Wealth does not necessarily equal class

[Gigi]

At a post-funeral reception recently I witnessed an apalling display of bad manners.

The reception was held at a mansion in one of the ritzier neighborhoods of our fair city. The guest list consisted of lots of our city's rich and famous. There was a beautiful dinner buffet laid out on the dining room table and a lovely dessert display placed on an adjacent buffet.  The centerpiece of the dessert buffet was one of those edible arrangements of cut fruit on long skewers, arranged like a flower display. There were plates, forks and dessert spoons on the buffet.

Enter the 20-something scion of one of the wealthiest families in the country. This young man, having already been through the dinner line more than once, approached the desserts.  He removed skewers of the fruit and, rather than put them on a dessert plate and return to his table, proceeded to eat them standing at the buffet...thus blocking other guests who were trying to get to the goodies. When he finished eating the fruit he dropped the skewers on the floor!!!!!!!!!!!   So, not only did he show no respect for the home of his hosts (the grieving family) he also created a safety hazard for anyone who might have stepped on the round, wooden rod and lost their balance. 

I've seen a lot of bad behavior from this one and his sibs over the years, and don't expect much from any of them, but I still had a hard time believing my eyes on this one.

[arkzak]

What a despicable twit.

[Suze]

The boy has probably had someone to follow him around all of his life and pick up after him.  What do you expect?

Dropping the skewers on the floor?  I am surprised he didn't put them back in the "arrangment"

(Isn't that way to serve fruit neat? Those types of arrangments are just starting to hit here)

[Venus193]

Good manners and class are not related to anything else, especially when trumped by a sense of entitlement.

I posted this on the old board a year ago, but when I sold my mother's house the buyer's lawyer was an hour and a half late to the closing meeting, which took place on the day before Thanksgiving.  I honestly think she showed up at all only because the title company's lawyer called her cell phone.  When she finally showed up she was dressed as though she sat through too many screenings of Erin Brockavich and she spent most of the meeting on her cell phone with another client.  To compound that, her voice was a combination of the worst of Fran Drescher and Rose O'Donnell.

A law degree is also no guarantee of class.

[IndianInlaw]

Oh my!  Too bad nobody had thought to bring the clue by 4.  He certainly deserved a good whacking with it.  The heavy duty one too!

This is much, much, much less egregious, but when I lived in South FL, I used to walk over the bridges on the causeway and look down (snoop, okay? snoop!) at the beautiful yachts moored there. 

One really, really, really large yacht had a plastic plant sitting on the deck.  It wasn't just any plastic plant, pretending to be real....noooo...it was a plastic dracena, with ORANGE foliage where it should be green.  These were popular in the late 70's and you could buy them at places like Service Merchandise.

It made me feel much better about not being rich.

[sammycat]

This boy is obviously used to the magic fairies coming along and picking up after him.

Money definitely doesen't equal class.

[Sophia]

Can you imagine this twit at work?  I can't remember the saying, Something like rich to poor in 3 genererations."  Basically, that the great-grandkids of the wealthy will be poor because a couple of generations will live off and blow the original money. 

[Venus193]

Of course.  I haven't read Carnegie's book, but I remember hearing that one of its most memorable points is that one should provide the best education possible for one's children so they can get the right start in life, then leave all one's wealth to charity.

People who live off inherited wealth often possess neither initiative nor creativity.  Judith Martin's book Star Spangled Manners makes this point, saying that self-made people are therefore far more interesting.

[Gigi]

LOL The concept of "work" has probably never entered this twit's mind.  He is an aspiring actor, but with no talent and a nasty attitude he has little chance of success in that field. He will most likely continue to live off the fortune generated by the 2 previous generations and always expect to be given everything he wants as soon as he wants it.  When he was about 5 I heard him tell his nanny that she was fired.  Her offense? She actually said "no" to him.  Probably the first and last time in his life he's heard that word.

Actually, I hold his parents and grandparents most accountable for the bad behavior of all of those kids.  They have never taught them how to behave.  They behave badly themselves.

[Bethalize]

The reception was held at a mansion in one of the ritzier neighborhoods of our fair city. The guest list consisted of lots of our city's rich and famous.

"Brass not class" is the phrase that applies here. Some people are parvenus. Shame we're too polite to say it to their faces!

[Venus193]

When he was about 5 I heard him tell his nanny that she was fired.  Her offense? She actually said "no" to him.  Probably the first and last time in his life he's heard that word.

Actually, I hold his parents and grandparents most accountable for the bad behavior of all of those kids.  They have never taught them how to behave.  They behave badly themselves.

Oy; this is depressingly familiar.