People Divulge The Most Out Of Touch Things They've Heard Someone Say
"Reddit user nlwfty asked: 'What's the most out-of-touch thing you've heard someone say?'"
I have been left utterly bewildered by what some people believe is acceptable thought, conversation, and behavior.
Like... "Do YOU hear you?"
It shows when a person lacks life experience and/or brain cells.
Words expose everything.
And sometimes shock is all that is left to grapple with.
Redditor nlwfty wanted to hear about all the things people have overheard that left them utterly stunned, so they asked:
"What's the most out-of-touch thing you've heard someone say?"
I once a friend's friend moan about how she and her husband were nearly destitute.
Almost penniless.
All while she was straightening up the house for the new au pair they had just gotten from Columbia.
The Who?
Over It Maid GIFGiphy"My boss once told me to have 'the maid' drop my car at the shop. WTF!!"
amboomernotkaren
Be Happy
"'You won't be happier at work if we pay you more, but we need to figure out why workplace happiness is so low.' This coming from a guy that made 10x what I did and was born into old money."
Dirac_comb
"I had a job that was paying below market rates and 'expected' daily overtime (unpaid, natch) and was trying to figure out how to improve morale. They were considering bringing in consoles and having video game nights after work... as if we weren't stuck there too long already."
"I did have the fun of leaving, then being asked to come back as a contractor to help out, and taking advantage of being on a short-term contract and giving no f**ks to suggest that maybe they should consider at least TRACKING the overtime people were working, even if they weren't going to pay for it since there was probably a whole extra job's worth of hours in there and maybe hiring another person might improve morale and reduce the risk of the kind of errors tired people make."
"Didn't stay long as a temp. Apparently telling the truth and discussing facts with your co-workers isn't good for morale >_< They told everyone I was leaving because I got a better offer (!), but I told everyone exactly what was really happening when they asked XD."
princess_ferocious
It hasn't?
"My dad (who is now the Director of Accounting for the school district I teach for) was talking about how my starting pay was way more than his starting pay."
"I said, 'Well, yeah... The cost of living has increased a ton since then.' This motherf**ker straight up said, 'No it hasn't.'"
"He started working there in 1992. This conversation happened in like 2017 (about a year after I started working there). Again, he is the director of accounting."
pjsans
Move On
"'You seem sad.'"
"My mother to my sister, at her husband's funeral."
blarg-zilla
"My sister's son was murdered. Two weeks later my mom asked her if she was over it yet."
NeverCallMeFifi
"One of my sons was murdered 12 years ago. Many people started telling me that I needed to 'move on' after 4-6 weeks. My brother refuses to say my son's name, so I no longer speak to him. Sending my deepest condolences to your family from a mom who understands losing a child to homicide."
PDXer328
Good Idea!
New Girl Facepalm GIF by HULUGiphy“'I don’t know why people get big mortgages. Just save up for a few months and pay cash for a starter home!'"
Hopeful-Moose87
People with money always seem to have a plan, unless the plan is sharing.
FInd the Treasure
Dragons Den Television GIF by CBCGiphy"When people were complaining about not being able to afford housing/food/living in general, one of the Dutch ministers (I think he was a minister or at least the leader of a party) said something along the line of 'well, find a rich boyfriend then'. ah, yes, that will solve the crisis!"
pastelchannl
Dumbfounded
"I went to an Ivy League college with lots of children of extraordinarily wealthy families. When discussing inequality and its effects on housing, my professor briefly mentioned how mortgages are out of reach for a growing number of Americans. The girl next to me stopped the class, and with a confused face asked the professor why people don’t just buy their homes in cash outright because 'surely the interest means it will cost them more over time.' The professor was dumbfounded. I found out later that she is the heiress to a major luxury brand that you have all heard of."
wildblue2
The Increase
"My former landlord and his wife dropped by to tell me and my financially struggling 20-something roommates that they were raising the rent, by nearly 25%. They said, 'We noticed on Craigslist that neighbors had higher rent so we’re doing the same.' The wife then earnestly reminded us that we’ve been great tenants but maybe we just needed to find some higher-paying jobs. 🙃."
agingcatmom
Not Me
"I was waxing a woman’s eyebrows once and she was complaining that sometimes after she gets a massage the pillow leaves a circular indent on her face and she can’t go out to lunch after. She then asked me if that ever happened to me? I was like ma'am I wax people for eleven bucks an hour; I’m not going out to lunch lol, let alone getting massages."
lomi08
Investments
Money Invest GIF by ProBit GlobalGiphy"Something like: Give a rich person $500 and they will invest it into $1000. Give it to a poor person and they will spend it in a week."
