It seems you can never escape the woes of this world, you know? Rich people got 99 problems just like you and me. You might think it would be nice to be waited on by an army of servants. But what you don't see is the hard part of that.

The Wall Street Journal's "Mansion" section, which is absolutely aces for this sort of thing, takes a look at the dark side of being so wealthy and living in such an enormous palace that you need hired help just to live a normal day to day existence—not only because your wealth has caused you to lose basic survival skills, but because your home and its accoutrements are so grand that if you were to tend to them yourself, it would be a full time job, leaving you little time for building your personal brand. The downsides discussed are myriad (such as the six-figure cost one woman pays to employ two full time monkey trainers for her pet capuchin), but this one is particularly heart-rending:

"People buy these big houses and then all of a sudden they're living with a lot of people, so the privacy thing is interesting," says Ms. Kahn. "I ask 'Are you OK having a chef and a server in the kitchen?' " She predicts that open floor plans will eventually fall out of favor with wives who have nowhere to go in their own homes.

A client called her once from a closet, since it was the only place she had privacy, Ms. Kahn says. Another just built a separate kitchen for the staff. Yet another client is putting up walls on the first floor of their new house.

Wealthy people—virtual prisoners in their own homes. Can't go anywhere without stumbling over a servant. "It's harder than you think!" -A rich person.

[Photo: Shutterstock]