Ok, I'm not rich exactly but I'm richer than I've ever been in my life. Today I did something that rich people do-Mayor Bloomberg does it. Remember how when people were complaining about the poor job the city did in picking up snow after a bad storm he wondered why they didn't all just chill out-after all there are many better things that they could do like go to a Broadway play.
Well, that is exactly what I did today-I went to a Broadway play and it certainly isn't cheap. The main privilege having a few dollars in my pocket got me today was the ability of them to gouge me. They had told me online that the two tickets I was buying-one for a female friend-not a girlfriend-and one for me would be like $190. However, I later saw on my receipt that they added a service fee of $92 dollars as well as another $75 dollars or so on a 'restoration of the building' fee. So it was $365 dollars not the $190 dollar online quote.
I had told my friend that her cost was like $95 dollars. So when I saw her I told her it was a bit more but that since I had told her it was only $95 dollars a piece I'd only hold her to that. She paid me $45-as she had told me she would when I had given her the quote-and would get me with the rest this Sunday. While that's what I asked and I don't think I would have been right to ask for more even though I didn't know it was more myself when I told her that and it means more money out of my pocket, I still kind of felt like she could have offered to pay me another $50 to be fair. I can't say that she was obligated to in principle-I had told her $95 even if I was mistaken. Still I think it would have been a little more impressed if she did that. I don't know if I'm right or wrong to feel this way-listen to me, I need Dear Abbie!
Then again, she's poor-just where I was until the last few weeks. Still she could have offered something-not break even but a little more. I don't think she was wrong to do it this way but I think a truly classy person might have offered to pay an extra $50 as the website mislead me-rather than I misleading her. Again, I'm not sure I'm right but feel I would have appreciated her at least suggesting this.
Then when we got there it turns out that I had mistakenly ordered Saturday rather than Sunday tickets-though they gave us a break and still we got pretty good seats. My friend seemed to think that I should have argued for a discount if the seats weren't as good but our seats were still pretty darn good really-we were pretty close to the action.
However, they then gouged me for snacks which ran under the '$5 plan'-everything costs an even $5. None of that $4.95 stuff you usually get. So a tiny Pringles bottle-not the usual big ones-cost $5 dollars. I had a packet of M&Ms for another $5. Then after intermission I bought two ore Pringles and another M&M for $15 bringing my total for 3 tiny Pringle bottles-the three of them maybe equaled the usual big can you get for $.99 at the supermarket and two M&Ms for a grand total of $25. So that's what you get at a rich man's event-a change to get gouged royally. For the record I and my friend both loved the performance of Momma Mia.
Right now I'm reading Mankiw's Textbook-it's from a few years ago-1998 or so-but this part I'm on is probably pretty timeless in Mainstream Macro, the idea of the power of Supply and Demand equilibriating. I'm sure Mankiw would argue that this was a reasonable pricing of these items-after all, my 'desire' for the tiny pringle bottles and M&Ms was pretty 'inelastic.' It's efficient for people willing to pay $25 for such junk to be able to. Nor is he the only one who would argue this way.
After the performance my friend and I went to get a bite to eat at a dinner near Penn Station. The waitress came out-she was very attractive, kind of exotic-couldn't tell if she was Spanish or Indian or what but I found her kind of attractive but of course I would never say anything about this in front of my friend-even if you're just friends with a woman they never want to hear that you find another woman attractive. In any case our relationship is kind of unspecified which I like.
She had recommended this diner. I got the chicken parm. I had been torn between this meal and the ravioli but the waitress had said that in her opinion the chicken parm is much more filling. While I'm careful in front of Wendy-ok, I'm tired of referring to her as 'my friend'-I did kind of remark how I appreciated how the waitress helped me make up my mind-I don't like when people say things like 'well it's up to you, after all you know what you want'-I like it better when they help me divine it.
Wendy ordered light of course, just a grilled cheese sandwich. She asked the waitress a bunch of questions about how its prepared and what's in it before deciding. At the time I wanted to warn the waitress-'just so you know Wendy's cool, but she's a chef so she's rather particular about how she thinks things should be prepared.' but I didn't as I didn't want Wendy to think I was insulting her-it's not really an insult at all, it's just a fact-I wanted to forewarn our waitress.
