Interesting. During our last holiday gathering I got talking to a slightly younger (late 30s) cousin who I have a deep respect for. She climbed her way back from being a junkie, to being a VP of a mid-sized consulting firm in the Chicago area. She not only expressed a lot of what was said here about how you can't be "rich" and keep up with the other 1%ers, but as many note, once you are in the prime of your career and in that position, the company owns your soul. It's no longer a job, but a sentence.
In closing the conversation, she noted that she had spent hours with many other women at her high school reunion. She walked away, deeply affected by the reality that when she really drilled hard into the current lives of long lost friends, the ones that became a post "man" or a secretary at the local manufacturing plant, are obviously far more satisfied, and "complete" when compared to herself and the other execs, at work.
This reflects another experience in my career. I spent roughly 15 years as a part time project manager, doing planning and supervision of volunteer "team building and community service" construction projects, for a large financial institution. This often involved spending a week with a diverse cross section of the employee pool, but it always included five or six senior execs. Sadly, once you get to know these guys pretty well, I think it's safe to say that the majority live a fairly unhappy and even pathetic existence. Issues like radically dysfunctional families, the complete inability/unwillingness to work well with their lower level people, and a single minded drive to line their own pockets, are all pretty common. I walked away, well aware that in general, it's not a case of me being uncomfortable with interacting with the 1%, it's more a case of having little respect for what they allow themselves to become.