#3 Haggling

In 2008, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane signed a $100 million contract with 20th Century Fox, making him the highest paid writer-producer in television. Shortly after inking the deal, MacFarlane purchased a 5,152 square-foot Beverly Hills mansion for $13.5 million. As the Los Angeles Times noted at the time, MacFarlane seems to have "money oozing from his every pore."

MacFarlane hasn't always been financially stable. In fact, when he first moved to Los Angeles, he couldn't afford to purchase even a simple amenity such as a coffee maker without making sure he was getting the best possible price. To ensure he got the best deal, MacFarlane would enlist the help of his Jewish friends.

As MacFarlane told Maxim magazine in 2003:
"I have a lot of Jewish friends, and when I first came out here [to Los Angeles], they would not allow me to make purchases on my own. So I'd go to buy a fax machine and my friend Steve, who's Jewish, would say, 'You're not going to do this by yourself, are you?' And I'd say, 'Well, yeah — I was going to.' And he'd say, 'No, no, no — you need to take a Jew with you.' So he would go with me and haggle with this guy, and it actually got to the point where I was calling him and saying, 'Steve, it's Seth. I'm going to buy a coffee maker. Would you come with me, please, and make sure that I don't get rooked?'"

This sort of haggling, which is anathema to most white gentiles, comes naturally to Jews.

Hillary Fields, a blogger on the website Jewcy, considers bargaining to be a distinctively Jewish trait. When she shops at a market or a store, Fields expects a little leeway in what she pays: "I don't expect the price to be, you know... the price"

Her compulsory haggling, whether it's over the cost of a new toaster or fresh organic produce, mortifies her gentile husband. Fields quips that her blond, blue-eyed, strapping "goy-boy" just wasn't born with the "haggling chutzpah" that she possesses: "Must be those WASP genes."