16 Habits That Apparently Only The Rich, Privileged, Or Financially Comfortable Really Have

9.

“Being flummoxed that you can’t take time off to: really think about what you do/travel some/pick up and start over somewhere new/write a book/return to college — when you lose a job.”

“Yeah, this is real. My department got liquidated out of the blue. Gone overnight.

My immediate manager and her husband both picked up and moved to a quirky, upper class New England college town where she decided to take time off from work to commit to writing and her husband would try his hand at starting a bespoke CBD business.

Meanwhile, my white trash ass had to hustle and ended up taking a job at a corporation whose politics weren’t exactly agreeable, but more agreeable than starving. She didn’t understand why I had to do such a thing at all and ended up getting super pissed about it.

I’ve seen this narrative a lot in books and magazines. I’ll read some think piece in The New Yorker or the introduction in a book I’ll pick up and it’ll start like, ‘When I was laid off from my job in [x], I was devastated. But after lying in bed crying for a few weeks, I decided it was time to [write this book/visit this place]…’

I’ll look at the author and they’re some fresh-faced young adult with a masters degree. Do a little digging and find out their dad’s a wealth manager or something and their mom’s a VP at a publishing company. One time I went down a rabbit hole and discovered the author was the latest in four generations of wealthy, connected people.

It’s maddening, but it at least makes sense. Lots of money doesn’t buy talent, but it sure as fuck buys security, connections, the best education and training, spare time to pursue your interests, and fail with fewer consequences. Start looking into the authors you read, the actors you watch, the musicians you listen to, and you’ll start to see patterns.

It doesn’t mean there aren’t hardworking, grounded, talented, and kind wealthy people. There definitely are. But I also think that if you ignore the reality that the rest of us are playing a game with much, much longer odds of paying out, you’ll blame yourself for things you had no control over in the first place.

Oh! The manager? Yeah, so she started an email newsletter and had a book deal with a major publishing house less than a year later. Would you be surprised if I told you her mom was a well known editor with connections in the business?”

–Conscious-Mulberry17