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.

I'm not sure who I grew up with. Obviously some of the kids in Jamaica were pretty poor, and some of the kids in London were pretty rich, but I have to cop to being self-absorbed enough to not paying enough attention to telling the difference between the personalities of the ones who owned multiple horses each or were living in the bad areas of town.

One of the things I found most interesting in that article was the way that someone who knows their income is completely secure often ends up changing careers a lot, because they have no incentive to stick out a challenging situation (and thereby learn and progress). They're more likely to do something for a year or two and then, when things get tough or they get a new boss, decide it's not worth it, and leave. So they end up not being that successful in the long run, and often end up on philanthropy, where their money buys them success.

Which is certainly a response I would have, myself, if I knew I didn't have to be employed to keep food on the table.

Growing up in a farming community was weird. No rich people that I knew. Our family doctor drove a Cadillac, so I thought he was rich. When I was in college, I met a guy whose father owned five farms, so his parents were millionaires but all their money was tied up in the farms and they drove beat-up old Chevys.

My dad was on the load-committee of our local bank, and as we drove through the countryside he'd point out farms that were doing well and farms that were close to foreclosure. If it wasn't for my dad's insider knowledge there was pretty much no way to tell how well the farm was doing.

I still haven't really known any rich people (that I know of).

Interview with Joss about Dr. Horrible and other things.

I think if I were independently wealthy I'd start my own business. There are several empty storefronts on my street where I think, if I could afford to, I'd open an awesome coffee shop there. On the other hand, if I were independently wealthy I wouldn't be living in this neighborhood at all and I'd have no idea how badly this block needs a coffee shop. (It really really does.)

If I were an entrepreneurial type AND wealthy, I would start some kind of sheltered workshop type business for people with mid-stage Alzheimer's and other kinds of disabilities. There really is a lot they could do, with the right structure!

Someone, please take that idea.

A friend worked at a record store in Madison while she was in college. A number of students who worked there had rich parents who told them they had to get jobs to learn responsibility, etc. These students called in sick way more than the ones who worked there because they really needed the money.

If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would probably quit my job because the boss is not going to grow balls tomorrow, and I don't need to be frustrated by his inability to make decisions. I would probably go back to school to get an arts management degree and work for a theatre in town.