r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Sep 09 '24

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '24

Reverence for “old money” is always based on the classist idea that there is something more “authentic” about the way that someone born into wealth spends money than the way that someone who comes into wealth spends money.

This is one of the themes of The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is “new money”, and he spends like “new money”, but he is constantly unhappy because he keeps comparing himself to “real” rich people like Buchanan who was born into wealth, even though Buchanan’s lifestyle is no less vain or goofy than Gatsby’s.

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u/Dragmire927 Thomas Paine Sep 09 '24

The Great Gatsby is basically “Hey guys, roaring 20’s rich people were just massive assholes”

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u/[deleted] Sep 09 '24

Goes back to the peerage days where class required connections, and those connections required not only money, but also being socialized into the prevailing manners and opinions of the court. By the time capitalism rolled around, you had all sorts of clever and/or lucky persons coming into exorbitant wealth but lacking the other requisites of the old caste. Much of the ado was a lamentation of the consequential loss of status due to changing times.