I went to a private prep school that cost $20K a year in the late 1980s - Ivanka Trump later went there. (My mother taught there so I went free.) Some scholarship kids, some filthy rich kids. By their 30s I think most people figure out that their lives are not like everyone's lives, but as teenagers there's a lot of taking for granted that everyone goes skiing in Europe or vacations on the best Caribbean islands (I was once told that Aruba was passe, Anguilla was where it was at) and gets several hundred dollars a week allowance (which, in the 1980s, was prefect for buying cocaine!) Later I knew well a great-grandson of FDR, who was very down to earth, but definitely came from Old Money, whioch sometimes embarrassed him, and yet slipped out, like when I mentioned where my grandparents lived and he assumed I know about yachting. His last name is Roosevelt, so it's not like he could hide it, and while he was incredibly hardworking and smart, I think the mere knowledge that you'll always have a financial and social safety net by virtue of your family makes a big difference in one's life.

World's ugliest couches:

[link]

Overrated.

Ha! That is exactly how I thought of museums when I was a kid.

Don't lie, billytea, you still do.

Don't lie, billytea, you still do.

Well sure, that's how I still think museums should be. That's how I think my workplace should be.

That is exactly how I thought of museums when I was a kid.

When I was a kid, I loved the museums in Chicago, such as the Field Museum, Museum of Science and Industry and the Adler Planetarium. But IIRC my relatives in Chicago never took me to art museums when I was a kid.

A friend of mine is dating an heir from a well known company and he's been in every major rehab center in the United States.

(I was once told that Aruba was passe, Anguilla was where it was at)

I had a very similar high school experience - my parents obviously had the money to send me to an expensive private school so it's not like I grew up underprivileged, but I was also happy to be driving the '87 Chevy station wagon hand-me-down. My classmates would whine that they got a Lexus for their sweet-16 instead of the Viper they really waaaaaaaaaaaanted*. Another one got a Mercedes when she turned 16, crashed it about a month later, and her parents immediately bought her another one.

(*This particular girl was later expelled for stealing prescription drugs and cash out of students' lockers. I was on the crew team with her! Good times!)

The people I have known who come from money, including my best friend, have been different in terms of mental health, work ethic, morality, depending on their family. The one similarity between them is that they can be more free in choosing what they want to do. In the back of their minds, they know they will have enough money to live on, so choosing a job just to meet financial needs is not an issue. Even if they come from a family in which you are expected to support yourself (as my BFF does--she has always worked full time as have her brother and sister), you still know you will inherit money someday. Neither my nor my husband's parents are going to leave us anything, so a big part of our life is planning for the future and that's something trust fund peeps don't have to do.

That Atlantic article is really interesting. Thinking about it, I've known people who are really rich for a variety of reasons - I went to high school with the grandson of Sam (Wal-Mart) Walton, but also with a guy who was well-off (like, doctor-lawyer parents well off) but not super-rich until he became one of the early Microsoft squillionaires. I think it does make some difference.