway (its a wrap around so if someone stops on the driveway, no one else can leave the parking lot) and leisurely unload their daughters, help them with their camping gear and kiss them good bye… as dozens of cars sit idling behind them waiting to get out of the damn parking lot.

And its always the BWM, the Audi, the Porsche or the Mercedes. The Fords, Toyotas and VWs know their place.. over in the parking lot.

They – the wealthy – think nothing of it. The fact that they are holding up all the cars behind them, and that this easily could be avoided, appears to not even register for them. I’ve (politely/jokingly) mentioned this to other parents a number of times. Their response is always “I’m just dropping my kid off”.  “No shit.. we all are… but the rest of us aren’t causing a traffic jam in the process”.

What it is, I think, is a sense of entitlement.  They are at the front of that line of cars and they feel no compunction to accommodate the interests of others… they simply feel entitled to the the convenience they want with no regard fro anyone else.

And I find this interesting – this sense of entitlement. The ‘rest of us’ feel self conscious or embarrassed or (god forbid) guilty if we are putting someone else out. The rich don’t seem to feel that way. At a cosmic level they seem to feel, because they have been so successful in life, that they have earned the right to convenience others. They don’t seem to overtly feel they are better or more important than the people they are inconveniencing (we are friends with many of them.. they’re nice people)… they simply don’t think of these people.  They are completely unaware and unconcerned that others are inconvenienced by their actions.

Forgive the rant… I usually don’t write on such topics.  But it is something my wife and I have noticed for a while now so I thought I would share.