That's what I want

What do the rich have that is not always in reach of those less well off?

• Choice
• Mobility
• Freedom
• Power

The above are in no particular order but I will deal with them one by one. Alan Whicker once said, when asked about his career choices, "You have to have fuck off money". And that is the essence of choice; you can always walk away. If you cannot walk away then you cannot be said to have a choice. Of course, money is not the only conduit of choice, but more about that later.

Mobility in terms of wealth, means that you can travel at will and live anywhere at will. Most of us, including me, are economic migrants. For various reasons we end up living where the work is, not where we want to live. The rich are almost homeless in this respect because they may have at any one time a raft of temporary and permanent abodes, none of which are "home" in the sense that most understand it.

Freedom, as Janis Joplin once sang, can merely be "another word for nothing left to lose" but for the wealthy it means freedom to change, freedom to make mistakes, freedom to choose and occasionally, freedom from the many petty rules and laws that most of us must abide by.

I believe that the gap between rich and poor can be lessened by stealth and ingenuity. I have not met many very rich people but I have known several multi-millionaires and spent time with them. What they seem to have in common is an incredible lack of basic skills. By that I mean, being able to drive a car or being able to plan a simple journey or to cook some food. Whilst they may be above average in a certain sphere the rest of their world is that of childish naivety. They often have no idea of the cost of things and they may have a very tenuous grip on the reality of daily life.

I think what I am saying here is that in my experience, the rich waste their wealth. It does not matter if they by a Ferrari on a whim. If they get fed up with it they can trade it in for another one and not count the cost of depreciation. If they book a disastrous holiday they can simply walk away if the hotel or the resort isn't to their liking. I know some people whose house, a quite modest one, is valued at around £4 million and it is filled with the kind of furniture you find in museums. They live in constant fear of theft and they live in only two or three rooms of the rambling, many-roomed house. The insurance must be phenomenal and they have spent thousands on burglar alarms. Years ago I spent the summer at what was once a typical minor stately home. It had been closed to the public and brought back into private ownership. The new owner had inherited it but really could not make up his mind what to do with it. He played at being Lord of the Manor for a few years and eventually ran off with the daily maid. I think it became a school but I have no idea what it is now. A similar thing happened with a similar house only a few miles away. The owner tried a series of silly half-baked ventures, having inherited the place. The grand plans came to nothing and in descending into a downward spiral of debt, he sold up.

Of course, not all wealthy people are as feckless and as clueless as this, but if you have never had to plan your meals each week according to a budget, or bought a car for a couple of grand that was going to have to last you for sometime, you may not be in the habit of thinking about consequences or indeed, thinking at all. For there is one thing that rich people seem to expect and apparently always get, and that is utter agreement with everything they say.