Delete comment from: Captain Capitalism
"But there is something about horses and trophy wives that I can't put my finger on, but I know is there."
Really cynical answer is that both horses and trophy wives are high-maintenance as hell. Some people confuse being rich, important and powerful with spending lots of money and being constantly in demand. So you have someone with money and a lack of confidence hook up with someone or something that takes a lot of money and constant attention. Everyone's happy (for a while).
Slightly less cynical answer is that there's a constant tension between old money and new money. Old money wants to make sure the new money knows it's the new kid in town, new money wants to prove it can do anything the old money did and do it better. Having a stable of horses, not for actual work or a profitable business or anything, but just to go out and look at and ride around on every so often when you feel like it, still has cultural associations with old money. So the new money tries to copy some of the things they see old money do so they can say "see, we're just as classy as old money too". Got an up-close look at that with a friend from a poor family who's done okay for himself, not great but okay, and who researched his genealogy, resurrected an old English grant of arms, and started hanging out with a stupid old money type (a trust fund kid who's trying to spend everything he has), some other not-so-stupid old money types, and some truly stupid new money types.
Nov 19, 2008, 9:26:00 PM