Rich by default?

Reader question:

Please explain “rich by default” in this passage:

If you are part of a royal family or marry royalty, you get a lot of money as part of your family’s wealth. Rather than having to work for it, you can be rich by default, which is a pretty nice way to live….

My comments:

Nice work if you can get it, that is, as old Jazz singers used to intone.

“Rich by default” is actually well explained between the lines.

Read, for example, “Rather than having to work for it” again.

Got it? Yes. To be “rich by default” is to be rich without having to work for it.

Now, that’s because a royal family, such as the royal family in England, has been rich for a long time. That means young royals are born with a silver spoon in their mouth, as they say.

That means they’re rich via inheritance rather than effort.

If you marry into a royal family, of course, similar things happen. You get rich by being one of its members – not by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps or by the sheer sweat of your brow.

Or, in other words, by default.

According to the dictionary, default is rooted in Old French defaut, from defaillir, meaning ‘to fail’. Defaillir, in turn, is based on Latin fallere, meaning to ‘disappoint, deceive’

Hence, “by default” literally means by doing nothing (or failing to do something required).

In the court of law, if you fail to honor the terms of a contract you’ve sign onto, that’s considered wrong (i.e. deceiving, disappointing). In that case, the other party wins by default, i.e. automatically as in accordance with the terms of the existing contract.

In this sense, the terms of an agreed-to contract are default in the same way computers have default settings, settings that exist for always – unless and until someone changes it.

“Winning by default”, by the way, is also something that often occurs on the sports field. A tennis player may win a match by default if an opponent does something that’s considered, say, unsportsmanlike. For example, that opponent, in a fit of rage, hits a member of the noisy audience or one of the ball boys or girls with his racket.

When that happens, the umpire, who sits on a high chair overseeing the match, may expel the offending player and award the match to the other player.

The latter, hence, wins the match by default – without having to lift his racket, i.e. without having to make an effort.

By default, in short, usually means one of two things. One, by achieving something without having to do anything, such as winning a tennis match by default or, two, losing something by failing to honor existing rules and regulations, such as the terms of a contract.

For clarity, let’s read a few media examples:

1. Fans who are obsessed with their idols have done some very tragic, public damage over the years. In 1980, John Lennon was gunned down by Mark David Chapman. In 1995, Latina songstress Selena was shot to death by the woman who ran her fan club, Yolanda Saldivar. In 2004, Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was shot by a super fan while he was performing on stage. On July 18, 1989, Rebecca Schaeffer was shot to death by a fan outside of her Los Angeles, CA, apartment in a tragic example of when stalkers turn into murderers.

Robert John Bardo was obsessed with several celebrities including Schaeffer. In his head, Bardo had built up a relationship with the actress, but the reality of it was entirely different. Eventually, he hired a private investigator who easily obtained the 21-year-old actress’s home address from the California DMV. Armed with this knowledge, Bardo showed up on Schaeffer’s doorstep not once but twice, and the second time he pulled out a gun.

With Rebecca Schaeffer’s tragic death, however, came staunch anti-stalking laws not only in California but across the United States in an effort to stave off such a heinous crime happening again.

19-year-old Robert John Bardo was utterly obsessed with actress Rebecca Schaeffer, and it wasn’t the first time he had been consumed by a celebrity. Before child star Samantha Smith died in a plane crash he’d been obsessed with her. He had fixated on Madonna, Tiffany, and Debbie Gibson. He then moved on to 21-year-old Schaeffer.

On July 18, 1989, Bardo showed up at Schaeffer’s front door of her apartment. When she answered the door, he told her he was a big fan of her acting work. Schaeffer was polite to Bardo, thanked him and shook his hand. Bardo then left the apartment but came back about an hour later. This time, when Schaeffer answered the door, she was wearing a robe. According to Bardo’s account, she didn’t seem as welcoming the second time around, and he took personal offense to this. He then took out a pistol and shot her in the chest, instantly killing her.

…

The death of Rebecca Schaeffer ultimately helped to generate stricter laws regarding stalking crimes. The US federal government passed a law prohibiting the DMV from giving out home addresses of residents, which is how the private detective gathered information about Shaeffer in the first place. California passed new laws making stalking legally a crime. Additionally, new penalties were put in place in other states for stalking offenses.

According to journalism in The Hollywood Reporter, “A specialized Los Angeles police unit that works with prosecutors, celebrity attorneys and security details to keep obsessed fans a safe distance away,” was created in the City of Angeles precisely because a home to so many stars by default encourages a rabid fan base that can border on dangerous. Taylor Swift, Halle Berry, and Sandra Bullock are just a few of the stars who have experienced stalkers in the southern California area.

