Nobody Told Them to Pretend

There was a Tumblr called Rich Kids of Instagram that went briefly and perfectly viral in the summer of 2012—a curated feed of wealthy young Americans doing wealthy young American things. Yachts anchored off the Hamptons, magnums of Champagne on dance floors, private jets with the blinds open, cash fanned out for the camera. The detail that kept appearing, incongruous and somehow perfect, was Burger King: a diamond-ringed hand holding a Whopper, a grease-stained bag sitting in a Porsche cupholder. Some read it as self-aware irony. I think they just wanted Burger King. The whole archive was less a document of inequality than a document of people who’d never learned to hide anything—and the fast food was the most honest part, proof that even at the absolute top of the financial heap, the brain still reaches for the thing it craved at nine years old.