"Yeah exactly give it to someone who’s needs are met and they can save… give it to someone who needs to eat/pay rent etc they will spend it to survive!"
ExaminationLucky6082
You need money to make money.
One of life's biggest lessons apparently.
So someone give me some money.
People Reveal The Most Out Of Touch Thing A Rich Person Has Ever Said To Them
Reddit user Always_Wandering_ asked: 'What’s the most out of touch thing a rich person has said to you?'
Though our definitions of "making it" vary, we can all agree that we would at least like to have enough disposable income to live comfortably and debt-free, while some dream of living more luxuriously.
For those who have already "made it" and live among the elite, it's incredible how clueless they can be about how the average person lives day-to-day.
Redditor Always_Wandering_ asked:
"What's the most out-of-touch thing a rich person has said to you?"
But First, Wine
"Long ago when I was a server in a Country Club."
"I was very new to properly opening wine bottles, as I was using my key to take off the foil and gashed the webbing on my hand badly."
"There was a husband and wife at the table. I put down the bottle and was about to leave when he said, 'Who told you to stop pouring?!'"
"I picked it up, poured the wine while dribbling blood all over the white tablecloth, and then went outside, had a smoke, and thought about my life."
- SleepyCountingSheep
Seriously, SO Funny
"He said, 'Isn't it funny we are the same age, but my dad bought me a condo and you have to work two jobs?'"
- BopbopHereWeGo
Living On a Whim
"I worked for a small company that was owned by two wealthy individuals. They were very kind and generous but completely out of touch."
"One day I was at my desk and my then-boss came to me and said he was leaving early for the day to go waterskiing because the weather was nice. It was early summer and the weather was no nicer than it had been the rest of the week."
"I inquired where they were going, thinking it was somewhere near where we were, and he said he was going to his friend’s house in Florida. He’d just booked his private flight, around a three or three-and-a-half hour flight, lol (laughing out loud)."
"Then there was the time he left early to fly to his friend’s house to go quail hunting…"
"The other owner, also wealthy, would jet around the world on a whim to go surfing. Like everywhere. During a conversation about what we were doing for the holidays one year, he said he rented a big house in Canada and hired a helicopter so he, his family, and friends could go heli-skiing. It was totally normal thing to him."
"On the other side, they would give great gifts like good wine, dinners, sometimes small trips, and stuff like that. They were very nice people and I sometimes miss working for them and seeing them, but they both basically semi-retired during the pandemic."
- GratefulGuitar2022
What Daydreams Are Made Of
"I was between jobs and a bunch of my friends told me that I should take the time to go travel the world."
"Like, just because someone doesn't have a job doesn't mean they can just up and travel the world (in fact, the opposite is more likely) but also, you motherf**kers thought the reason I wasn't traveling the world because I hadn't thought of it?"
- Annual-Intern5669
...Wow, Thanks
"He just offhand was like, 'Oh yeah, you can keep all of this since I'm moving out. I'll buy new stuff for my next place.'"
"Some dude I knew who was taking classes at a prestigious university in a very nice studio apartment, whose father had just flown in from Indonesia just to help him pack his clothes."
"I got a full mattress set that was about 3000 dollars, multiple leather rugs for carpeting, expensive looking paintings, way too much IKEA stuff, and a Dyson vacuum."
- Wallow_Whispen
Such a Small Price to Pay
"She said, 'I have no hair on my body! You should have your husband take you to get laser hair removal! It only cost me $10,000!'"
"…Maybe in my dreams."
"She was the Mayor's daughter, and I was catering her dog's birthday party."
- Open-Ad-189
The Reality Check Job
"Had some kid in his early 20s start working at the restaurant I was at. He was a total trust fund baby but his parents made him get a job or they would cut him off (Phone, car, apartment, school, credit card, everything)."
