Rich people. I hate ‘em. But some of the buggers manage to say and do things that make them exceptions to the rule. Take Dick Smith, for example, who said:

We’ve got to get it so it is an obligation if you’re wealthy to become a philanthropist. Otherwise we don’t want you in this country – rack off.

And he puts his money where he mouth is.

But compare and contrast. Hope Rinehart, a daughter of Gina Rinehart (the richest person in Australia), wrote this in an email:

I don’t think you understand what it means now that the whole world thinks you’re going to be wealthier than Bill Gates - it means we all need bodyguards and very safe homes!! I should have enough money to have a bodyguard, housekeeper and cook. Even my friends who have nothing compared to your wealth have more staff.

…

I would buy them myself but I’m down to my last $60,000 and your [sic] only paying my husband $1 a year.

She also wrote:

I can’t live in Australia or Singapore. It’s not fair on me to have to live there and horribly unfair for me to have to expose the kids to that. It’s hard enough being a kid, let alone the peer pressure that comes from being the wealthiest one in the country.

Dick Smith’s “rack off” doesn’t seem strong enough, somehow.