# Cry me a fucking river, rich and/or famous people (re: privacy) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 8, 2013, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682 "2013-02-08T06:06:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![sachertorte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sachertorte/32/3727_2.png) [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/101 "2013-02-11T16:41:31Z")
> [@DiosaBellissima](#): > > Plus, let’s not forget: when someone like Steven Tyler is on the beach, he’s probably not the only one. How would you feel if you paid for a lovely Hawaiian vacation at a resort and every time you went out to the beach, you had to see[this](http://www.kenrockwell.com/trips/2010-05-maui/11/IMG_4405-paparazzi.jpg)? Did you read the sign? I don’t think you are faulting the correct party. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2013, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/102 "2013-02-11T17:03:04Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > It startles _me_ that people can’t grasp basic economics: More $$$ usually= More happiness. If you’re going to invoke basic economics, you need to take into account the basic economic principle of diminishing marginal utility. Namely, the “happiness value” of having more money does not increase linearly with the amount of money. For instance, a person with fifty million dollars may well be happier than somebody with a hundred thousand dollars, but not five hundred times happier. A multimillionaire is not literally experiencing several hundred times more positive emotions than a modestly wealthy person just because they have several hundred times more dollars. So it’s still pretty naive to assume that celebrities’ wealth and fame must automatically make their lives so much happier than those of ordinary people that it’s ridiculous for them to complain about any downsides. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/103 "2013-02-12T04:40:19Z")
Thing is, they don’t need to be hundreds of times happier for me not to feel sorry for them. It’s hard to feel sorry for someone who is twice as happy as I am. It’s not even like the thing they are unhappy about is usually that big a deal, especially if they use their money to take methods to prevent it. The fact that I have to constantly worry that I may get sick and lose my house, assuming I don’t die from bad care, is a little more pressing than worrying about some asshole taking a picture of me in a position I don’t like. If they have freaking depression and think they are worthless, that’s a little easier for me to care about. Depression is an actual big deal. And even then, I feel more sorry for people without money who can’t afford the best doctors and medicines and who just have fewer accomplishments in their life to be able to use to make themselves feel better. The whole concept of feeling sorry for someone is that you feel that, in some way, they are worse off than you are. You just can’t feel sorry for someone who is better off than you. And that’s before getting into the real message of the diminishing monetary utility: it would thus get more for your money if you gave it out to people who needed it rather than hoarding it for yourself. When you choose to hang on to the very money that’s making you less happy, it’s even harder to feel sorry for you. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/104 "2013-02-12T05:13:35Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I think you misunderstand my post. Of course the celeb has enough money to take time off. It’s the people that work for them that don’t. No, they do, if the celeb really cared about them and would continue paying them. That’s part of the reason it’s so hard to feel sorry for a celebrity. They pull down more money than 100s of people combined with much less effort. > [@](#): > > Well, as much as you hate celebs, they’re still human. When I first started my job, I didn’t give a shit about anybody who worked there (Because I didn’t know them). Now that I’ve been there for a while I have developed relationships with some of these people. And I sure as hell don’t want to see them lose their job. I don’t hate celebs. I hate people who whine about how hard their life is when it isn’t. The things that are supposedly so bad are things real people have to deal with all the time. We don’t get to have someone produce a documentary to make people like you feel sorry for them. Even these other people who work for them are hard to feel sorry for, as they are still way better off than most of America. Oh noes, you have to go work for another star or a salon or whatever. This isn’t the unskilled worker who won’t find a new job, and it’s not someone who couldn’t have saved up enough money to deal with the temporary unemployment. And, like I said, if their happiness is so important to the celeb, they can even keep on paying them until they get a new job. Real people have to leave their friends all the time. Real bosses have to fire people even if they feel sorry for them. A documentary designed to manipulate me into feeling bad for people who are much better off than I am is not going to somehow change the fact that their lives are objectively better than 99% of the country. The emotions that I maintain are based on fact. I only have so much caring to give, and there are many, many more deserving people who actually have a hard life. Not these celebs who are so bad off that they need at best a law that doesn’t do anything but create publicity and at worst a law that tries to sneak in protections that none of the rest of us get. Just because you might have to fire your friends doesn’t make me feel sorry that complete assholes take pictures of you that find you in compromising positions. The ones that are not breaking the law are at worst annoying. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/105 "2013-02-12T10:04:37Z")
