Wretched Excess

The Crown Prince of Dubai has a new boat. It's 525 feet long and cost a couple of hundred million dollars - an amount dwarfing the annual educational budgets of most sub-Saharan countries. According to The Telegraph
...the sleek 525ft vessel, also known as Golden Star, will boast the latest must-have accessory for owners of "super-yachts" - its own submarine.

The Platinum's owners will also be able to use a helipad a hangar for small aircraft, and garages for jet-skis and four-wheel-drive vehicles, which can be taken ashore on special landing craft.
...
A fully equipped gym, squash court and swimming pool will help guests to stay healthy and work off the calories that they might otherwise pile on from the haute cuisine meals that will be prepared by world-class chefs.

A health spa offering every conceivable health and beauty treatment will complete the pampering. Doctors and nurses will be on duty, and electronic security and sophisticated weapons will be installed to deter any unwanted guests.

Of course this is just the latest in toys for the ultra-rich.
At 525ft - 40ft longer than a Royal Navy destroyer - it will be comfortably bigger than the current giant of the yachting world, the lavishly appointed 452ft Rising Sun, owned by Larry Ellison, the chief executive of Oracle, the software company. The ultra-competitive Mr Ellison may not be amused since Rising Sun, which was completed in the autumn, has been the world's biggest yacht for only a few months.

Mr Ellison increased the yacht's size from 387ft during construction to outdo Octopus, a 414ft vessel being built at the same time by Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, who had wanted his yacht, which cost an estimated £113 million, to be the world's biggest.

Allen also has a couple of 757 Aircraft - maybe the spare hauls his luggage.

Given that the five toys just mentioned have a combined cost greater than the GDP's of several small countries, is it fair to call these guys pigs?

Personally, if I had a few tens of billions, I think I could make do with an 80 foot yacht or two - and, oh yeah, maybe a Gulfstream 550 - because airports are such a hassle.

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