Turns out she could have used the warning-at the end of the meal she came out and asked us how it was I, of course, said I loved it and that it was great-'thanks for everything!' but Wendy told her that the sandwich wasn't so great as there was only one piece of cheese and there should have been two or three. At this point I piped in and said 'You have to understand, Wendy's a chef so she kind of sees things other people don't. She doesn't grade with much of a curve.'
Wendy then basically demanded a major discount on her bill-the sandwich was $5 dollars. So the waitress gave her a discount of $1.25 which she later complained wasn't sufficient-that it should have been at least a $2.50 discount. I'm not saying she's wrong by any means. I mean she may well be right-that doesn't sound like a lot of cheese.
Wendy had asked for separate check at the start of the meal-which was cool. My bill ended up at $26 as I got some chocolate mousse at the end of the meal. The bill seemed a little high but then I really didn't need the mousse. I gave her one of my $50 bills the check cashing place woman gave me on Friday when I cashed my check-and asked for $15 back. Wendy handed her $10 and then got quite animated in asking her "you're going to give me my change back right?'
I'm not criticizing Wendy here-I hope that's not what comes across. I'm really kind of just thinking about it. I think if you're not happy with what you get and have a righteous beef you should voice your complaint as she did. Still I was kind of gratified in the comparison-her demanding every cent of her $2.32 change back with me giving the waitress a $9 dollar tip. Talk about being the good cop!
That's not exactly a rich man thing. I've always been a big tipper since my days as a pizza delivery driver back in Massachusetts during the Bush years before that opulent lifestyle came crashing down. Still since I got a little cash-still haven't gotten my large amount yet-I've been even more generous with the tips. When I got off on the train ride from Penn Station to Baldwin, I gave the cab driver who drove me home a $7 tip. All the cabbies that know me love me over at Dawson. Even when I was poor-just a few weeks ago-I would usually give a $5 tip, now I usually do $7 or $8. More than one cabbie has told me that they wish all the passengers could be like me-they have so many people have them drive them really far like to the airport complaining all the way they're going to miss their flight and then stiffing them on the tip after driving miles. So by no means do all rich people tip well or at all. Again, I'm not really rich, just no longer poor, and will be kind of well off but will still need to work.
What's really interesting though is despite it all-the $25 on couple of Pringles and M&Ms the $26 dollar dinner and the $9 dollar tip, the $7 cabbie tip, I checked my wallet after it and I still have $232 of the $325 I had on my check after leaving the check cashing store on Friday, It's rather amazing-I never had much more than $100 by Sunday nights when I was poor. There's no question I've been improved in my saving since I 'got rich' which is what I always suspected. Actually looking at my spending habits, since my long banishment to my parents' basement in 2009 I see very clearly that when I have no money I spend much faster. In 2011 which was a pretty low ebb year-my last 9 months of the year were unemployed, and it took a long time-basically all Summer-for them to finally send me my UI checks-I spent much more, much faster than before. When I lost my job in June, 2013 from Slomins' after 10 months of solid work-they canned me for a few slow weeks, which even now sticks in my craw-right away I saw before my eyes that all wanted to do was drown my sorrows-not in booze like normal people but in 11 piece Popeye's Chicken buckets.
Even though at that point I did have a part time day job by then so I wasn't totally back at square one. I've been better at trying to save lately, but only now am I actually able to hold onto most of my check through Monday, even while buying $25 dollars worth of pringles and M&Ms. So financial strain hardly makes me tighten up but the opposite.
P.S. I hope my description of Wendy doesn't sound negative. I really do think she's cool and a good friend. I mean, it might be easier for me to think she could have offered the $50 now as I could now afford such a gesture. As for her being tough on waitresses and cooks, well she really is a cook, you see. I've been to places where the cook as come out and agreed with her. I mean I think that's how she is and it's cool. I just find it interesting in how differently I do things. Not to say that I never criticize or complain about service but usually I don't unless it's pretty serious. It's hard for me to identify on her sandwich as that would never satisfy me even if it were done right. I will on occaison criticize or ask for something to be heated more or redone but very really would I not tip.
