Store Adds Donald Trump's Picture To $150,000 Gold-Encased iPhones (cnn.com) 186
An anonymous reader quotes CNN's report about an iPhone 7 "encased in solid gold, encrusted with diamonds and bearing the face of Donald Trump."
Priced around $151,000, it's just one example of the mind-blowing bling sold by Goldgenie, a store in the United Arab Emirates where the super rich do their shopping. "There are very wealthy, high-net-worth individuals all over the world and sometimes its very difficult to buy gifts for them because they have everything," said Frank Fernando, Goldgenie's managing director... But the phones are far from the most expensive item on sale. A gold-plated racing bike will set you back about $350,000.
If you're thinking no one would buy a $150,000 Trump phone, think again. In the last month, they've sold ten of them.
Fuck yeah (Score:1)
I'll buy the next ten - V. I. Putin
Re:Fuck yeah (Score:5, Funny)
I'll buy the next ten - V. I. Putin
Why would you want to buy a picture of something, when you already own the real thing . . . ?
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Many people carry pictures of their children around in their wallets.
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I'm waiting for the Trump Bobble-Heads he'll be flogging for "special" access to the White House.
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It'll be interesting to see if he tries that on. Although, it worked for Clinton..
The most primitive of the rich (Score:1)
Gold is still such a powerful symbol to them.
Re: The most primitive of the rich (Score:4, Interesting)
For the most part, that's true, but there are actually two different groups of people who might buy this. The first are, as you mention, the sorts of people who get rich quickly and get poor again just as quickly. We'll call those "lottery winners" even though some of them get rich through other means, because it is still basically the same sorts of folks who come into a lot of money through some sort of luck and then don't know how to do anything with that money other than spend it.
But you're forgetting another group—people who are so enormously wealthy (the top 1% of the top 1%) that hundreds of thousands of dollars is pocket change. Obviously those folks are not likely to throw their money away on these sorts of things frequently. These are the same sorts of folks who could afford to use hundred dollar bills in the washroom if they so desired, but they don't, because as you say, they didn't get that wealthy by wasting money frivolously. But even wealthy people like to waste money on a lark every once in a while. And given enough wealthy people, even if just a fraction of a percent of the über-wealthy decide to buy one as a joke to get a laugh in the boardroom and then give it away as a Christmas gift to their nanny, or decide to give them as family gag gifts for Christmas, they'd still sell a few.
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I abhor gold jewelry but still invest in gold. Today's gold prices are artificially low due to environmental and human costs aren't borne by the mining companies. They can pollute much as they want and use almost slave labor. If all the environmental impacts and fair labor wages are factored in, gold should be in the $4-5k range.
That is the lamest excuse for the recent plunge of the gold price I have ever heard.
Bargains elsewhere in store (Score:5, Funny)
sold by Goldgenie, a store in the United Arab Emirates
I guess all of the Hillary ones they had printed up earlier must be selling at a nice discount now!
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Which reminds me of something I saw the other day. It was post, with a confederate flag background , and the caption said "We won get over it"
Trump Trump Trump
Re: Bargains elsewhere in store (Score:1)
Just so everyone knows (Score:5, Insightful)
For when you're really rich and want to make absolutely 100% sure that everyone knows you'd rather spend your money on displays of wealth than anything remotely beneficial to anyone else.
(p.s. Remember, when we help the wealthy make more money, they become JOB CREATORS!)
Re:Just so everyone knows (Score:5, Insightful)
For when you're really rich and want to make absolutely 100% sure that everyone knows
If you are really "super-rich", you prefer to keep a lower profile. The big market for "bling" is for posers and wannabes. Do you see Bill Gates or Warren Buffett displaying bling? I have actually met a few billionaires (David Filo, Jerry Yang, Larry Page, Sergey Brin). They were wearing jeans and sneakers or sandals. No bling.
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Do you see Bill Gates or Warren Buffett displaying bling? I have actually met a few billionaires (David Filo, Jerry Yang, Larry Page, Sergey Brin). They were wearing jeans and sneakers or sandals. No bling.
It's anti-bling. When you're at that level, you can wear anything you want. Walking into a business meeting where I have to wear a suit, they can show up in jeans and a T-shirt because of who they are. I walk in wearing jeans and a T-Shirt folks will wonder who the hell do I think I am.
Only a billionaire can look like a slob and be taken seriously. See what I mean?
Another example is this restaurant in Greenwich, CT. Suit and Tie for everyone BUT Paul Newman when he was alive. He wore jeans, shirt and co
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Do you see Bill Gates or Warren Buffett displaying bling? I have actually met a few billionaires (David Filo, Jerry Yang, Larry Page, Sergey Brin). They were wearing jeans and sneakers or sandals. No bling.
