For the wealthy, a return to luxury spending

[somone]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2011-02-21-1Aluxury21_CV_N.htm

For the wealthy, a return to luxury spending
By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY

Wealthy Americans seem to have decided that it's OK to splurge again — a hopeful sign for an economy mired by slow growth, stubbornly high unemployment and depressed home prices.

Luxury and high-end marketers have picked up on what they hope is a growing trend, offering products that bank on a looming spending spree. Germany's PG-Bikes is rolling out the $80,000 Black Trail, a battery-powered bicycle. Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille is selling $525,000 timepieces. Steinway has launched a John Lennon-themed grand piano — at $90,000 and up. After selling out a $245,000 model, automaker Porsche is planning the 918 Spyder, a hybrid car that could sell for more than $630,000.

And for the 2011 holiday season, tech start-up Prima Cinema will provide a $20,000 device to bring Hollywood films to your home the same day they premiere in theaters. Each first-run film will cost an additional $500.

The products represent rarified shopping territory for even the uber-rich, especially at a time when the nation is coming out of its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. To many still worried about the economy, spending for luxury goods and ultra-toys with eye-popping price tags is silly. Even so, the trickle of high-end products aimed at deep-pocketed clientele is a potential leading indicator of a broader wave of pervasive conspicuous consumption among middle- and upper-income shoppers, analysts say...

[Ikonoklast]

1. I bet the big spenders from the Arab oil states might go missing on this one.

They all seem to be fleeing their respective former empires.

[scarletwoman]

2. I swear, they're just daring us to bring back the guillotines, aren't they.

Just keep pushing it, you filthy greedheads, and one of these days the peasants might be ready to oblige.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. Public shortenings.

Sounds good to me.

Well, it sounds good to my bloodthirsty-little-savage subpersonality, anyway.

In reality, I only favor capital punishment for corporations.

[Demoiselle]

4. I love it!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :evilgrin:

I will steal it, with your permission.

[scarletwoman]

5. Yeah, I can't really advocate such a thing either. It's just a momentary indulgence

of my own bloodthirsty "subpersonality".

I'm also with you on this: "I only favor capital punishment for corporations."

Seriously, though, if things keep going on as they are -- vis a vis the rich getting richer AND flaunting it while homeless people die on the streets -- I want to believe that a day will come when the proles stop putting up with it and turn on the aristocracy of the uber wealthy.

It probably won't be bloodless, though it's a fair bet that most of the blood shed will be on our side.

[Kievan Rus]

6. So this is where the tax cuts for the top 2% are going

[Starry Messenger]

7. "Shared sacrifices"

:sarcasm:

[Jackpine Radical]

8. Shared sacrifices indeed.

We sacrifice, and they share.

[TalkingDog]

9. Earned every penny all by himself, with no help from anyone.

"The wealthy have learned some lessons. Like the rest of us working stiffs, they're buying selectively things they feel are really worth the price,"

Fuck you you tone deaf bitch.