by Emmanuel K-Olaye
The revving of super-priced, hyper-fast cars in the streets of London announces the arrival of the new generation of social media savvy, over-privileged elites from around the world. In the new phenomenon known as, ‘The Rich Kids of London’, the children of the world’s wealthiest citizens are congregating in London to study, shop, and find diverting new ways to spend their family fortunes.
London has long been the home of the planet’s most rich & famous, alongside select other cities including Dubai, Aspen, Saint Tropez, Bora Bora, and St. Barts, to name a few. The shopping opportunities are limitless for those whose budgets are equally inexhaustible. London is known as the fashion capital of the world, where the biggest fashion show in history is held regularly, the London Fashion Week. The city is a major international hub for the arts, commerce, and everything in between, and so it is no surprise to see the rich and famous in large numbers spending their money and showing-off to each other in London.
As a single demographic making a mark on the new money London scene, the children of the Persian’s Gulf’s fossil fuel magnates are difficult to compete with. Despite their brazen, attention grabbing antics, revving their cars and showing it off in the streets of London, their behavior is partially excusable for the following reasons. First, these activities cannot be done in their home countries. Cities like London and Monaco are some of the only places they may enjoy the fruits of their labor. Second, compared to some of their ultra-affluent competitors in London, they actually work for their money. Most of them have businesses which they run in their various countries, making their riches well-earned. In addition, it is well known that cars are a big part of their culture. Due to the disparity of sexes in some Middle Eastern countries, men generally socialize with other men separately from women. The men play with their off road cars in the desert, but are not allowed to speed and rev on the main roads.
In comparison, the behavior of many African and Eastern European nouveau riche youths in London can decisively place them in the unfortunate category of ‘spoiled brats’. There is a saying that goes, ‘how a child ends up at an adult level is a representation of their upbringing’. Simply put, their actions and way of life is a depiction of how they have been brought up. As far as specifically damning behavior goes, Instagram provides a reliable source of documentation. As reported in the Daily Mail, members of the London’s upper-class posted, “Back to uni on helicopters, private jets and in flash cars: Rich Kids of London show off their favorite transport as they ‘sneer at peasants outside Primark’ and clean their shoes with £50 notes.” This and other statements can be found with a tagline on their Instagram accounts stating, “The Untouchable Luxury Kids”. To further drive home the point, photos show them stuffing cash in tissue boxes, suggesting they blow their noses on banknotes. These posts demonstrate an absolute lack of regard for the vast sums of inherited money these 21st century debutantes have access to, mostly without a day of work in their lives. In other words, they are happy to enjoy ‘Daddy’s money’ on a daily basis.
To be clear, this article is not referring to successful young people posting pictures and videos of how far they have come on social media. The new ‘rich kids of London’ moniker specifically refers to those particular young adults with no morals, who have no regard or respect for money, and who use their privilege in a negative way to degrade those who are not as well off as they are. There nothing wrong with being born rich per se, however, if you are going to use your position to ridicule someone else and also let people know how immature you are by using hard earned cash to clean your shoes, there is a serious problem. The Sun reported, “One gent even posted a photo of himself rubbing his suede footwear with a 50 pound ($97) note with the tagline “when a peasant touches your shoes””. The posters of that gem have an impressive 50,000+ followers on Instagram, whom they gleefully refer to as ‘peasants’. The question remains, can this behavior be attributable to Brits? Persian Gulf trust-funders? On the contrary, the situation is truly a global epidemic of over-privilege, and wealthy families from Asia, Africa, Eastern and Western Europe, and the Americas can be blamed for springing their offspring upon an unprepared London.
It seems these ‘kids’ are unaware or uncaring about the shame they are inevitably bringing upon their parents. As classical pieces of wisdom tell us, ‘it is your parents that will take the fall not you’.