"We were talking about plans for the summer, I mentioned I was gonna take a weekend to head north and visit my mom, someone else was going camping, and another guy was taking a long weekend to help his brother move."
"Holy f**k. He goes, You guys have no idea what vacation means, do you? I'm taking my GF to Spain for two weeks and then spending a few days in Italy before we come back.'"
"He got really upset when I asked him where he was gonna work when he came back. Apparently, he didn't understand that taking three weeks vacation not even two months into a job isn't a thing, especially when part of that was during our busiest season of the year."
"Even better when we all looked at him and told him we couldn't even afford a week off, let alone in Spain."
"He didn't last long."
- subtxtcan
Reality Show Worthy
"In college, I made most of my money cleaning and tutoring for rich families. Here are the highlights:"
"'It's so much more convenient to have a sauna in your house.'"
"'We ordered our wallpaper from Europe. It's the only way to go.'"
"'I just bought the empty lot next to ours so we won't have neighbors.'"
"And my personal favorite:"
"Rich person's kid: 'Gosh, I can't find any babysitting jobs. They've been taken by the one percent.'"
"Rich parent: 'Honey, you are the one percent.'"
- bombasticfox
Well, They DO Need Their Own Bedroom...
"They lived in Boston and we were talking about how small condos are there."
"They were lamenting that they had no space and, as a result, they had to buy another condo (this was Beacon Hill) because they ran out of space to store their Persian rugs."
- SsureBreC
Start Saving For That Honeymoon
"My boss's wife grew up wealthy and then married an "heir to the throne" for a multi-million dollar organization."
"She is meandering around our office bullpen one day and brings me into the conversation, 'How about you, where would you take your lady on a Honeymoon?'"
"Me: 'I dunno, go to the coast for a week and just enjoy the sun.'"
"She laughed out loud at me and said, 'Oh my god, no woman will ever marry you unless you're going to take her on a Hawaiian honeymoon.'"
"At the time I made 10 dollars an hour."
- Flailing_Aimlessly
The Math Ain't Mathin'
"I was working at a car dealership and saw the owner pull up in a $250k Porsche GT3. I told him how much I loved the car and dreamt of owning one someday."
"The owner looked at me confused and said, 'What do you mean? We sell them right here you know?'"
"It totally blew my mind that he didn't realize his employees couldn't afford the cars they were selling."
- tbh3900
The Disappearing Paycheck
"I was talking to my manager about a mistake on a check."
"Me: 'This isn’t even enough to cover my daughter's daycare for the month.'"
"Her: 'Well, what did you do with the money you were just paid?'"
"Ma’am. Food, rent, electricity, and car payments. Boom, check gone."
- Lv69
Illusion Broken
"I dated a rich guy who loved my authenticity, and he would pick me up in one of his dad's cool collector cars and take me to record stores. When I went to visit him, I showed up in my grandpa's old Ford f150 truck."
"He asked me why I drove around in that thing."
"I shrugged and said, 'Because I'm poor.'"
"And he said, 'No, you're not...'"
"It was like I ruined his whole hipster aesthetic and he realized I wasn't grunge."
- char-le-magne
Yeah, I'll Just Go Do That
"Me: 'Yeah, I love flying. I have a nice flight simulation setup at home. Wish I could do it for real.'"
"Owner of the company: 'Yeah, the real thing is so much better. You should buy a plane. I love taking mine out for trips.'"
"Me: 'You sign my checks.'"
- Jefo_Bezos
Forgotten Expenses
"My boss is an attorney. A client who was filling out her financial statement for a divorce realized that she had forgotten to include her student loans on the report. Laughing somewhat ruefully, she said, 'I can’t believe I forgot to include that.'"
"And in a bright, sunny, voice, my boss laughed and said, 'I sometimes forget that I own a boat!'"
" The client and I quietly locked eyes with a shared understanding of how out of touch that was."
- headcase-and-a-half
Some of these examples are almost laughable, considering how far from reality these comments are for most people.
It's wild to think about how far away a luxurious life feels to the average person, and how equally far away that life feels to someone who has everything.
