I blame shows like Gossip Girl and films like Cruel Intentions.

I also blame everything on the Kardashians – this time it’s justified, though. They made it okay to simply be and be rich and get more money for doing it.

This is the world we live in. From ridiculously over-the-top parties (I’m looking at you, Mykonos) to elaborate jewellery, throwing away money is a beloved international pastime for the privileged.

The latest way to flaunt your wealth if you’re young and rich is to pay to be featured on an Instagram account with other rich kids.

Here’s Mashable,

A website and corresponding Instagram account called Golden Price Tag is gaining infamy for its premise: If you pay $1,000 (sometimes more) the site will upload your photo and display how much you paid for the feature. One user paid $3,000, according to the site, to add a cellphone-quality photo of himself sitting in a sports car.

Mr. Sports Car up there, who paid $3 000 (around R44 000), has since removed his picture from the site, probably because someone told him that he’s now the poster child for ‘upper-class twits’.

The creator of the site thought it would be a “fun experiment”.

The site’s creator, Leonard Weinstock, started it as a personal project. The 20-year-old spent the last year learning to code and created Golden Price Tag to flex his skills…

An inside joke among friends — for most people, at least — is captioning Venmo descriptions with tongue and eggplant emoji, or jokingly requesting $6969 and knowing it won’t be fulfilled. Supporting a friend’s project usually entails tossing them a couple of bucks for their zine, or buying them a drink after their show. Golden Price Tag takes it to a whole new level.

When asked if soliciting that much money from his friends changed the dynamic of their friendships, Weinstock said “the amount wasn’t really a big deal for them anyways.”

I hate everyone in this story.

Let’s take a look at the staggering FOUR posts on the Instagram account with an underwhelming 4 302 followers, at the time of writing.

This guy with his expensive champagne. He is also the first person outside of the ‘friend group’ that has paid for a post:

“Dark clouds, but a bright future”:

This one speaks for itself:

And finally, this:

And that’s it. That’s the sum total of the account.

Weinstock is approaching the project like a social experiment instead of a mid-tier grift. He’s fascinated by the people who are willing to pay for features who aren’t in his friend group, because they aren’t “in” on their joke.

“What will really be interesting to see is what sort of dynamic will occur now that the word is out that this site exists,” he said. “Are there more people who are willing to pay $1,000, and if yes, what are their motivations?”

A final word from Weinstock about what he plans to do with the money he makes:

“But now is actually not the right moment to decide that because I don’t know how big Golden Price Tag will get,” he said. “I think your picture is missing on the site.”

Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got rent to pay and a revolution to organise.

[source:mashable]