The New Leisure Class

Just a silly thought, but perhaps they're living on credit?

They're still milking their stimulus unemployment checks.

As in Michael Moore's fim, "Roger and Me" in the part when he visits San Francisco: "Everyone there has a job, but nobody is ever at work."

No one is getting any extra money now, R2. You'll need to get your new talking points from Fox ASAP.

I've noticed this too. People who live very comfortably but they never seem to be working.

social media influencers/entrepreneurs and real estate investors/inheritors, of course.

My guess is guys who work in venture capital (the fancy version of pyramid schemes), law firm equity partners who do a lot of “business development,” and maybe some doctors who aren’t on call for the day?

R4,

There was an article recently in, I believe, the New York Times explaining that some folks are still coasting on pandemic payouts, but it won't last that much longer. It was part of a piece focusing on why jobs aren't being filled.

R8 - Thank you.

R4 - Fuck off, shit head.

I know a young married couple that would fit this description. They both have some family money, but not tons (certainly not more than a couple million combined). They are both snobby so they dress and act that part. But they are not particularly smart, interesting, or well-connected, so they haven’t been able to get their own projects and businesses off the ground. The wife is jobless while the husband works in fundraising for a medium-sized charitable organization. I think they must be spending a lot of their family nest egg.

As long as they're childless, and not spending like complete drunken sailors, that's credible, R10.

I used to go to a health club in Atlanta that had a certain number of people like this. They seemed to work in various areas of real estate which gave them time to kill during the day.

Real estate

They could also just be shift workers. If I'm working graveyards I'm often at the gym or pool mid afternoon, or earlier if I have days off midweek which is quite often when I work weekends. Not often at expensive restaurants or shopping at boutiques though.

Other people's personal finances are none of your fucking business.

Who invited R15 to this party?

The live off of investments and inheritance. Money just never goes away for these types. Home equity, small inheritance, 401ks, refinancing over and over, investments, but interestingly not trust funds because that’s a different set than op is describing.

They just move money around and never seem to work much or the spouses will take turns working.

Jackie On Assistance

Jackie came to work a regular 9-5 job.

How do you know they're not on their work lunch breaks when you see them while on your work lunch break? Also, as R14 said, maybe they work nights.

For a lot of client services people, taking a client out to a relaxed and fun lunch is part of the job.

WTH is new about this?

[quote] No one is getting any extra money now

People with children are getting tax credit payments. People I work with are buying all kinds of things. The next check is $300 per child on November 15

With advanced payments stopping at the end of the year, the November 15 deadlines is the last opportunity for families to sign up on the IRS.gov website to sign up. Those who sign up in time are likely to receive a lump sum in December, receiving up to $1,800 dollars for each child in the younger category while for each child in the younger section, they will receive as much as $1,500 dollars.

And they can sign up again next year

Trustafarians. Passive income. Early retirees. Lucky investors. Often a mixture, trust fund, then parents die and more money, and then they stuck it into the right investment/real estate.

My uncle was a real estate developer. Got very lucky. His two sons have fake jobs - one restores Indian motorcycles, and the other builds cabin mansions in Montana. They worth maybe 4 or 5 million, live an upper upper middle class lifestyle, live off interest. One married a rich woman, they are very comfortable. One married a woman with no money, and he actually has to work to earn supplemental income.

My sibling made a ton in the first dotcom thing, cashed out in 2001 and has pretty much lived off that since then. Early retiree. Married a rich woman.

I was taught not to worry about other peoples money. More often than not, more money - more problems.

Living in hovels. Or with mom and dad.

How is this new leisure class making its money?

R20, I thought that too, but if you look closely, they’re dressed too casually (but chic), stay too long, have a dog or shopping bags with them, they come in a car (workers usually walk downtown), etc. There are clues that they have all afternoon.

They’re either hoors or drug dealers!

Some make a lot of money with their social media presence (mommy or cooking blog, social media influencer, OnlyFans, Youtube, etc.). Some are trust fund brats, tech guys (and their new wives or husbands) can retire after they sold a few of their startups. People with courage, ambition and the right connections can live a comfortable life. Always have.

Many work from homers have a lot more time to socialize post-Covid. Less commuting has given people back huge chunks time in the work week. If they are professionals, they can make their own hours. As long as the work gets done, they can take a day or a half day off here and there.

People like this have been around long before COVID. There simply aren't that many influencers or others who can make a living in odd hours. The people I used to see at the gym in Atlanta were doing nothing when I arrived and when I left. Atlanta is a place where there is little real wealth part from a few fortunes like the Coca Cola families---it's really all for show. A few were living off severance from dot com or other jobs that vanished, but usually it was real estate. The ones who got into mortgages actually had to be sitting at a computer all day.

Everyone lives a lie.

You're just now discovering this, OP?

It's not a new leisure class, R30 sums it up well:

[quote]Many work from homers have a lot more time to socialize post-Covid. Less commuting has given people back huge chunks time in the work week. If they are professionals, they can make their own hours. As long as the work gets done, they can take a day or a half day off here and there.

