to wonder why we worship rich people?

[kindlypudding]

Or to put it in context, why are there so many posts over the years that presume rich people (including the the established upper class) have better ideas about how to dress, spend money, behave and go about the world?

I am 50 and recall being a very young teen in the early 90's.
I was bog standard middle class, and had a good amount of privilege, compared to todays' world. Yet my friends and I would have preferred the ground to swallow us up than to emulate the wealthy. We sure as heck didn't presume they were the arbiters of taste, in fact, if anything, we considered it all a bit fusty, behind the times, etc.

I noticed a shift towards emulating wealth again around 2012, where everyday teens were suddenly starting up blogs to show off their Chanel handbags. And then Mumsnet, post after post asking how the upper class lived and how it could be copied. A presumption, I presume, that considered wealth and high status to be the pinnacle of good taste.

Perhaps it is my own background that puts me in an odd space with this. Maybe our particular entourage were subversive, alternative? But it never struck me back then, both amongst my middle class and working class peers, that anyone wanted to worship the upper echelons.

I know that there might have been many people who chased the money, where property and investment were paramount, but it didn't feel quite as consuming as it does today.
What do you think altered that? Did the internet have some effect, or perhaps was it the growing divide of wealth that brought it home to people?

I don't worship rich people. I don't worship anyone but I really enjoy intelligent, creative, kind people. I would worship them if anyone!

Yes amongst a lot of people there’s this idolisation and reverence of the wealthy.

They're better than us and have nice lives.

When I was growing up there was a distinction between new and old wealth. People who made a lot of money and drew attention to it, were seen as vulgar and certainly nothing to aspire to.

I never have worshipped wealthy people, nor do I necessarily think they have nice lives.

But I don't recall anyone, back then, worshipping old money. And why would old money be more authentic and respectable than new money?
Isn't it all just capitalism and divisiveness?
It must mean people consider wealth to correlate with morality - hence old money (inherited) being superior to new.

Surely, if one considers this, it's really rather silly?

I guess I never lost that teenaged idealism

At agree with your post about the way many in society feel generally, although of course there are lots of people that don’t feel this way (and have come on this post to say so).

But generally I think (just my thoughts) that it started with vague outliers in the 1980s - look at films or tv shows from that time to see the start of high powered dressing/jobs being sought after, and continued onwards, in the 90s and 2000s, fueled by a rise in disposable income, marketing and the internet. If you look tv shows of the time (not a scientific standard, but one that kind of measures social mores!) in Gilmore Girls the rich parents were made fun of, and the free-spirited lifestyle of Lorelai portrayed as the ‘right’ one, but even in that she wanted her daughter to go to Harvard/Yale. Friends is another one. There was an episode early on about the divide between which friends had good jobs and those that didn’t. By the end they all (except Phoebe? I can’t recall) had v good jobs.

Then moving on you see shows like the OC, Sex & the City, Gossip Girl or Billions etc where the underlying message is: Rich people have beautiful clothes, look beautiful, but have problems just like us! I’m sure there are a million more.

But ultimately I think it is tv/movies subtly shifting to show this, and then marketing and wanting to sell you thinks by implying you are lesser if you don’t have them.

Interesting, charting the change in public attitudes to other things, such as homosexuality etc is interesting to see in Friends and other similar tv shows.

@3LemonsAndLime Excellent post, thank you! I can see this at a societal level, and yet can also see that it only became apparent to me a good while later.
Perhaps that was my own attention not focusing on it during those years?

A matter of perception, perhaps? I have wondered if this was always there and I didn't notice it before the millenium.

Growing inequality.

Perhaps you are thinking about those who lust after the luxury/celebrity lifestyle as opposed to emulating the rich. It's okay to like nice things but they are not indicators of being rich.

I think there is an element of fascination in lifestyles different to our own. Be it royalty or celebs/actors selling spreads of their home life to Hello. I absolutely loved the early 2010's shows about the Travellers and their weddings.

Things became extra when hen nights stopped being a pub crawl and a nightclub and became a spa weekend then became a week in Spain. Weddings went from a local church and golf club do to stately home and fireworks. This year I have been invited to a nurse/car mechanic's (perfectly respectable professions) 3 day Tuscan wedding and neither of them have links to the place. Are they emulating the rich? I don't think so, but perhaps they think - ohhh I want to do that.

