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I read related pieces in the NY Times and in the WaPo. Seems Dalio ran a bizzaro shop and may have benefited greatly from cozying up to those who could affect policy, and therefore the movements of currencies, markets, etc. Genius hedge-fund manager? Not so much.
The interesting thing about the line, “The rich are different than you and me” is that you can read just about any inference you want into that vague pronouncement, depending on your own interactions with wealthy individuals or perhaps only vague notions gleaned only from distant observation. Nonsensical really. Maybe what it really says is that we tend to attach significance to wealth that it does not deserve. In that sense, the time-worn line may say more about us (the observers) than it does about them (the wealthy).
I’ve read the wonderful letter. Funny exchange of barbs / put-downs between Hemingway and Fitzgerald through their fiction. Thank you for providing it. I hadn’t heard that before.
My musings on the expression had more to do with my child and teenage years growing up in northern Michigan. It’s an area rich in natural surroundings, but back in the 50s & 60s year-round jobs were tough to come by and pay was low. In contrast to how the locals lived (pretty much hand-to-mouth) there existed nearby several exclusive resorts, typically on the waterfront, to which wealthy “resorters” from cities like Chicago and St. Louis would migrate every spring. Luxurious, yachts, chauffeured limos, towering mansions, lush lawns and gardens and expansive 18 hole private golf courses. You get the picture. Today they’d “jet” in. Back than they came (and went) by rail.
I held several summer jobs at these resorts. Many others in the community found summer work as cooks, bartenders, gardeners, housekeepers and the like. It seemed to us like two different worlds, the rich and the common folk. It may not have been voiced in Fitzgerald’s manner or words. But, to us locals the rich were different. It was several years later as an adult I got my head fully around that. The entirely logical reaction is of course, “Yes, they have more money.”
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“The rich are different from you and me ...”
My musings on the expression had more to do with my child and teenage years growing up in northern Michigan. It’s an area rich in natural surroundings, but back in the 50s & 60s year-round jobs were tough to come by and pay was low. In contrast to how the locals lived (pretty much hand-to-mouth) there existed nearby several exclusive resorts, typically on the waterfront, to which wealthy “resorters” from cities like Chicago and St. Louis would migrate every spring. Luxurious, yachts, chauffeured limos, towering mansions, lush lawns and gardens and expansive 18 hole private golf courses. You get the picture. Today they’d “jet” in. Back than they came (and went) by rail.
I held several summer jobs at these resorts. Many others in the community found summer work as cooks, bartenders, gardeners, housekeepers and the like. It seemed to us like two different worlds, the rich and the common folk. It may not have been voiced in Fitzgerald’s manner or words. But, to us locals the rich were different. It was several years later as an adult I got my head fully around that. The entirely logical reaction is of course, “Yes, they have more money.”