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Entirely too much money
Two separate articles in the same daily newspaper last week got me to thinking about the subject. London, England, it seems, has become the hub for the world's super rich. The city has outpaced New York's Wall Street as the center of the finance universe and its young bankers and stockbrokers are throwing money around like it is water. The article said London's financial stars were paid a total of $17 billion (yes, that's a "b") in recent weeks, including more than 4,200 who received bonuses of at least $2 million each on top of salaries that already end with a bunch of zeroes. A store named, appropriately, "Quintessentially," caters to the whims and wants of the rich. Three customers ordered $6,000 replica Marchesa gowns that actress Jennifer Lopez wore to this year's Academy Awards ceremony. An elephant-shaped cake studded with rubies and emeralds was made for one customer. A perquisite of money, it seems, isn't good taste. The owner of the trendy Mayfair nightclub Pagaea said a banker customer recently tried to pay a $36,000 evening cocktail tab with his credit card but the bank authorization failed and a friend stepped forward and put the bill on his card the way some of us might step in to buy a friend a $5 lunch. The cheapest apartments at famous One Hyde Park are going for $40 million while the penthouses fetch over $100 million. One kid trader (he is only 25) made $1.4 million in just one hour last year. He drives a Porsche and wears jeans and a T-shirt to work. There's a brisk market for cars that sell for $200,000 and more each. Christie's and Sotheby's, London's big name auction houses are making record sales. The article detailed a lot of excessive spending but few of those interviewed talked about giving much of their fortunes to churches, charities or other causes to help people. A few pages over, another article detailed how much people in the U.S. are spending to get a good night's sleep. I thought I was doing well with a mattress that cost several hundred dollars but this story detailed a mattress that sells for $49,500. And sales are brisk. It seems that the more money we make or have, the harder it is to get a good night's sleep. Premiumpriced mattresses- those costing more than $1,000 each- were 21 percent of sales in 2005, the latest data available, up from 14 percent in 2000. A Chicago lawyer says she has spent more than $13,000 in the past three years to buy high-priced Hastens mattresses for herself and two of her children. "You want to be able to go to bed at night and rejuvenate and rest and recuperate," the woman said. "And to me, the mattress is an investment in that." From my perspective, someone who sleeps about half a night in the recliner and the other half in bed, I suppose I can see the rationale for having a good mattress. At least it makes more sense than dropping $36,000 for an evening of cocktails at a London nightspot. A final item was noted under the mattress story: A Georgia man who held one of two winning lottery tickets for the $390 million Mega Millions jackpot didn't show up for his truck driving job the day after he came forward with the ticket. Ed Nabors had said at the press conference that he would work "at least two more days." But then he didn't show up the next day. Can't say as I can blame him. I wonder if he was out mattress shopping? He may find it harder sleeping at night now that he has that much money!
Jim Cox is editor and publisher of The Clarke County Democrat.
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