Even if Just a Bauble, Luxury Counts for Holidays

[The Flaming Red Head]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/12/business/12luxury.html?hp&ex=1102914000&en=9c59fc7e516fc6b2&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Even if Just a Bauble, Luxury Counts for Holidays
By TRACIE ROZHON

Published: December 12, 2004

As the silver-lined elevator at Bergdorf Goodman lifted the woman with the carefully manicured hair to the couture level on Thursday afternoon, she spoke into her cellphone: "I've finished shopping - almost," she said, looking down at her bags. "No, not a van. I think a Town Car will be quite big enough, thank you.

snip

With the weaker dollar, tourists from Paris, London and Tokyo have descended upon the United States market for their holiday gift shopping, retail executives say. And even many Americans in the market for gifts with an elegant label seem unfazed at the higher prices they have to pay, merchants say.

Robert H. Frank, the author of "Luxury Fever" and an economics professor at Cornell University, talked about the cascade of influence from high-income luxury shoppers "down to people like us." And this Christmas, Americans he surveyed about their choices, no matter what their incomes are, said they wanted to buy "special" gifts for Christmas. Luxury is no longer a matter of price if it is a $1,000 handbag or a $200 jar of face cream or a $50 dog collar with the right brand stamped on it. For some, it just must be the most expensive thing of its type - witness the $30 hair scrunchie.

[The Flaming Red Head]

1. The haves have more then they need.

We can barely afford food and luxuries like heat and gas to get to work.

I'm not putting up a tree, it would be pointless and it would waste electric.

[tjdee]

2. People love thinking they're just like rich people.

See: Republicans.

[Ilsa]

3. Tis the season to be obsessed with materialism, fa-la-la-la-la la-la-la-la

And I bet these folks would refer to persons having sex out of wedlock as "depraved".

[The Flaming Red Head]

5. I keep hearing "let them eat cake" must be the french in me

Makes me want to mug their dogs.

50 dollars would buy the cake mix and eggs and the gas to go get it.

[Ilsa]

4. I wonder if phone cards for the troops were on her list. n/t

[The Flaming Red Head]

6. FATHER CHRISTMAS KINKS LYRICS

FATHER CHRISTMAS KINKS LYRICS

When I was small I believed in santa claus
Though I knew it was my dad
And I would hang up my stocking at christmas
Open my presents and I’d be glad

But the last time I played father christmas
I stood outside a department store
A gang of kids came over and mugged me
And knocked my reindeer to the floor

They said:
Father christmas, give us some money
Don’t mess around with those silly toys.
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
We want your bread so don’t make us annoyed
Give all the toys to the little rich boys

Don’t give my brother a steve austin outfit
Don’t give my sister a cuddly toy
We don’t want a jigsaw or monopoly money
We only want the real mccoy

Father christmas, give us some money
We’ll beat you up if you make us annoyed
Father christmas, give us some money
Don’t mess around with those silly toys

But give my daddy a job ’cause he needs one
He’s got lots of mouths to feed
But if you’ve got one, I’ll have a machine gun
So I can scare all the kids down the street

Father christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
Give all the toys to the little rich boys

Have yourself a merry merry christmas
Have yourself a good time
But remember the kids who got nothin’
While you’re drinkin’ down your wine

Father christmas, give us some money
We got no time for your silly toys
We’ll beat you up if you don’t hand it over
We want your bread, so don’t make us annoyed
Give all the toys to the little rich boys

[Mari333]

7. When will people realize that "class" has nothing to do with money

and has everything to do with how well we treat ourselvea and others with compassion, empathy, and dignity?
What a shallow, shallow world of people.

[llmart]

11. What a profound statement.

Mari333 - I live near Oakland County, MI and some of the least classy people I see when in that area are the rich bitches and their kids. They are arrogant, spoiled, selfish human beings (hey, sounds like our Pretzeldent doesn't it?)

[wicket]

8. Rack up the credit card debt!

n/t

[Cinletharwi]

9. (The Americans side of this story) reminds me of Thais

Poor as dirt but wearing that deluxe cellphone on their hip.

$400 jeans? $1,000 Handbag??

My self-described 'middle-class' R family must do the drawing-names thing in order to have a "normal Christmas" (maintain the illusion?), and have had to do so for years now - come to think of it, for the last 3-4.

[oscar111]

10. 105 trillion is US wealth

http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/current/accessible/l5.htm

see bottom line.

avg family, says aarp, ten years ago.. has total wealth of sixty thousand.. fourty of that in house value, twenty "cash".

72 million families of four, for a pop. of three hundred milion.

GDP is ten Trillion

Fed budget is about 2.4 Trillion

Stocks return a total of ten percent, dividends plus price rise longterm avg. Banks, six percent.

three million homeless... 12 million hungry... homeless die at three times normal rate.

wages lower now than when Reaganomics began, 24 years ago. {adjusted for inflation}. Time to toss it as failed.

Job Shortage is 14 million. Reaganomics is a flop.

http://www.bls.gov/jlt

jobless plus discouraged minus 3 million openings total.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

12. My Christmas Gift to them:

A spit up their asses and slowly turned over a slow, smoky hardwood fire. Accompanied by an endless loop of a certain Motorhead song.

Mop sauce optional. ;-)

[Zorra]

13. "Never give a sucker an even break." W.C. Fields

Anyone want to buy some Zircon Encrusted Tweezers? Made by genuine Native American Wannabes on the Dental Floss Plantations of Montana!

Only $59.50 plus tax. Credit cards cheerfully accepted - Happy Holidays.

Also: Free copies of "How To Rip Off The Republican That Has Everything", a detailed guide on how to jack the price of worthless crap in order to give it luxury appeal. A must for Democrats struggling to find alternative occupations.;-)

[makhno]

14. RIP NYT

I see the paper finally completed its transition to a daily version of Vanity Fair - rich people talk shop with an occasional investigative reporting thrown in.

Their "rich people shopping habits" Christmas series this years is quite a low point.

[VivaKerry]

15. It's a good trade. Vanity Fair has turned out some great

investigative articles. And the Times wasn't ever really on the truth side anyway....

[SOS]

16. Even if Just a Can of Soup, Luxury Counts for Holidays

Alabama, 1996