Depressed

I found this image, and others that came with it, rather depressing. Depressing that a rich man from Saudi Arabia could think of nothing better to do with his money than kit out an airliner, of a sort more usually used for transporting hundreds of people, as his private jet. Perhaps he could be persuaded to take a hint from one of those US billionaires who devote large chunks of their money to good causes, giving vulgar & conspicuous consumption of this sort a rest.

But one should bear in mind what I call the Balzac point, having come across it for the first time in one of his novels, the point that spending your money on luxury goods is not such a bad way of redistributing wealth. There is the waste of the luxury goods themselves, the waste of resources which could be put to a better use, but at least lots of money is finding its way into the pockets of people who are not quite so rich and may in fact be quite poor. It is generating economic activity in the rest of the world, rather than sitting in some Swiss bank account, not paying any tax. But would buying up US debt, so financing economic activity there, be a better use?

So having got well beyond the point at which I understand what is going on, time for breakfast.