The waitress doesn't make the food anyway. I did stiff I guy once a few months ago over at the Baldwin Diner-he just seemed to me to not every try. I sometimes feel like some of these male waiters feel that if you're a guy eating alone they're not even going to bother to kiss your ass or whatever and I have a real problem with that. It's not professional. I didn't tip him at all but wrote down on the slip 'You're very rude and useless.' You might wonder why I did this or think it was rough but my point was I wanted him to know that it was personal, I tip but he really went beyond the call of duty in doing nothing in terms of customer service other than placing the food down quickly and making himself scarce.
P.S.S. It's less that I'm part of the top 1% now, than I'm no longer in the bottom 1% which is something.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/03/young-woman-fired-for-giving-homeless.html
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/03/morgan-warstler-on-keynes.html?showComment=1395329267215#c3318499982212747875
Even though technically the lump sum I'm receiving may be in that range-if the 1% is just over $250,000-it's just one time payment. If someone gets $500,000 this year but $20,000 every other year, are they really in the top 1%?
Well, that is exactly what I did today-I went to a Broadway play and it certainly isn't cheap. The main privilege having a few dollars in my pocket got me today was the ability of them to gouge me. They had told me online that the two tickets I was buying-one for a female friend-not a girlfriend-and one for me would be like $190. However, I later saw on my receipt that they added a service fee of $92 dollars as well as another $75 dollars or so on a 'restoration of the building' fee. So it was $365 dollars not the $190 dollar online quote.
I had told my friend that her cost was like $95 dollars. So when I saw her I told her it was a bit more but that since I had told her it was only $95 dollars a piece I'd only hold her to that. She paid me $45-as she had told me she would when I had given her the quote-and would get me with the rest this Sunday. While that's what I asked and I don't think I would have been right to ask for more even though I didn't know it was more myself when I told her that and it means more money out of my pocket, I still kind of felt like she could have offered to pay me another $50 to be fair. I can't say that she was obligated to in principle-I had told her $95 even if I was mistaken. Still I think it would have been a little more impressed if she did that. I don't know if I'm right or wrong to feel this way-listen to me, I need Dear Abbie!
Then again, she's poor-just where I was until the last few weeks. Still she could have offered something-not break even but a little more. I don't think she was wrong to do it this way but I think a truly classy person might have offered to pay an extra $50 as the website mislead me-rather than I misleading her. Again, I'm not sure I'm right but feel I would have appreciated her at least suggesting this.
Then when we got there it turns out that I had mistakenly ordered Saturday rather than Sunday tickets-though they gave us a break and still we got pretty good seats. My friend seemed to think that I should have argued for a discount if the seats weren't as good but our seats were still pretty darn good really-we were pretty close to the action.
However, they then gouged me for snacks which ran under the '$5 plan'-everything costs an even $5. None of that $4.95 stuff you usually get. So a tiny Pringles bottle-not the usual big ones-cost $5 dollars. I had a packet of M&Ms for another $5. Then after intermission I bought two ore Pringles and another M&M for $15 bringing my total for 3 tiny Pringle bottles-the three of them maybe equaled the usual big can you get for $.99 at the supermarket and two M&Ms for a grand total of $25. So that's what you get at a rich man's event-a change to get gouged royally. For the record I and my friend both loved the performance of Momma Mia.
Right now I'm reading Mankiw's Textbook-it's from a few years ago-1998 or so-but this part I'm on is probably pretty timeless in Mainstream Macro, the idea of the power of Supply and Demand equilibriating. I'm sure Mankiw would argue that this was a reasonable pricing of these items-after all, my 'desire' for the tiny pringle bottles and M&Ms was pretty 'inelastic.' It's efficient for people willing to pay $25 for such junk to be able to. Nor is he the only one who would argue this way.
