Hungry Ghosts and Super Yachts
Shallow people and big boats
Last week the New Yorker published a long story about the super yacht phenomenon and the kind of people who buy them. It’s disturbing for a number of reasons. I have a fascination with these things because they seem so incredibly absurd, and I learned nothing from Evan Osnos’ article to disavow me of that feeling.
But it is worse than just disturbing because of what it tells us about the one percent, those people with unimaginable wealth far beyond anything achieved in the past.
The pattern seems to be that somehow you make a billion dollars which rapidly grows into more billions. Then you enter an altered state where you’ve lost all contact with reality. In my hometown we have our own billionaire, who shall remain unnamed, who worked hard building a business for many years before going public and cashing out.
He became a billionaire with a net worth of around $1.7 billion, which has now ballooned to at least $7 billion, at last count. Years ago I worked for a company that was funded my him and met him a few times. He was not a flamboyant guy and he had worked really hard for twelve years to make his business work.
And he has given a lot back to the community, endowing many buildings devoted to medical research and other important subjects…