Poor People Share The Most Out Of Touch Advice They've Received From A Rich Person
Successful people who come from humble beginnings usually don't forget where they came from.
But some of those who were already born into privilege and wealth may claim to be compassionate towards people who are financially disadvantaged.
But unless they've lived the experience as someone from the lower class or have a deep understanding of what life is like on the other side, the wealthy will never understand what it's like to be poor.
Curious to hear about interactinos with the affluent from strangers online, Redditor Salazard260 asked:
"Poor people of reddit, what's the most comically out of touch 'advice' you've been given by someone wealthier?"
When it comes to working normal jobs, rich people just don't understand.
Easier Said Than Done
"A mom to my mom, a single mother with three kids: 'you should just stop working if you are so stressed about it.'"
–eccegallo
Not Helpful
"Sounds like a psychologist I went and saw once, spent the hour talking about how much pressure I felt being the sole source of income in the house, to be told 'sounds like your job is stressing you out, you should quit!' When I asked how I’d pay the bills his response was 'I can help you apply for a new job, I’m really good at job applications, I’ve got every job I applied for! - yeah mate I don’t think that’s going to help. Never went back."
– LazerTRex
Acceptable Wage
"Not really advice, but one of my high school friends came from a rich family. But because he wasn't really that motivated in life, his parents encouraged him to find a summer job."
"He was going to go job-hunting at the mall, working in retail. I asked him how much he wanted to earn. He said, 'Not too much. $40 per hour should be a good start.' This was in the early 2000s."
"It reminds me of the Arrested Development scene where Lucille thinks a banana costs $10."
– buckyhermit
When it comes to renting an apartment, these are not the people who should be weighing in with their thoughts to help.
Clueless About Rent
"I had a boss at the time tell me it cant be more than 800 bucks for rent in the DC area when I asked for a pay raise. The minimum rent I could find at the time was closer to 1800."
– Worst_Choice
Let's Start With Step 1
"That I need to buy several apartments and rent them out. Unfortunately, he did not tell me where to get money to buy several apartments."
– blezmalfoy
When it comes to family and financials, we're all not the same.
That's Not How That Works
"I remember when I was at high school and I mentioned to someone that I'd like a gaming PC but couldn't afford it, he said 'can you not just ask your parents for the money?'"
"I said no because there was nothing left over after bills and groceries."
"Yeah, but if you ask realllllyyyyy nicely, couldn't they give you the money?"
"Like what goddamn money? The money for the food we eat? The money for our electricity bill? Sure, no doubt my family are happy to suffer just so I can have a piece of tech I don't need."
– pizdec-unicorn
Ignorance Is Bliss
"I had a friend like that and one time pulled out a pen and paper and did my family's financials roughly in front of them. I showed income, taxes, utilities, insurance, groceries, gas, car payments, loan payments, etc and then showed how little was left over and then said that some of that needs to go into savings/retirement just in case. I then asked them 'so where is that money I ask my parents for coming from?'"
"He sat there dumbfounded for a bit, I think one: that I knew all this off the top of my head (the recession made me hyper aware of financials) and two: it started sink in how ignorant he was about money in general, and how good he had it. He wasn't a bad dude, and wasn't one of those who thinks money was infinite, but I guess didn't realize how much 100 bucks was to a lot of people."
– chikenjoe17
The Other Way Around
"'Just have your parents give you the money'.... B*tch, I support my parents."
– ExistingPosition5742
Going Nowhere Fast
"I had a buddy in college that asked me to drive him to the next town over. He had a car but his parents said he was spending to much in the gas card. His solution was to bum a ride but told me it wasn’t fair for him to pay me for gas out of his allowance because I had a job."
"I’m still stunned by the mental gymnastics that dude went through to justify his behavior."
– Pencilowner
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
"After dumping me my long-tine girlfriend would occasionally reach out with her crazy rants."
"One of them was I should just dump my parents somewhere, as in literally dropping them off on some corner, and let them fend for themselves."
"I dodged a rocket not marrying her."
– OfficePsycho
The rich could afford many luxuries that are unattainable for the rest of us, and good for them.
But when it comes to offering any kind of wisdom or suggestion to improve our financial standing in life, money can't buy them respect when they are completely out of touch.