> [@Gary\_Kumquat](#): > > I’m going to patent a 21st century bedouin robe. It’ll mask your face, heat, and gait, whilst outputting randomly harvested dna and pheromone samples. That’ll cover it until AIs develop telepathy at least. Probably not patentable: prior art. “Garment to wear among strangers”, Larry Niven, circa 1970’s. ---
**Author:** ![resting](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@resting](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/resting)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/106 "2013-02-12T12:33:39Z")
Are you a potential serial killer, big t? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/107 "2013-02-12T15:46:35Z")
It amazes me to think that people are so naive as to think that more money automatically brings more happiness. Sure, give me a chance, but the fact is, you bring happiness with you. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2013, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/108 "2013-02-12T16:16:43Z")
With unlimited money you can buy unlimited puppies, silly. ---
**Author:** ![dba\_Fred](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c37758/32.png) [@dba\_Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dba_Fred)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2013, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/109 "2013-02-13T06:42:13Z")
Now you know why I’m **d** _oing_ **b** _usiness_ **a** _s_ **Fred**. If the paparazzi knew I _wasn’t_ Fred … oops, I let the cat out of the bag, didn’t I? :smack: ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/110 "2013-02-16T18:18:49Z")
so i was surfing Youtube and i came across this - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty7EkOv5rjU](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty7EkOv5rjU). what a zoo! how can anyone not go blind being assaulted like that? can’t even imagine what it’s like with paparazzi. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/111 "2013-02-16T18:54:25Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I don’t know that not letting an ambulance through requires any new legislation, since that’s already a crime, I believe. Not really pertinent other than to demonstrate that paparazzi are ruthless, which I think everyone already acknowledges. Its only a shame that RICO laws can’t be applied to the people who pay Papazazzi to [del] regularly & ruthlessly break the law [/del] just do their jobs. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/112 "2013-03-21T18:25:30Z")
It looks like saner heads in the House are going to prevail, mostly by doing nothing. [ > [@](#): > > Rep. Angus McKelvey, of Maui, the chairman of the first of three House committees the bill needs to pass to get to the House floor, said he won’t hold a hearing for the bill. > > “There is zero support for that legislation in the House of Representatives,” McKelvey, chairman of the consumer protection committee, told The Associated Press. “To say there is absolutely zero support would be an understatement.” > > The bill already has missed one internal House deadline to be considered. A second internal deadline to hear the bill is on Thursday. > > House Chief Clerk Brian Takeshita said the leaders of the committees on consumer protection, judiciary and finance could get around the deadlines if all three agree to put in a joint request to House Speaker Joseph Souki. > > But McKelvey said that’s not going to happen. > > “There is a better chance of people flapping their arms and flying from Lanai to Maui,” he said. ]([http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US\_XGR\_STEVEN\_TYLER\_ACT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-21-11-21-23](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_XGR_STEVEN_TYLER_ACT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-21-11-21-23)) And why isn’t anyone interested in this bill? Because the rich and famous people who are pushing for this bill don’t deserve or need special laws passed just for them: > [@](#): > > McKelvey said he has sympathy for Tyler and other celebrities whose privacy rights have been violated. But there are enough legal avenues available to them, including taking the issue to court because privacy is protected in the Hawaii constitution, he said. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682/113 "2013-03-21T18:40:56Z")
Meh, those quotes sound petty. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cry-me-a-fucking-river-rich-and-or-famous-people-re-privacy/649682.md?page=5)