- It Took This Up-And-Coming Actress’s Tragic Death To Change Anti-Stalking Laws, Ranker.com, July 10, 2024.

2. Donald Trump is threatening to pull out of the only debate he had agreed to with Kamala Harris, claiming Sunday that ABC News is full of “Trump Haters” who won’t give him a fair shake in the September 10 showdown. “Why would I do the Debate against Kamala Harris on that network?” Trump posted on his social media site. “They’ve got a lot of questions to answer!!!”

The Trump campaign, for its part, seems to be wavering: “Enough with the games,” Trump adviser Jason Miller told the outlet, claiming – incorrectly – that Harris had already agreed to the terms of the ABC debate. “We said no changes to the agreed upon rules.”

In 2020, Trump used his time on the debate stage to try to steamroll Biden – a strategy the Democrat turned against him: “Will you shut up, man?” Biden asked at one point. But this cycle, the Biden campaign called for the mics to be cut when the candidate was not talking – an arrangement that, in theory, could have allowed him to focus more on substance, but that only seemed to emphasize his own listlessness while a more subdued Trump won by default and expanded his lead in polls.

That lead has evaporated since Biden dropped out and endorsed Harris, who outpaces Trump by seven points nationally in a new poll and has put the Republican on his heels. “The VP is ready to debate Trump live and uncensored,” Harris adviser Brian Fallon taunted Monday. “Trump should stop hiding behind the mute button.”

The Harris campaign’s trolling represents both a strategic shift from the careful approach Biden had taken and a reversal in the dynamic of the race with just over two months to go until Election Day. Will this 70-day dash to the finish line find Harris and Trump sharing a stage together at any point? “Stay tuned!!!” Trump wrote Sunday.

- Is Trump Trying to Weasel His Way Out of Debating Harris? VanityFair.com, August 26, 2024.

3. The Davis Cup Qualifier tie between Belgium and Chile ended in controversial scenes on Sunday as a result of how Chile lost the fourth, and ultimately, deciding match between Cristian Garin and Zizou Bergs.

Belgium, the home team, found itself ahead 2-1 in the tie overall ahead of the fourth match after Sander Gille and Jordan Vliegen won a three-set opening doubles contest to begin Sunday’s slate of play. But the chaotic scene didn't develop until hours later, late in the deciding set between Bergs and Garin. To conclude a tense 5-5 game on Garin’s serve, Bergs secured a crucial break by turning defense into offense after seven shots, and finished off a short rally with a dipping forehand passing shot that Garin couldn’t handle.

Mere points away from putting his country into the next round, the 25-year-old celebrated joyously after the point with a leap into the air as the home crowd in Hasselt cheered, and he continued to sprint towards his bench on the sideline with a finger held aloft. But he failed to see the oncoming Garin, who was crossing at the net to head to his own bench, and the two players collided. Garin, hit in the face and shoulder, fell to the court, as an apologetic Bergs could be seen speaking to both his opponent and the umpire.

The Chileans reportedly pleaded their case to be awarded victory by default to match officials to no avail, though Bergs was awarded a code violation for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Chilean then refused to resume play, and as he was set to be the returner in the next game, received a warning, point penalty, and then game penalty as a result of three consecutive time violations as he packed up his racquets.

The scene soon spilled over onto social media, with fans of both countries, and neutral viewers, all offering their own opinions on events. The Davis Cup’s official X, formerly Twitter, account soon issued a post confirming the sequence of events. The match win by Bergs gave Belgium a 3-1 win in the tie.

“A collision between the two players stopped the match, as Garin received medical attention,” the post read. “Play was then scheduled to resume, before Chile received three consecutive time violations.

“This resulted in a game penalty which awarded Bergs the deciding set, 7-5.”

In response, the official X account of the Chilean Olympic Committee proclaimed an “injustice” was done to its team, and said it supported any possible appeal that the Chilean tennis federation could undertake of the result.

“We have no words to describe the unsportsmanlike situation that occurred in the Davis Cup,” the post read in part.

“The injury did not allow Cristian to continue playing (and Chile lost due to warnings), in one of the saddest and most unfair episodes we can remember.”

- Chile loses Davis Cup tie versus Belgium after accidental collision between Cristian Garin and Zizou Bergs, Tennis.com, February 2, 2025.

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About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：张欣）