After the performance my friend and I went to get a bite to eat at a dinner near Penn Station. The waitress came out-she was very attractive, kind of exotic-couldn't tell if she was Spanish or Indian or what but I found her kind of attractive but of course I would never say anything about this in front of my friend-even if you're just friends with a woman they never want to hear that you find another woman attractive. In any case our relationship is kind of unspecified which I like.
She had recommended this diner. I got the chicken parm. I had been torn between this meal and the ravioli but the waitress had said that in her opinion the chicken parm is much more filling. While I'm careful in front of Wendy-ok, I'm tired of referring to her as 'my friend'-I did kind of remark how I appreciated how the waitress helped me make up my mind-I don't like when people say things like 'well it's up to you, after all you know what you want'-I like it better when they help me divine it.
Wendy ordered light of course, just a grilled cheese sandwich. She asked the waitress a bunch of questions about how its prepared and what's in it before deciding. At the time I wanted to warn the waitress-'just so you know Wendy's cool, but she's a chef so she's rather particular about how she thinks things should be prepared.' but I didn't as I didn't want Wendy to think I was insulting her-it's not really an insult at all, it's just a fact-I wanted to forewarn our waitress.
Turns out she could have used the warning-at the end of the meal she came out and asked us how it was I, of course, said I loved it and that it was great-'thanks for everything!' but Wendy told her that the sandwich wasn't so great as there was only one piece of cheese and there should have been two or three. At this point I piped in and said 'You have to understand, Wendy's a chef so she kind of sees things other people don't. She doesn't grade with much of a curve.'
Wendy then basically demanded a major discount on her bill-the sandwich was $5 dollars. So the waitress gave her a discount of $1.25 which she later complained wasn't sufficient-that it should have been at least a $2.50 discount. I'm not saying she's wrong by any means. I mean she may well be right-that doesn't sound like a lot of cheese.
Wendy had asked for separate check at the start of the meal-which was cool. My bill ended up at $26 as I got some chocolate mousse at the end of the meal. The bill seemed a little high but then I really didn't need the mousse. I gave her one of my $50 bills the check cashing place woman gave me on Friday when I cashed my check-and asked for $15 back. Wendy handed her $10 and then got quite animated in asking her "you're going to give me my change back right?'
I'm not criticizing Wendy here-I hope that's not what comes across. I'm really kind of just thinking about it. I think if you're not happy with what you get and have a righteous beef you should voice your complaint as she did. Still I was kind of gratified in the comparison-her demanding every cent of her $2.32 change back with me giving the waitress a $9 dollar tip. Talk about being the good cop!
That's not exactly a rich man thing. I've always been a big tipper since my days as a pizza delivery driver back in Massachusetts during the Bush years before that opulent lifestyle came crashing down. Still since I got a little cash-still haven't gotten my large amount yet-I've been even more generous with the tips. When I got off on the train ride from Penn Station to Baldwin, I gave the cab driver who drove me home a $7 tip. All the cabbies that know me love me over at Dawson. Even when I was poor-just a few weeks ago-I would usually give a $5 tip, now I usually do $7 or $8. More than one cabbie has told me that they wish all the passengers could be like me-they have so many people have them drive them really far like to the airport complaining all the way they're going to miss their flight and then stiffing them on the tip after driving miles. So by no means do all rich people tip well or at all. Again, I'm not really rich, just no longer poor, and will be kind of well off but will still need to work.
What's really interesting though is despite it all-the $25 on couple of Pringles and M&Ms the $26 dollar dinner and the $9 dollar tip, the $7 cabbie tip, I checked my wallet after it and I still have $232 of the $325 I had on my check after leaving the check cashing store on Friday, It's rather amazing-I never had much more than $100 by Sunday nights when I was poor. There's no question I've been improved in my saving since I 'got rich' which is what I always suspected. Actually looking at my spending habits, since my long banishment to my parents' basement in 2009 I see very clearly that when I have no money I spend much faster. In 2011 which was a pretty low ebb year-my last 9 months of the year were unemployed, and it took a long time-basically all Summer-for them to finally send me my UI checks-I spent much more, much faster than before. When I lost my job in June, 2013 from Slomins' after 10 months of solid work-they canned me for a few slow weeks, which even now sticks in my craw-right away I saw before my eyes that all wanted to do was drown my sorrows-not in booze like normal people but in 11 piece Popeye's Chicken buckets.
