A life of preferences
I think about this tweet a lot.
Being a billionaire must be insane. You can buy new teeth, new skin. All your chairs cost 20,000 dollars and weigh 2,000 pounds. Your life is just a series of your own preferences. In terms of cognitive impairment it's probably like being kicked in the head by a horse every day
— Thing Bad (@Merman_Melville) January 24, 2019
Casual ableism aside, that phrase “Your life is just a series of your own preferences” cuts like a knife. Wealth reshapes your relationship with hardships and grants access to leisure and luxuries that not everyone can afford.
I’ve had some recent experiences with people wealthier than me where I felt this acutely. Nothing malicious, but a realization of “Oh, that’s not a concern for you.” You or your kids want some expensive thing but it’d be fun? Buy now. Don’t like paying taxes and want a workaround? Buy now. Don’t like something about your house or car or body? Buy now.
To be fair, I see this effect of wealth in my own life too. Don’t want to make dinner or drive to a restaurant? Then don’t! That’s for the plebeians. I would prefer not to so I’ll use my tech salary to have a person on a gig app do that for me. I will – for a moment – have an on demand butler to cater to my whims.
Life, according to your own preferences.