Define "Upper Class."
Everyone wants to be it, but who can really say what defines it?
Money can't buy class, we know that thanks to celebrity and all the Real Housewives.
But so many people believe they belong to this sacred group of privilege.
So let's figure out how we all get there.
Redditor rethinkwhatisthere wanted to discuss just what exactly are the benchmarks to becoming society's best by asking:
"What screams 'I am upper class'?"
GROSS EXCESS.
I do a lot of cable and fiber-optic work in an extremely affluent neighborhood in the FL panhandle, called Alys Beach. I'm talking GROSS excess when it comes to these houses. But the look on their face when I call their multi-million dollar villa a "townhouse," is priceless.
GiphyI Aspire.
Honestly I don't know, I do security for upper class neighborhoods and condos and its the upper middle class people that absolutely do the crazy things for status. There was a guy who didn't have a barcode, so he came through the visitors lane everyday. He had a messy car, greasy hair, wore holey t-shirts. He was the nicest guy, but he did seem out of place. One day he was upset people were talking sh!t about him and I let him vent and he appreciated that. He came in the next day so happy and was like "Remember that b!tch I was talking about yesterday? Well l, I bought her business! Who's laughing now!"
So he was I can buy your business out of pettiness rich, which is what I aspire to be.
Rumor has it.....
Knew a rich kid in college. Rumor has it, dude ended up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to bookies for betting on NBA games. For that amount of money, the syndicates financing the bookies in my country go after you and your family to make sure you pay.
Night before pay day, dude went to his parents allegedly crying, telling them he had a problem. Parents were obviously concerned. Dude told them what happened and parents breathed a sigh of relief.
They thought he got a chick pregnant. They gave him the money to pay the bookie, relieved.
Swim Deep.
I taught swim lessons at a pretty expensive summer camp, where parents paid upwards of $200 per day for kids, and around $350/day for tweens. Swimming, hiking, paddle boards, rock climbing, horses, etc.. nothing too special these kids couldn't find at another camp. Lots of celebrity kiddos though.
I would charge $50/hr to guard private pool parties because I didn't want to work weekends and didn't really like guarding as much as I loved teaching, but these parents didn't care. I once made $400 in an afternoon guarding a pool that nobody swam in and $100 tip because the dad felt sorry for "wasting" my time. $500 to eat catered Kogi Korean bbq truck food and chat about cars for a few hours; no complaints.
It felt like I was just on display for the parents to show that they could afford a guard. I miss it sometimes.. I was dumb with the money and didn't save much, but enough for some tattoos, a flat screen, and to put 35% down on my first car.
Transport Issues.
Frequency of travels. I work around a ton of upper class people and many of them travel so much they are practically locals at some restaurants. They also focus on lesser known, yet elaborate spots.
The Steinway....
A wealthy couple I know has twin Steinway concert grand pianos in their ballroom-sized living room.
Neither of them plays a note on these elegant pianos that are worth about $185,000 each (Steinway model "D" - 9').
So they hire me to play for special occasions. In the interim, the 2 grands just sit there as part of the room's décor.
Having a nanny 100%.....
Having a nanny 100%. Taught at a dance school in a wealthier area. Not only did all the kids attend a private school but their nannies would be the ones dropping them off. Being that i am not upper class my first few weeks I was pretty confused as to why so many white children seemed to be adopted by asians. Than when I finally met the parents of one of my students i realized they were ALL Vietnamese nannies.
So Quaint.
My friend's parents have a lot of money and I went to a Halloween party that his family friends were having a couple years ago. I distinctively remember hearing the following two sentences (both travel related):
- "We only have five trips booked next year so we're going to try to sneak in a little visit to Egypt in April."
- "Yeah, we were just offered another expenses paid trip to St. Lucia but we turned it down. It just gets boring when you've been so many times."
To the second one, I said "I had to downgrade to one-ply toilet paper this month. Can I have the trip?" They all laughed at my "quaintness."
Add it up...
Being enormously more concerned about how long something will take to get done, rather than how much it will cost.
While we may not have nailed down what upper class is, it seems like classy isn't necessarily part of it.
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