I live in Sweden now and the teenage boys here are not so much into wearing sports wear for everything as in the UK. Last summer they were into Stockholm style, 'old money' style, a bit like Merchant Ivory films. Linen and cotton with floppy hairstyles etc. None of them were emulating the rich - they liked the style.

Complete glossing over of how hard earned some of that money is - with sacrifices. It still comes with stress but of a different kind, but one which is not comparable to heat or eat type of financial stress

No one sees the ugly side- and there is one which is undesirable

I do think there’s a strong influence from Instagram/TicTok influencers who are paid to promote brands, the message is “buy this stuff and be the envy of your friends “.

They have a different mindset from my (ancient) generation.

Wealth has always given people social status. I think that's the point of it isn't it. Culture and drama reflects that, mostly.

There are little blips here and there, when broadly socialist/egalitarian ideals are in the ascendency - in the twentieth century you could say 1920s, 1960s, 1990s - but money gives you staying power and actual power.

Don't forget we still have a monarchy and an aristocracy in the UK. Citizens may be sulky or belligerent but they rarely outright riot or make any real moves to redress the balance.

We voted in a corrupt incompetent PM purely because he was posh and had a posh blustering speaking style. Pretty much all the top influential jobs are allocated as they always have been to the same circle and no one seems to think that should change.

People watch soap operas about ordinary folk but they go wild for shit like Downton Abbey and The Crown etc - drama that tells us rich people are the same as poor people except for they just happen to magically have money.

This makes me think about te threads about how to look posh. They are popular, and people showing they know the difference between different kinds of wealth makes me think that they think this knowledge makes them wealth-adjacent. I think it's about power. People with money have the power to make the world move. So looking like this, creating an atmosphere in which one aims to be mistaken for this, is ultimately about looking like power, in my opinion. It's mimicry to fit in and be accepted by those we most admire, and I think humans have always done this.

Yes i agree spot on about power either over or covert social class signaling

With Respect OP, you sound like a teenage Marxist. Like you are still in sixth form and have yet to see the real world.

Wanting a nice handbag or a nice car isn’t worshipping the rich. Nor is wanting to look nice in your appearance. What an odd statement to make. Are you the ‘eat the rich’ type.

You’re missing the point about the old money aesthetic. It’s exactly the opposite to flaunting money.

Old money is about muted indulgence. It means you shouldn’t be ostentatious or show off things that symbolize money.

not sure where worship any person comes from but no I don't and not aware of anyone in my family doing so lol weird

I don't think most people "worship rich people" at all!!

Wish they were in that situation, yes! Totally different!

I don't think most people have ever "worshipped" anyone!!

So OTT!!

I sometimes wonder if people think if they fawn over them enough they’ll be given some money

Labour government from 97 to 2010. I think that held things together or slowed down the obviousness of decline.

Also we won the Olympics in 2005. That was a massive national distraction and promise of hope.

I think also in a way the 90s care free generation kind of let the younger generation down. We could have/ should have done a lot more to push a green agenda and community cohesiveness. But fell into apathy that someone somewhere had a plan.

The only thing I do know holds true is people eventually realise its not about money but that people matter more.

Because we conflate wealth with hard work - and the previous Tory government took this to a whole new level, which the current government are continuing. We assume those who are wealthy are better, superior beings as they’ve worked so hard for their money whereas the poor are to be pitied and are lazy. It’s utter shite in the vast majority of cases but the narrative has stuck now 🙁

I am not sure why OP thinks this. I don't think anyone asking questions about "how rich people live" worships them and I haven't seen that many questions about it.

People have always wanted more money to buy nice things but that's not worshipping rich people.

If anything as a society we have become less deferential to wealthy people and more deferential to celebrities.

Times are changing fast. ‘old money’ is now associated with slavery not class. An emerging distaste and questioning where inherited wealth has actually come from is definitely gaining traction now.

Young people want nothing to do with it, and are very conscious of inequality.

A new class is emerging before us of creative super technology, this is going to leave the current class structure in tatters. The intelligence and innovation is breathtaking, and in some cases is most definitely worthy of admiration,

The vast majority of young people do not want social equality. Many won’t wear any labels at all. Nor do they like cars. Or obvious wealth. Or even less obvious wealth but alluding to it. A growing consensus that previous generations have been very selfish, and uncaring of the planet, the future.

It will be the young of today and their ideals that will shape tomorrow, not so much emulating past ideals rooted in dubious inherited wealth. Young people are far more conscious of the truth.

I have high hopes for the future based on the general values of the young.