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You Crashed a $3M Bugatti. Now What?

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Re: You Crashed a $3M Bugatti. Now What?

#6
post #2

I know this is a low-substance observation that lots of people are thinking already but why the fuck would you buy a $2MM car ?

You buy a Bugatti simply so you can say you have one. It's a status symbol. It's an expression of power.

Is it really that much better than a Ferrari F8 with bearer bonds duct taped to the hood?

Re: You Crashed a $3M Bugatti. Now What?

#8
post #2

I know this is a low-substance observation that lots of people are thinking already but why the fuck would you buy a $2MM car ?

If you have $100M the car is still a lower fraction of your net worth than for most people. Also I would consider a car like that to be more like a piece of art, something you have because it's nice. Like a mansion. Nobody needs a mansion.

Also, there are diminishing returns to having a high net worth, i.e. every successive 2x increment matters less. No surprise there are goods on the market that are trying to counter this effect.

And I'm not even sure all of this is "evil". Italy wouldn't look anywhere near this nice if the rich people of the past hadn't splurged big on status symbols. Even in the United States where philanthropy is included in the portfolio of status symbols (or perhaps is even the major status symbol) you can see the positive effects. What Rockefeller did with much of his money was good and useful.

Re: You Crashed a $3M Bugatti. Now What?

#9
To (most) people commenting and reading this, the question 'why would you pay that much money for a car' is just about context.

To much of non-first world countries, buying an iPhone Pro Max would evoke the same question. That amount of money symbolises food for a long period of time.

Unfortunately your context shifts out a lot. It becomes normalised to buy an iPhone. It becomes normalised to pay a lot of money to buy a house, and if you're lucky enough to build wealth the normality bar just keeps being raised.

And then, poof, you just bought a supercar. Or a Patek Philippe. Or whatever other expensive thing that has no real purpose beyond it's a thing that you like.

I feel the same way with private jets. But a private jet was a completely trivial sum of money for me, maybe I would. Hard to say.

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