What economic system facilitates the purchase of $500 M or $2 B yachts by MBS or Abramovich?

[lostnfound]

https://www.businessinsider.com/most-expensive-yachts-in-the-world-2017-6#256-million-the-dilbar-is-the-worlds-largest-yacht-by-gross-tonnage-at-15917-tons-over-31-million-pounds-it-was-built-for-alisher-usmanov-a-russian-billionaire-the-dilbar-has-two-helipads-an-indoor-swimming-pool-and-3800-square-meters-of-living-space-3

How effective were the lectures about trickledown economics and the fables of how the rich “give us the jobs” or how the poor underclass consists of “takers” “sucking from the public...”!

They made fun of Jimmy Carter for wanting to reduce dependence on foreign oil.. and of Al Gore for running a chief scientist.

While U.S. citizens squabble over whether or not we can afford a $15 minimum wage or health care for all, our eyes are diverted from the excesses of the super-rich.
MBS - $560 Million


Abramovich - $1.9 Billion


Anonymous Malaysian businessman, Plated with gold, $4.8B.


Any bets on how many of the superyacht buyers “came by it honestly”? How many of them killed, robbed, defrauded and cheated to get what they have?

If our TV media wasn’t controlled (directly or indirectly) by members of the Club, maybe there’d be a regular program on the division of wealth in the world.

Were any of these yachts a just reward for finding a cure for cancer? Solving world hunger? Achieving Middle East peace? Inventing good alternatives to fossil fuels? Were they gutsy entrepreneurs with a better idea — or just more willing than others to profit corruptly from the suffering of others? How about a profile of each one of these superrich — and we viewers get to vote them off the island at the end? How many of them are actually WORTHY of the wealth they possess? Can democracy or freedom coexist with such inequality?

[tblue37]

1. People ate up "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous," so I doubt such a program would lead to

significant consciousness raising.

[lostnfound]

2. I thought about that, but that didn't discuss HOW their wealth was accumulated.

I’m talking about a TV program that actually tries to evaluate the impact and contribution (or destruction) that the owner has made to society.

That makes connections between the extraordinary wealth and how it was generated.

[jberryhill]

3. Well, you seem interested in producing a television show

So would your licensing this concept to a production company in exchange for royalties then make you one of the beneficiaries of their accumulation of wealth?

[lostnfound]

5. Are you trying to chase me away?

Life feels so damn sad today.

[jberryhill]

6. Chase you away?

However does one chase someone away on a discussion forum?

I just appreciate subtle irony when I see it, intended or not.

[EleanorR]

4. Epstein / oligarch mega-yacht connection

Jeffrey Epstein was deep into legal trouble when he cut a deal near his private Caribbean island with a titan of New York real estate, Andrew Farkas.

-SNIP-

The May 2007 arrangement gave Epstein an entree to the high-end world of luxury yachting, a business befitting his lifestyle and the wealthy people he spent decades courting. It united Epstein -- who would soon become a convicted sex offender and is now accused of abusing and trafficking girls as young as 14 -- with a key figure in New York’s business and political scene.

-SNIP-

Deeper ports were in demand as the world’s wealthiest, from Dubai to Moscow, raced to acquire ever bigger yachts. Few spots in the Caribbean could accommodate these floating status symbols. IGY saw an opportunity.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-23/epstein-s-port-in-a-storm-co-owning-a-marina-with-tycoon-farkas

[faymer7]

7. A system that overprices stuff so that only the very, very wealthy can afford the stuff that they

take huge tax breaks for.