It's anti-bling. When you're at that level, you can wear anything you want. Walking into a business meeting where I have to wear a suit, they can show up in jeans and a T-shirt because of who they are. I walk in wearing jeans and a T-Shirt folks will wonder who the hell do I think I am.
So what does that tell us about the blingest (blingyest?) (self declared) rich person in the world?
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sociopaths are at the top and nuns are at the bottom
What about sociopathic nuns?
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If memory serves, they buy a lifetime supply of discipline rulers and then teach third grade.
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They worked at the residential schools (Canada) along with the sociopath brothers. The stories that have come out about how the good Christians treated the native kids, one they actually set up an electric chair and would laugh as they electrocuted the 3rd graders for minor infractions like using their birth tongue. Last school closed less then 20 years ago, usually Catholic with a few others sects thrown in.
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They go to India, discourage the use of contraceptives and then get saintified (or whatever the word is, I'm not a bead-jiggler).
Re:Just so everyone knows (Score:5, Insightful)
Totally different market, totally different mindset. To understand how this works, you'd first of all have to understand the mentality of the target audience.
In the UAE, if you're wealthy and want to "count", you have to show that you have the money. Actually, you have to show that money is so unimportant to you that you can throw it away. And that's best done by buying shit nobody that actually values money would buy. It takes a while to get used to this, but once you understand how status works in that area, the whole insanity starts to make a lot of sense. What matters is not what you do, but how. You have to make a phone call, but you do it on a 150k phone. You have to go somewhere, but you have to drive there with a Ferrari. And of course it has to be some limited edition, because everyone and their dog can simply buy a Ferrari.
You're dealing with people who have a completely different idea of status. In the US, being rich means that you buy a football team because that is somehow an investment. Or you do charity because that allows you to connect with people. Or you do anything else that actually has at least a side benefit. Over there, status is measured by being able to simply throw away money for no tangible return. And to show that you can throw away money, you need to show off crap that is insanely expensive but has no "real" net benefit. A normal iPhone makes calls just as well as the 150k version, but that 150k version shows that you can throw those 150k away without getting anything in return.
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How else can they keep up with the criminals in sports cars in a car chase?
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I have a little question for you, just something that I've been curious about: why do police in Dubai drive really expensive sports cars? They're Lamborghinis and such, but not all the same - high-end sports cars from a bunch of different manufacturers. How does that fit in to this mindset?
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/04/2013411112032382393.html [aljazeera.com]
But the green-and-white car will probably not be roaring after law breakers in Dubai, an emirate in which local media said 33 people had been killed in car accidents in the first two months of this year.
will be mostly dispatched to tourist areas to show - in the words of deputy police director General Khamis Matter al-Muzaina - "how classy Dubai is".
State Bling.
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Same reason: Respect is earned by bling. You think someone would respect a policeman in a car that doesn't cost even 30k USD? Please. Just because you have flashing lights, why'd anyone stop for you in your toy car?
And even more important: The police is "owned" by the emir. And of course he has to equip his staff with respectable vehicles. Or can't he afford it?
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That's probably the most precise summation of life in the UAE I have ever read, and precisely why I'm not in any hurry to go back there. I was there for a single day on a layover, and the corruption and internal rot of their society was blatant.
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Well, that explains their support for Daesh and al Qaeda.
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Actually, that's what. Much as I disdain the way people live in the GCC countries, I'd rather they spend this cash on cases several orders of magnitude more expensive than the phones actually inside them. Seriously, Apple should do an iPhone 7 w/ 64GB RAM and 4TB of flash drive just to have something that these guys would buy. Price it a bit more than the cases.
That's a whole lot better than their Jerry Lewis sessions for the families of suicide assassins or people funding their own private Jihadist mi
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Primitive is relative, that's just how status works over there. I mean, look at us, we're by no means better. Some would call us primitives because we think we have to keep up with the Kadashians despite them not having any really marketable skill that could remotely be called "important". Yet we hype them to celebrity status.
THAT is primitive!
That's mostly US and European Billionaires (Score:2)
Re:Just so everyone knows (Score:4, Interesting)
When I worked in the non-profit sector I had some old-money (literally came over on the Mayflower types) trust fund kids working for me. I visited their parents' houses and they were full of treasures, but not bling. You had to stop and look to realize that the table you were sitting at was 250 years old or the portrait of great-grandpa hanging int he stairway was painted by John Singer Sergeant. I noticed in one dining room that the side board had a massive cast iron base; when I asked about it, I was told it was the 12.7 liter inline eight cylinder engine from a 1931 Bugatti Royale. When I expressed interest in that I was then shown what looked like a child's toy ride-in car under the piano in the living room, and was told was a tiny but fully functional automobile that had been hand built by Ettore Bugatti himself.
