Gossip Girl: Things That Make No Sense About Money | ScreenRant
They live in a world of penthouses, limos, and designerwear. The young people (except the Humphrey siblings) of Gossip Girl reap the benefits of inherited wealth, knowing the right people, and having the best of everything.
True, for the mannered set, talking about money is considered gauche, but it doesn't stop them from mentioning a charitable donation, a blackmail scheme, or a bribe. Day-to-day though, it's like greenbacks don't exist. If the Upper East Side is all about money, how come there's none to be seen, in any form? No one ever even leaves a tip - generous or otherwise.
10 Cash, Credit, Or House Account?
Does no one ever have to stop at an ATM? Fair enough, since they're probably not going to pick up a fake designer bag from a street vendor or a hotdog from a cart. But this is the Black Amex crowd. What good is having the rarest of all credit cards if you can't wave it about at 5-star restaurants or high-end boutiques in Manhattan or the Hamptons?
Speaking of which, Blair and Serena are often seen coming out of stores weighed down by bags. Wouldn't it stand to reason they'd show us how the other half shops, and give us the pleasure of listening to Blair announce at the register to put it all on her family's house account?
9 Blair's Dowry
How much was it anyway? It's never given a numbered value, but it was hinted to be in the millions. A prenup was signed stating that if the marriage ended, Blair's family would have to pay the Grimaldi family the full amount. When Blair wants out of what Louis declared a business arrangement - on their wedding day no less - Eleanor Waldorf says she'll have to sell her fashion company to make the payment.
Suddenly it becomes clear that Blair's family may be able to afford the trappings of the Upper East Side, but they are not the bottomless pit of wealth that the families van der Woodsen and Bass are - Chuck paid the dowry, after all.
8 No After School Job For Dan
He takes a train and a bus from Brooklyn to go to school in Manhattan as a scholarship student. You'd think that yet another thing that would separate him from his Richie Rich peers is a job; a minimum wage, pocket money, high school job, like barista, delivery guy, or stock clerk. Inexplicably though, he does not have one.
The only whiff of a paying job is at the beginning of season 2, when he is fired from it and instead of getting a new one, Dan heads to the Hamptons, aka the playground of the wealthy, to visit Serena. There he attends the annual - and every exclusive - White Party. Besides being unaffordable, this is also implausible.
7 Nate & Chuck Take The Bus
Nate is a blue-blooded Vanderbilt on his mother's side. Chuck is the heir to Bass Industries and worth billions. These two would not know a MetroCard (the plastic currency used to board NYC public transportation) if it were served up on a silver platter.
Although riding the bus only happened in the first episode, where they ran into Dan, and Chuck started a fight with him, having these two scions in that pedestrian setting was incongruous and noticeable enough that it never happened again. Chuck in particular rode exclusively in a limo.
6 Did Rufus Have An Allowance?
It's never really explained how it works when a single dad from Brooklyn who manages an art gallery marries a wealthy via inheritance/divorce settlement, Upper East Side doyenne who lounges around the house in cashmere. We saw him move into her penthouse duplex and don a tux to attend her galas, but what happens at the beginning of each month? Does she ask for his half of the phone, cable, and electric bills?
After all, Dan still lives in the Brooklyn loft, and we know he's not paying his own rent, so Rufus must still be footing that bill. Given that Lily is pretty savvy as well as gracious, when he needs something, she probably gifts it to him, so he doesn't have to feel kept.
5 The "Poor" Humphreys
The Gossip Girl version of people who do not have the last name Waldorf, van der Woodsen, Bass, or Archibald is very unrealistic. The Humphreys live in an outer borough, however, it is a trendy area of Brooklyn and their loft is pretty cool. Rufus's ex (Dan and Jenny's artist mom) lives upstate, so perhaps there's alimony going on, but we're never told.
As previously stated, neither Dan or Jenny contribute to the household financially, so Rufus is carrying the ball by selling pricey art, which can be assumed to mean nice commissions. He's found a way to get his kids into private school on scholarship, so there's no tuition hanging over his head. Royalties perhaps from the days when he was the frontman for Lincoln Hawk? It's anybody's guess, but somehow he's keeping the Humphrey family boat afloat.
4 Nate Lived In Squalor
After Nate's dad is arrested and out on bail, he skips town as not to go to trial. His mom leaves NYC to escape the shame. The FBI confiscates all their belongs, leaving Nate alone in the townhouse without heat, hot water, or food. As stated previously, he is a Vanderbilt and it is not likely that his grandfather William would ever let the family name be tarnished in the press if anyone were to ever find out that his grandson was living under those conditions.
Sure, after a bit Nate is taken into the homes of Dan and Chuck, before his mother returns and they get their possessions back, but this storyline would have never taken the turns it did.
3 Dan, No Book Advance?
Perhaps the show's creators just didn't want the already convoluted story of Dan's two books and movie deals to get bogged down with an explanation of how book publishing actually works, so there's no talk of an advance. Dan even has a agent, which didn't seem to ever clarify things.
He wrote a thinly veiled novel called "Inside," about the Upper East Side squad, Vanessa sent it to a publisher who decided to publish it, then his former mentor was going to take credit for the manuscript, which was a ploy to get Dan to acknowledge authorship. Serena's company wanted to produce the movie version. Then he writes a non-fiction version, Inside Out, which also gets published with a movie in works. And yet, no one is talking money.
2 Dorota & The Dorm
Blair and Serena eventually both end up at Columbia, but the road to that Ivy League university has pit stops for both of them. Blair's was New York University. The idea that the Queen of The Met steps would give up her apartment-sized bedroom in her family's penthouse to live in a dorm is as likely as Queen Victoria moving out of Buckingham Palace.
If she was going to venture out on her own, an off-campus apartment in a swanky, Greenwich Village building would be more likely. Perhaps to allow a freshman no less to have her maid running around the dorm, NYU required an addition housing fee.
1 It Girls Have Endorsement Deals
The blonde, bohemian beauty was too much of a girl about town not to have been sought after for magazine covers, spokesmodel gigs, and celebrity fashion shows. Debutantes such as Serena are often tapped by designers (who they're friends with) for ad campaigns.
In reality, Serena missed out on making some serious money of her own and reaching a celebrity status outside of Manhattan. Being a Los Angeles production assistant and then a campaign worker for Nate's cousin Tripp, with whom she has an ill-fated affair, seems like a waste of income potential.
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