Even though at that point I did have a part time day job by then so I wasn't totally back at square one. I've been better at trying to save lately, but only now am I actually able to hold onto most of my check through Monday, even while buying $25 dollars worth of pringles and M&Ms. So financial strain hardly makes me tighten up but the opposite.
P.S. I hope my description of Wendy doesn't sound negative. I really do think she's cool and a good friend. I mean, it might be easier for me to think she could have offered the $50 now as I could now afford such a gesture. As for her being tough on waitresses and cooks, well she really is a cook, you see. I've been to places where the cook as come out and agreed with her. I mean I think that's how she is and it's cool. I just find it interesting in how differently I do things. Not to say that I never criticize or complain about service but usually I don't unless it's pretty serious. It's hard for me to identify on her sandwich as that would never satisfy me even if it were done right. I will on occaison criticize or ask for something to be heated more or redone but very really would I not tip.
The waitress doesn't make the food anyway. I did stiff I guy once a few months ago over at the Baldwin Diner-he just seemed to me to not every try. I sometimes feel like some of these male waiters feel that if you're a guy eating alone they're not even going to bother to kiss your ass or whatever and I have a real problem with that. It's not professional. I didn't tip him at all but wrote down on the slip 'You're very rude and useless.' You might wonder why I did this or think it was rough but my point was I wanted him to know that it was personal, I tip but he really went beyond the call of duty in doing nothing in terms of customer service other than placing the food down quickly and making himself scarce.
P.S.S. It's less that I'm part of the top 1% now, than I'm no longer in the bottom 1% which is something.
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/03/young-woman-fired-for-giving-homeless.html
http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2014/03/morgan-warstler-on-keynes.html?showComment=1395329267215#c3318499982212747875
Even though technically the lump sum I'm receiving may be in that range-if the 1% is just over $250,000-it's just one time payment. If someone gets $500,000 this year but $20,000 every other year, are they really in the top 1%?
So, the ship finally came in! Good for you Mike. Now that you're in the money, no mention of your previous benefactor. I see you mentioned the 11 piece Popeye's though. LOL :)
ReplyDeleteBroadway plays now eh? You really have moved up!
ReplyDeleteAs far as whether or not Wendy should have offered to help offset some of the add ons
you were hit with? Depends on how good a friend she is. There certainly are people I know that wouldn't hesitate to offer some help, others that would just shake their head and say how that sucks for me and its less to do with our relative wealth and more to do with our closeness and how often we do things together. There are some I wouldn't even bring it up cuz Id feel like I was asking them to help and others I would definitely ask (and most that I would ask would say yes I think)
By having a 500,000$ windfall that certainly puts you up a few tax brackets but it really is your annual salary which determines whether you are a 1%er (and if you earn it with work or just coupon clipping) Having a nest egg gives you some wealth and security that is important but your standard of living is not raised to 1% level by a one time gain of 500,000$.
If you have very little debt and that 500,000$ in the bank you are much more secure but you're not really rich (in my view) unless you can live an unmodest lifestyle all the time.
Yes, Greg I'm not rich, just comfortable. The thing about Wendy is that she didn't even consider saying 'Gee as you're paying a lot more than you thought maybe I could pay a little bit more myself.'
ReplyDeleteI mean it's her ticket. I gave her the wrong number but thats' what I believed it was.
Nanute, I was already to use some of my 1 percent funds to form a search party to figure out you're whereabouts. You resurfaced just in time. However, yes, you were the one who got me through the 'lean years' though of course lean doesn't refer to me.
ReplyDeleteI certainly aren't really the 1 percent as they don't make $500,000 one year and then back to $19,000 per year for the next 10.
ReplyDeleteHey Mike, congrats on your new $. :D
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a long time in coming-I spent a lot of years in the Wilderness. LOL.
ReplyDeleteStill no matter how much money I get in the future as God as my witness I will never become a Republican! LOL Of course as Morgan shows a Market Monetarist is a kind of Republican
ReplyDelete