Post #3859639

2026-07-09 05:13 UTC

I reckon that, on average, they’re stupider. Having enough money means that mistakes have lower consequences. Which leads to having fewer opportunities to learn an important lesson. E.g. caused an accident by driving unsafely. Poor: can’t afford insurance, can’t pay, lose car, lose job. Rich: use oyher car. End result: rich person doesn’t learn to drive safely.

Replies (2)

@pulsewidth@lemmy.world 2026-07-09 06:47

Related. I had a rich older lady rear-end me once in her Mercedes coupe. Low speed in traffic moving through an intersection - but enough damage that I could see insurance would have to get involved. Cars in front of me are gridlocked, I get out and ask her if she’s ok. She says, “why did you stop?!”. I’m a sarcastic bitch so I said - “see those cars in front of me? I can’t drive through them.” Her: “you hit my car!”. Me: “uhhhhh (brain loading)… I was stationary, and in front of you. How can i have hit you?”. Her: … Me: “Look, the damage isn’t bad, it’s no big deal - insurance can sort it out. Accidents happen.” Her in her most patronising private school accent she could muster, “I don’t have accidents”. Gotta admit that one threw me. I’d never heard that level of privilege, simply defying reality. We pulled aside when traffic started moving and she called her husband and handed the phone to me (I guess he’s the fixer in the relationship)… he was more reasonable and we got details exchanged etc, but that conversation stuck with me.

Open ##3869072
@jimmux@programming.dev 2026-07-09 07:00

There’s a survivorship bias at work too. Getting rich requires taking big risks. Smart people will know that odds of success are very low, so likely not worth the payoff. Stupid people are more likely to go for it, the vast majority will fail, but we only really see the successes.

Open ##3870389