The Strange Life of 'Lord' Timothy Dexter

In England, that model held on until 1880 or so. (http://www.nytimes.com/1990/11/04/books/never-has-so-few-own...) In the US, it ended earlier. But it was still in full force in Dexter's day.

As for the follies of the rich, we still have that. Larry Ellison has a huge, silly house in Woodside, where, through much cutting of rock, a sort of pseudo rural Japanese landscape was created, complete with fog machine. In China, where being rich is a new thing, people are still trying to figure out status symbols. The results are amusing. (http://www.gq.com/news-politics/201501/chinas-richest). There are outfits selling titles of nobility on line. (http://nobility.co.uk/).

I have shown this story to dozens of friends, and every one finds it incredibly entertaining. This man's life should be a movie, and Steve Martin should play the lead.

The common wisdom is a model of the world, but must be wrong in some ways, simply because the world is far more complex than any model we could comprehend. Bed pans weren't brought to the tropics because they weren't needed, therefore their other uses were not discovered. Acting on what you think is a good idea, that nobody else does, can lead to success. (Plus Luck...)

In investing, contrarianism can work, because the market often over-reacts to bad news. By buying on bad news, you can come out ahead, especially if you also do some checking. For example, Warren Buffett bought American Express when it was involved in a fraudulent salad oil transaction. Because its business (of credit cards) was based on trust, it was thought this would be diastrous. But Buffett checked the local shopping center to see consumers still using it. Their daily habits weren't affected by the news. So he bought big, and made a(nother) fortune.