I found that in the documentary there was a lot of information to take in about the wealth these people have inherited. These issues stem from the psychological to cultural. In relation to our class, the wealth seemed more meant to represent the opportunities the lower classes do not have, these leisures they take for granted. It's inevitable that the wealthy will consume, therefore proving the documentary to me to be a sort of affirmation of the social and class injustice that this society has created in itself. Although the documentary was poorly made and ultimately lacking any kind of artistic merit it was quite informative even though it was very limited in representing the wealthy due to their secrecy stemming from the "taboo" of being wealthy.
From Mike Lefevre in "Who Built The Pyramids" we learn that he finds his class to be a stem to grow from instead of staying fixed in; in a sense it is not a real class. This involves issues of personal achievements such as educational values or lifestyle choices, the idea of class as privilege, the structure of society and gender dynamics, and ultimately the career/work one must do in life to earn a living whether physical or mental. It is a much more idealistic idea of life he holds, almost an ignorant view of the wealthy, because as we can learn from the documentary Rich Kids is that with money does not come happiness. It is something me must earn in feeling fulfilled in our lives. If someone does unmeaningful work but comes home to a large apartment or studio with a jacuzzi on the fifteenth floor of some chic apartment building, does this give him fulfillment? To me, this issue is much more complex which ultimately comes down to individual personalities. I would never be fulfilled. I actually find that so shallow that I would probably be on heavy medication. But Mike may think it's better to be unhappy and rich than unhappy and poor.
Where I find connections between the two is their lack of empathy. The rich kids never stepped a foot outside their social circle (with minor exceptions) and Mike, or more generally the lower class, barely socialize in high class cliques. This all creates a nostalgic sort of reality; wanting to revamp the ideals of the other class. For the rich they want to make it a statement that their money is not something they display or parade (it seems to be an effort of generosity on their part) and the poor (aware that the rich live in larger homes than they can possibly take up) resort to wanting to become the elite and progressive. For now class takes on a different tone, is it a series of people with various amounts of wealth or a society that is so deluded into believing the rich are the ideal and therefore living in their path of social construct which seems to only benefit them and therefore damning their own lifestyles?