People have more flexibility now.

I have a few friends that basically hit the lottery in life, only in their 30s too. Their wealthy parents died, leaving them prime real estate, had amazing life insurance plans, etc. They travel, fuck around all day, etc.

I don't care, except I'm over these wealthier people acting like they "earned it" -- by doing what? Falling out of the right crotch? At the very least, I'd have boys respect if they admitted their good fortune.

Even worse about them, they're cheapskates by taking advantage of people around them. I offered a killer deal for storage because they paid a lot in the past, but they want it for free since they know me. One guy had to do his roof and guilt tripped an elderly man to do it for free ("my parent died!" Yet he's a fucking millionaire...) When it comes to hanging out, they get livid you can't party on a work night and say you're not a good friend.

*more* respect

I came into quite a bit of inherited money older. But, I absolutely hate, loathe, and detest cheapskates!

R36 I'm happy for you. Nothing wrong with that at all. It's definitely their attitude that sucks. They never had to deal with working so they don't understand what it entails.

Crypto.

This happened even before Covid19, though. Maybe they’re all on their day off?

Whoredom

[quote]I was taught not to worry about other peoples money. More often than not, more money - more problems.

It's a good teaching. Focusing on others' money seems to make people I know so miserable. I know one girl who earns a REALLY good salary, lives her "best life" in a very expensive city, and yet because other people she knows earn more than her, she's never happy, always complaining that she is "poor" and can't afford anything, and saying it's only right other friends pay her way because they earn more.

If she just focused on what a good position she is in still, she'd be so much happier.

Speaking of cheapskates above, what I've noticed about people like that (like my friend above too) is that they will quibble over the prices of the stuff that would really benefit them (like the roof example the poster above mentioned), but will throw copious amounts of it away on junk. I mean, do what you like with your own money, but I'm not interested in hearing you complain about not having money for the important stuff.

OP, I may be one of these types, your question sounds like one that one of my friends brings up sometimes. I typically meet people out for coffee or lunch. A lot of people in the circles I'm in know that I work, but wouldn't be able to say what my job is. Not that I've never spoken of it, but because it's boring to them. I control my schedule. I have a nice car. I am NOT wealthy. Personally, I'm well groomed but don't dress very smooth or fashionable. I think I just read as living freely and having a sort of laissez faire lifestyle. But I'm aware of it and in a way, I suppose I kind of like it. I've worked by ass off, grew up poor-to-working class and at 50, am finally comfortable enough with myself to own up to it. Here's how I live.

I work full-time, but I can control my meeting schedule. For two years I've worked remotely from home, which allows a lot more space for daily freedom. I don't have any trust fund, (I wish!). My partner/husband works from home too, but his work schedule is much more demanding.

I'm not out every day but to some people, they think they see me out having coffee or lunch or at some civic event all the time. But that isn't the case. I'm a consultant/contractor. I work in I.T., contract out to companies. When I'm busy, I'm VERY busy, and stressed. And when I'm slow, it gives me more time to call up acquaintances or friends and say "Let's meet on that over lunch" or "Wanna grab coffee around 1 tomorrow?". Today, a buddy of mine, an actual trustfunder, came over and we ran out to do some general shopping errands. So in the middle of the day, we likely looked like two non-retired guys living a leisurely lifestyle. But we both needed new coats and hate to shop for them, so we did it during a weekday when things would be more slow at those types of places.

It does seem a little leisurely, but I really do work and we're not at all wealthy guys. I will also say that between contracts, which sometime can be months, my spouse also working means I'm not stressing over paying the bills. We save, I don't spend a lot of cash and it just works out I guess.

So maybe that's what you're noticing. Plus, a lot of more non-professional people are gig workers, doing Uber/Uber Eats, InstaCart etc. You're not seeing them ALL the time, you're just seeing a LOT of them because that's become the norm for a huge percentage of the workforce.

It seems there are lots of fancy leisure types out there, and there are. But you're also simply noticing the perks of the new working class. Not every job is 9-5 anymore, and many come with flexible schedules.

Hope that explains a little bit.

r34 I've been dealing with these fucking people my whole life.

Friends with magical credit cards paid for by parents or trust fund. One extreme cheapskate college roommate told he his dad was an animal vet, they were basic middle class people, even though he went skiing in Aspen for Christmas and shit like that. Find out his family own a vet chain all over the southeast, like 100 locations.

Went it with another guy for a bag of weed, got ripped off, we lost 100 bucks. Dude NEVER forgave me. Cried poverty, how much money that is. I paid him back his share. HIS fucking family some ancient publishing family, Philadelphia mainline mansions, just insane.

They are taught some strange fucking values growing up - like pretend you are lower middle class so you can scam people and they won't hit you up for money, it's "classy" to act poor, except when they whip out the magic credit card to fly to New Zealand or buy a 20k sofa on a whim.

What kind of jobs fund this lifestyle?