[ExI] millionaires and billionaires

[Stefano Vaj]

2011/9/25 John Grigg <possiblepaths2050 at gmail.com>

> This is very true.  My eyes were opened by reading the great book, "The
> Millionaire Next Door."  I recommend it to everyone.  I find most
> millionaires to be very hardworking, intelligent, alert and pretty decent
> people.  But of course there are some horrific exceptions.  I once worked
> for a man who held a bank check for half million dollars in my face, and
> arrogantly said, "you have never had a check like this, but I have many
> times!"  He was a man in his sixties who could easily regress to the state
> of a vicious teenager.
>

In Europe many super-rich are born in their wealth, and are still in the
business of imitating aristocracy, where both hard-working and
arrogance/showing off are definitely no-nos.

"New" rich, who include second- and third-generation rich, even though the
social mobility involved is most often limited to "from upper-middle class
to upper class", are generated almost exclusively by economic or political
paradigm-shifts, Mr. Berlusconi being a case in point, and usually have a
more flamboyant way of life.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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