Natural Born Snobs

Have you ever had to deal with a snob? Somebody who thinks they are better than you because they are richer or more educated? Somebody who looks down on other people because they consider them inferior? Somebody who thinks their social position makes them superior to other people?

I have, and these people are among the most annoying, boring, self-deluded people in the world. I have been inside the houses of more rich people than Robin Leach, who once had a wildly popular show called “The Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous,” in the mid-1980s.

I was able to observe the behavior of these rich, socIalite snobs because I used to have a job as a truck driver for 20 years and we delivered rental tables and chairs, dishware, etc. to rich people in San Francisco. The deal was, we would drop off the equipment at the rich people’s houses or event spaces, and then the caterers they hired would set them up.

There are some really very, very rich people in San Francisco and the Bay Area, and they have the most fabulous, opulent houses, pools, gardens, and 10–20 car garages you could imagine in your wildest dreams.

Like if you hit the lotto, or managed to make yourself rich just by hard work, you could maybe afford a house like that, but you would never be accepted as a social equal by these people because they are all “old money.”

In other words, their inherited money all came from their famous robber barons, 19th-century ancestors who bribed stole, cheated, and exploited their rivals and workers to amass their wealth in the first place. There was no income tax back then either, so they were able to save almost all of their ill-gotten gains.

I had a lot of interaction with them because as the driver, I had to knock on their doors and find the rich people to collect the checks for the rental merchandise. Often they would delegate this task to their butlers or maids or other servants, as they considered this beneath their dignity and status.

The thing is, they would still almost always be in the background, doing their rich people's stuff. And after a cursory look down their noses at me and my helpers as we delivered the merchandise they had ordered for their swanky dinner parties, buffets, or occasional charity events they would ignore us.

Here is a secret, a fact about rich people I never fully realized before. They truly consider themselves superior to everybody else that isn’t of their own social status. For rich people, we were all just temporary servants, which they could not exist without but are all easily replaceable.

So I was able to observe, up close and personal how they interacted with their household staff and workers who would enter their homes for repairs, improvements, or in my case a delivery for their caterers.

Because, and here is the funniest part. To rich people, servants are invisible.

Servants are necessary but inferior parts of their rich people’s lifestyle. Because we were invisible to them, they felt free to continue their conversations, arguments, or talk with their husbands, wives, or friends they considered their social equals without holding back anything.

They would talk freely with no regard for whatever their servants could overhear and could care less what they revealed in their arguments or temper tantrums because they had no real concept of their servants as people. Talk about being a fly on the wall!

It was the same way we talk freely to our friends or family in front of our cats or dogs. I am not saying these rich people thought of their servants as animals, but they definitely regard them as lesser human beings. Many in fact, treated their pets better than their servants.

Ironically, the worst example of these were the rich people who were born into money, the ones born into inherited wealth. They have no concept of money because they have always had it. They take it for granted.

They have never had to sweat out not having the rent money, of rushing to the office of the electric company or the phone company to make that crucial last-minute payment most of us had to scrimp and save for just to keep the threadbare fabric of our daily lives from unraveling.

It’s not a pleasant position to be in, but as I said in one of my other blogs, Money is Funny: It’s one of those things that if you have it, you never even think about it. If you don’t have it, then it’s all that you can think about.

But none of this rarely even enters their mind, if at all. Why should it? It doesn’t matter to them, because by an accident of birth they never had to feel that squeeze of having to put off buying their kids new clothes or a new pair of shoes by cutting back on groceries or medicine for themselves.

It simply never occurs to them, and if they do become aware of it, they just act dismissively. Because it’s not their problem.

And btw, these rich people are always lousy tippers because they have no concept of money. Living in the lap of luxury, they have no idea of being concerned about other people’s concerns. Often they don’t even carry any cash money on them at all. They just can’t relate.

I’m not saying all rich, socially connected people are like that, but from my personal observation, most of them are. They truly consider themselves, without any factual basis, to be “better than” other people are.

And if they enter the political sphere, as often happens, they can buy any politician by giving them massive campaign contributions that will obligate the politician to vote the way they are told.

If they don’t obey, they will withdraw their support and any well-meaning idealistic politician will soon be replaced by a more docile, compliant one. This is a big reason our politics are so messed up.

They manage to evade the unpleasant truth that everybody born will die eventually. They act as if that old saying, “You can’t take it with you” doesn’t apply to them. Their inner lives are mostly emotionally barren and few if any ever achieve true happiness. How can they? They never earned it.

But they really believe their wealth not only insulates them from life’s hassles and problems but also that they are truly superior to other people. It’s funny, and they are laughable. And all because they were born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

There are none so blind as those that will not see...