April 14, 2008
Ultrarich Wash Down Recession with 35K Champagne
The Federal Reserve Board may be sending distress signals about a “prolonged and severe economic downturn,” but ultrarich individuals like hedge fund manager Lee Tachman aren’t sweating it; the 38-year-old Tachman just spent $50,000 on a four day vacation to Miami with three of his bros. According to a ‘Happy Monday’ article in the Times, Tachman’s crew rolled with a “private jet, helicopter, Hummer limousine, Ferraris and Lamborghinis; stayed in V.I.P. rooms at Casa Casuarina, the South Beach hotel that was formerly Gianni Versace’s mansion; and played 'extreme adventure paintball' with former agents of the DEA.”
That trip was organized by In the Know Experiences, a vacation-planning company for the affluent whose website promises that “the velvet ropes will fly open, the champagne will keep flowing, and the enjoyment will be everlasting.” Indeed, the Times hears from many in the luxury good business who say that while the merely rich have been tightening the belts a bit, ultrarich consumption continues unabated. The co-owner of the newish Meatpacking District club 1OAK says his guests are still demanding the club’s “Nebuchadnezzar;” a 15 liter bottle of Champagne that costs up to $35,000.
Not feeling bilious enough yet? Try this: Since last January three New Yorkers have bought yachts ranging from $8 million to $35 million. And 71 Manhattan apartments have been sold for over $10 million this year, compared with 17 apartments in that price range during all of 2007. In fact, just days before the collapse of Bear Stearns, the bank’s chairman, James E. Cayne, paid $25 million for a condo at the Plaza Hotel. Anyway, don't forget your taxes are due tomorrow!
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You can't take it with you.
Do they get to keep the champagne bottle so they can put their change in it?
Damn! beat me to it. But seriously, do these people want French Revolution: Part Deux?
Yo, I'll tell you about "trickle down." My previous employers are ultra rich. One throws out her duvets every winter because "they don't smell the same after they've been washed." But she leaves them on the curb so the homeless can find them. Nice, right?
Other employers went through furniture and technology so quickly that I could just pick their garbage for whatever I needed.
I'm not sure, though, that this is what is truly meant by the "trickle down" concept. But this is the only way the poor benefit from the ultrarich continuing to spend their money like they don't care what's happening around them.
They spend their money like it's no tomorrow because money is no object to ultrarich people. Just have to take a look at Hollywood.
why hollywood? don't these people get the same perks and salaries as in that industry?
Ah, got to love the nouveau riche. They spoil there kids rotten. Tell them that noone is better than them. Why do you think you get the problems that a school like Horace Mann has? Spoiled kids who treat the teachers like servants. Another generation of Paris and Brandons on the way. I could care less about there money. It is the useless, idle rich, shitheads that they are. Ah, the gene pool is tainted irreparably.
$50g for 4 days in miami for 4 people? seems like they don't know how to spend money well.
ULTRA RICH = ultra assholes!
these people will actually seriously give great thought and dedicate their last dying moments as to why the unwashed masses have strung them up on lightpoles when the food riots start.
instead of food riots, insert class war, race war, zombie war, nuclear war, etc.
Isn't this all part of Bush's "economic stimulus plan"? Spend, spend, spend! It's the only way out of a recession.