No-one needs a superyacht. Yes, if you do more work (or better work) you deserve a greater reward than if you do less. But I simply do not believe it's possible for someone's merit to warrant this level of obscene wealth. Far more likely the poorest remain so because they don't have the opportunity to earn more. Conversely, when you become very wealthy it seems inordinately easy to become even wealthier.
The world's eight richest individuals have as much wealth as the 3.6bn people who make up the poorest half of the world, according to Oxfam.The charity said its figures, which critics have queried, came from improved data, and the gap between rich and poor was "far greater than feared".
Mark Littlewood, of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said Oxfam should focus instead on ways to boost growth. "As an 'anti-poverty' charity, Oxfam seems to be strangely preoccupied with the rich," said the director-general of the free market think tank. For those concerned with "eradicating absolute poverty completely", the focus should be on measures that encourage economic growth, he added.
Ben Southwood, head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, said it was not the wealth of the world's rich that mattered, but the welfare of the world's poor, which was improving every year. "Each year we are misled by Oxfam's wealth statistics. The data is fine - it comes from Credit Suisse - but the interpretation is not."
[Oxfam does indeed say something very similar every year, without fail, and their statistics are indeed questionable. However, why anyone should have access to such financial resources that they alone become a significant factor in world politics is beyond me - making money is no proof whatsoever of financial skill, much less moral insight. More on that at some point, maybe.]
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-38613488
Ian Rawlings That particular yacht was a case of somebody "whipping out" the pension scheme that belonged to a few thousand people, wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteWarren Buffet
ReplyDeleteWarren Buffet actually doesn't own a yacht, however if he did, he would pay cash for it. He generally buys things outright, without any kind of financing.
On the 23rd day of September 2008, on a day when the United States was poised to deliver itself into the grip of a financial depression that would have been much worse than the great depression of 1929, he stepped in, and taking his own personal cash reserves, scrounged up some five billion dollars. ...In cash. Which he then proceeded to loan to the Goldman Sachs Group to save that Wall Street Banking Firm.
There was only two conditions for the loan, one, that it would be repaid by Goldman Sachs with generous interest and;
"Goldman Sachs is an exceptional institution," said Buffett in a statement. "It has an unrivaled global franchise, a proven and deep management team and the intellectual and financial capital to continue its track record of outperformance."
Bailout a must
But the legendary investor said his faith in the financial markets' recovery is contingent on Congress passing the $700 billion bailout, which would buy troubled mortgage assets from banks.
"If I didn't think the government was going to act, I would not be doing anything this week," Buffett told CNBC Wednesday morning. "It would be a mistake to be buying anything now if the government was going to walk away from the Paulson proposal. Last week will look like Nirvana if they don't do something."
~CNBC News 24 Sep, 2008
At the same time, He scrounged up another $3 Billion Dollars. ...In Cash, and bought GE stock at $22.50 a share, bolstering GE (who makes jet engines for aircraft, and who also finances a good chunk of the new car loans in the country) who all the banks had turned down for loans because of the lending crisis in 2008.
GE is now worth $31.36 a share, meaning in eight years he increased hi net wealth by +1.5 Billion dollars. He could buy a yacht cash if he wanted to, actually many hundreds of yachts...
Some of the guys that do own Yachts, ...and they paid cash for them, unless a more favorable deal was available via financing (Very Unlikely). Larry Ellis for example from Oracle, had a yacht, Rising Sun half the length of an aircraft carrier, and he bought that for over two hundred million dollars. It was custom designed for him.
http://www.forbes.com/2006/03/03/cz_06billionaires_yachtslide.html
Yachts of Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison has owned several superyachts: the 58 meter Lurssen yacht Ronin designed by Norman Foster, the 75 meter Blohm and Voss yacht Katana (now named Enigma ), the 138 meter Lurssen yacht Rising Sun (which is now owned by David Geffen) and currently Ellison owns the 88 meter Feadship motor yacht Musashi.
Rising Sun was Too Large
Ellison actually sold Rising Sun, as he considered her too large to access interesting yachting destinations. The yacht Katana was built as Eco for the Mexican media billionaire Emillio Azcarraga, founder of Televisa. When Azcarrage died in 1997 (he actually died on board his luxury yacht near Miami), the family sold the yacht after a few years.
Izanami_ was built for a Japanese Millionaire
Ellison’s yacht Ronin was built in 1993 as Izanami for a Japanese millionaire. Izanami was sold in 1999 to Ellison. Ellison in his turn sold Ronin to Venezualan banker Victor Vargas, owner of the Banco Occidental de Descuento. In 2013 Ronin underwent a refit at Lurssen Yachts.
Larry Ellison
Larry Ellison is an American billionaire and successful entrepreneur.
ReplyDeleteUS$ 52 Billlion Net Worth
He is co-founder and chief executive of Oracle Corporation, one of the world's largest enterprise software companies. In 2016 Ellison holds a 22.5% stake in Oracle, which makes him one of the richest people in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$ 48 billion. His base salary is just US$ 1.00 per year, but his total compensation in (stock) options is around US$ 40 - 50 million per year.
Next to this he receives an annual dividend of more than US$ 500 million per year, on his 1.1 billion stocks in Oracle. These amounts sufficiently supports his expensive lifestyle with yachts and private jets.
In 2010 he bought the Musashi, and had it refitted in 2011
http://www.superyachts.com/motor-yacht-4367/musashi.htm
---So yes, earning $550 Million in cash, a year, means Larry Ellison can whip out the checkbook, buy the yacht, send it to a shipyard, and have it completely refitted, and then buy four more Yachts just like it, have them refitted as well,and still have a positive net income for any given year...
Everybody on that list can do that.
Superyachts are like canaries in a coal mine : an indication of a larger problem, but not actually dangerous in and of themselves. Unless the canary has a dangerous disease or the superyacht is full of explosives. Or vice-versa, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting for someone to build the Nautilus or even better a much larger recreational submarine with worldwide cruising capabilities...
ReplyDeleteWe have a designer... just needs a buyer
http://www.migaloo-submarines.com/
I just can't see any reason why any one individual should own a sizeable fraction of the wealth of the entire planet. Clearly they can't be working that much harder or longer than the rest of us, because there are only so many hours in the day and no-one is millions of times smarter than anyone else. The trickle-down theory of the wealthiest improving the lot of those at the bottom by building superyachts clearly doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteI'm strongly in favour of a maximum wage. Possibly not as an absolute number but as a fraction of the salary within a company. That way a top executive could earn, say, 100x that of their lowest-paid employee. Doesn't stop them earning fantastically large amounts of cash but does mean that all their employees would benefit and prevent unfair wealth inequality.