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Topic: So hard being rich these days...
| Author | Message |
| UGoGirl | Posted – 7/18/2007 2:23:23 PM | show profile And no, I'm not a member of the much-suffering wealthy class ... *** There Has Never Been a Tougher Time to Be Wealthy: Matthew Lynn July 18 (Bloomberg) -- Looking for a nice Monet to hang on the wall? Or a property in one of the better parts of London? Or just assembling a decent wine cellar? No matter how much money you happen to be making right now, the sad truth is that many of the things you covet most may well remain tantalizingly out of reach. ...Although there has never been a better time to get rich, there has also never been a worse time to actually be rich. ... The things they like to buy are getting more expensive all the time. Citing Forbes magazine's Cost of Living Extremely Well Index, which covers a basket of luxury items (designer handbags, a case of Dom Perignon, sending the kids to Harvard, that kind of stuff), the report noted that the cost of luxury goods last year rose about twice as fast as the cost of everyday consumer products. That index advanced 7 percent, while the U.K.'s consumer-price index, which measures the value of products that ordinary people buy, climbed less than 3 percent. ...Property prices in London, and other places where the super- rich congregate, are going through the roof. The average price of a luxury house in the monthly index compiled by the real-estate broker Knight Frank LLC, which measures seven of London's most expensive districts, is now about 5 million pounds ($10.2 million). An average apartment costs 2.5 million pounds. A typical house has appreciated by at least 100,000 pounds each month since September. ....First, new money likes to emulate old money, so the things the rich want to buy have been around for a long time. They aren't making any more stucco-fronted houses in Belgravia; Monet has long since hung up his paintbrush; and even a few gallons of Lafite Rothschild can take a while to knock out. It doesn't matter how much demand rises, the supply can't be increased. Next, after the first $300,000, which is surely enough to satisfy most human desires, what the rich are really interested in is what economists call ``positional goods.'' They want things that prove to the rest of the world just how wealthy they are. Inevitably, they end up bidding against all the other newly rich people for a relatively small number of items. .. Bloomberg |
| keltoi2 | Posted – 7/18/2007 2:34:23 PM | show profile Poor guys and gals. When oh when will Congress and the White House come to the aid of these suffering uberrich? Oh--that's right--they already have. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 7/18/2007 3:01:06 PM | show profile I don't want the stress. That's the only reason I had chosen to not become super-rich |
| Mag Girl | Posted – 7/18/2007 3:05:55 PM | show profile I wonder if the price of buying friends and influence has gone up as well... |
| keltoi2 | Posted – 7/18/2007 4:01:58 PM | show profile You have no IDEA, Mag Girl! What with dinners, "donations," lobbyists, "educational" trips, promises of later cushy jobs with beaucoups options packages, not to mention supporting various PACs and "support groups", the costs of buying members of Congress and the White House have simply skyrocketed! |
| Iron Eagle | Posted – 7/18/2007 4:58:11 PM | show profile Let's bow our heads in sympathy for Lord Crossbar... |
| seeattleme | Posted – 7/18/2007 5:59:43 PM | show profile Just for purposes of fairness, I'd love to trade places with any one of these super rich and see how much they like my life. They can drive my '02 Honda Civic that still smalls like the regurgitated bagel my now 4 year old depositied years ago, they can live in my rented home (home invasion occured two doors down just last week! More exciting than a socialite ball!) they can do their own taxes, they can wear my Gap and Old Navy maternity wear, they can not answer the phone because the credit card companies call these days when a bill is two hours overdue, they can watch my children all day and miss out on a days pay because the sick days and vacation are all taken due to two serious family illnesses, they can deal with the fact that my company providing my COBRA insurance just dropped our provider from its plan, and the family policy individual plan is $600 a dollars more a month (but since we were just notified that our health insurance was cancelled as of July 1, we have no real choice in the matter--my husband's heart issues last fall make it pretty much impossible for us to get another provider to approve up(so much for "shopping around for health insurance, right? hear that, you moron at Today show, Jean Chatzky???). Yeah, I just wanna be sure before I cry a river for the super rich that these are not tears wasted. I would gladly trade places with any of these beleagured folk, any fucking day of the week. |
| seeattleme | Posted – 7/18/2007 6:03:02 PM | show profile but sadder than this are the children pf parents who are paying their NYC rent and bills so they can be artsists and work at magazines, who according to posters on this board, "have theirs coming", whio'll "never know the satifaction of earning money and saving for something truly worthwhile." (Neither will I, incidently--not the way OUR math is working. But then I pay my own bills.) THESE are the people I truly feel sorry for... |
| foto | Posted – 7/18/2007 8:14:03 PM | show profile Yeah, my wife didn't marry me for money, but she might throw me out for lack of it. I don't get it...I haven't changed and neither has my wallet. |
