Who on earth would spend $1.60 to $16 on a half dozen trysts with a gorgeous hooker??!?!

[HamdenRice]

I'm just asking because I want to put the Spitzer family's wealth and Eliot's expensive *cough*, *cough* past-time in perspective.

Most DUers, most New Yorkers and most people of average means everywhere are scratching their heads at the revelation that Spitzer may have spent $80,000 on "sessions" with hookers.

Who on earth could rationalize spending $80,000 on prostitutes.

But we have to try to understand what $80,000 looks like to someone of Spitzer's wealth. The family is estimated to be worth around a half billion dollars.

So, to the average working Joe who has a net worth of $10,000, that $80,000 is the equivalent of $16. To the middle class Jane with a net worth of $100,000, what Spitzer dropped on hookers looks a lot more like $1.60 .

People of his class earn at least $50 million to $100 million per year doing nothing, just collecting income on investments.

An upper middle class family's income for a year is pocket change to these people.

That's the way it is in the age of Bush and billionaires. The super rich don't calculate things the way we normal folks do.

[tekisui]

1. Spitzer also can't calculate the political risk of stupid behavior.

[Birthmark]

2. No, I wouldn't. Not ever...for any price.

[underpants]

3. Good point but for the love of GOD did he really think he would get away with this

or is this more telling of the lives that elected officials and people of that economic strata live?

[Virginia Dare]

5. He wasn't just paying for sex..

he was paying for discretion and silence. That's why I think he was probably set up. There are hundreds out there like him. They pay top-dollar not to get caught.

[underpants]

9. "degree of difficulty"

apparently the diamond rating system was for "degree of difficulty" :shrug::scared:

[Kelvin Mace]

17. Well, if he crusaded to legalize it

instead of sanctimoniously PROSECUTING it, I would have sympathy.

[Solly Mack]

4. so a thousand dollar per hour hooker is really just a 2 dollar hooker

with a website?

[Virginia Dare]

6. Pretty much..

they're all providing the same basic service.

[Justyce]

7. At those prices, you can't afford NOT to!

;)

[0007]

8. One can always replace money but its hard to replace a good looking

girl.

What did Jeff Gannon get from those patrons in the White House, who thought he was so hot?

Mr. Gannon could tell us about the super rich. He was in the hair business.

[beyurslf]

10. I just can't get over how incredibly self righteous and utterly stupid he is.

[MadAndy]

11. Because life's too short to bang ugly chicks?? eom

[mondo joe]

12. Of course spending is relative. Some people buy BMW's some buy clunkers. Some stay at 5 star hotels

and some at motels.

These distinctions (obviously) apply to those who have the resources to do either of these things at all.

[Kelvin Mace]

18. Personally, I NEVER compromise

on toilet paper. I always buy the best. That's about the level of my extravagant ways.

[ileus]

13. I couldn't get it up knowing I was tossing out 80G's...

[ileus]

14. Even with 500mil I'd have to be wondering why I couldn't get "this" for "free"

[mondo joe]

15. The sex could be gotten for free - the secrecy and security couldn't be.

That's a big part of what the high price is about - secrecy.

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. Hope he got his money back then. n/t

[mondo joe]

23. The service didn't violate their end of the bargain. NT

[Kelvin Mace]

16. That's one way to look at it

I suppose. Another is $80,000 is 80 FREAKIN' thousand dollars!!! It is:

- 75% of the value of my house
- It is my next 5 cars
- Health insurance for 7-8 years
- Groceries for about 15 years
- My wife's medicine for 4.5 years
- My salary for 4 years
- 20,000 gallons of gasoline (at $4 a gallon), enough for 69 YEARS worth of driving!
- My car insurance for 33 years, with enough gasoline to cover that time
- About what I need put my business back on solid ground

In any event, it is a disgraceful amount of money to pay for something that even Rush Limbaugh can manage to get for free.

There is something fundamentally wrong with a man who has to pay for sex. Wrong and pathetic.

[MedleyMisty]

19. $100,000 is middle class?

Damn, I always thought that was filthy rich.

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. In net worth, it's not. n/t

[HamdenRice]

22. Net worth, not cash

It's a very strange thing. If you look at, for example, estates of working class people, when you total up everything, they are worth more dead than alive.

Usually this is equity in the family home (which in recent months sadly has been wiped out for many).

But take your typical NYC sanitation man and his hospital worker wife who have been paying a mortgage for 10 years, and yes, they are typically worth about $100,000 -- home equity, pensions, savings, life insurance, car -- even after subtracting debts (eg mortgage balance).

That doesn't mean they don't struggle every month to pay the bills.