Why Do Rich People Love Quiet? (2022)

This is one more data point for my theory that New Yorkers have, oddly, become the most insular population in the U.S.

There is a wide world outside of New York and class-signaling. I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere on Earth where loud, ambient noise is preferred over quiet. In the early 20th century, New Yorkers themselves had similar complaints about automobiles, regardless of class.

For those of us who grew up in rural areas, we find it odd that quiet is a “rich people” thing. No, it’s a universal thing. No one wants to sleep or work next to endless motorcycle revs, honks, and sirens. On a personal level, I don’t like hearing it in the background of New York podcasts either.

Finally, and this should be obvious, New York is a city for the rich. It is an enormous privilege to be from or to live there, and those of us who could never afford it can only dream of hearing such daily noise.

(2022)

And popular on HN: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

From my own experience (Michigan, not New York), I'd say this is as much about children and younger men liking noise as it is about the rich liking quiet. Plus quite a few older folks, with failing hearing, find some formerly-inoffensive types of noise unpleasant.

And either way (favoring noise, or quiet) is often an assertion of individual importance and group identity. Babies don't cry because they lack money.

If I owned a slaughterhouse, I wouldn’t build my house next to it