I mean, geez, it's not something anyone actually would have a use for, but as pointless things go it was literally a wonder.
After seeing the ancestral houses I can kind of understand the contempt people like the Boston Brahmins and Philadelphia Main Liners have for the nouveau riche; it's like these people were brought up in a museum full of exquisite and historically significant things. A lot like it in fact; in a way they're more like caretakers than owners, handing stuff they got from their distant ancestors down to their descendants.
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I'm not going to defend conspicuous consumptions, but at least the things you mentioned the old-money types buying and owning have some inherent value. The old table is a durable and well-built piece of handwork that has stood the test of time. The painting was a genuine work of art that probably took the artist a significant amount of time and skill to paint. The bigass engine could be considered a work of engineering art in itself, once it had finished serving its original purpose. The child's toy car was
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Insightful? If I ever got a mod point to give, yours would have been funny, for sure, for sure.
Anyway, I keep trying to imagine some constructive response to the Donald. This [the extremely conspicuous consumption topic of the article] was not it.
On the one hand, I want to regard Trump as a short term problem. Excellent chance he'll get Bill-Cosby-ed out of office within a few months. If he lives up to his Gettysburg promise and sues all of them, then he'll be forced to confess or perjure himself. If he doe
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I have a hard time seeing Trump run in 2020, but if it happens I doubt even he's daft enough to make Ivanka his running mate. The reality is that she is going to be functioning as his First Lady, since it's pretty clear his wife has no interest in a full time White House residency.
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Hmm... I hadn't really thought about that angle of approach because I don't regard the First Lady as having much importance. I'd even say that was a negative factor on Hillary's resume, but in Trump's case I can now see how he would tout it as a qualification for naming her as VP.
I can sympathize with your having a hard time imaging him running in 2020. I still can't believe he ran seriously this year.
I'm TUSAD now. (Trump-Underlying Stress Anxiety Disorder)
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It is possible that Trump self-implodes after he finds that no one believes anything he says due his rather mystical relationship with facts and truth.
There's another affect of Trump. He is addicted to publicity. The way he gets it is by making outrageous statements and then roils things further by his over-the-top responses. After awhile, he'll have run out of big ticket concepts he can stick pins into, news organizations will become jaded with covering his inane pronouncements as "There he goes again". Wh
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Most of your criticisms sound quite applicable to Dubya, but I'm still reserving judgment on the "real" Donald. At first I dismissed his lies as low level and low caliber, but now I'm not sure.
By low level and low caliber, I mean Level 0 lies of self-contradiction and Level 1 lies of counterfactual statements. Such lies are easily recognized and only work with suckers who want to be deceived. Maybe Trump only resorts to those lies for appropriate audiences and he is capable of higher level lies. I haven't d
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I want to regard Trump as a short term problem.
The "Trump" phenomenon is as old as the hills, like France's Le Pen, and the Philippines' Duterte, and a host of other right wing nationalists. He's just today's face.
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
ZZ
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^3
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^4
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^5
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^6
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If a bunch of women had legit Donald stories, don't you think they would have been dug up the DNC muck-rakers during the campaign? Why wait until he wins?
Maybe he had them all killed? Or have you heard of Jane Doe again [scribd.com]? Instead his co-defendent was suddenly linked to Hillary Clinton in the Pizzagate Fake.
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AC said:
If a bunch of women had legit Donald stories, don't you think they would have been dug up the DNC muck-rakers during the campaign? Why wait until he wins?
Not sure if that was supposed to be some sort of a joke, but most people are not eager to talk in public about their private sexual experiences. Also, I believe that most of them were eager to "play" with the Donald, either due to his fame or for monetary aspirations. It's the second group that should be scaring Trump now, because the monetary value of their stories is about to skyrocket.
Actually, your use of AC seems to prove my point, though you would have a different reason for protecting your pr
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^7
Public masturbation of 1673220 (Score:2)
Z^8
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For when you're really rich and want to make absolutely 100% sure that everyone knows you'd rather spend your money on displays of wealth than anything remotely beneficial to anyone else.
"Peacocking" is indeed an evolutionary trait. By showing that you have so much resources that you can waste some on frivolity, you show that you have more than enough resources to raise offspring.
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This is of course, not based on common sense, because frankly common sense is an illusion, rather it's based on the mechanisms of economic systems.
You don't believe me? No problem, just go look it up, the documentation is out
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I'm confident in my guess that you could far better spend that money to make jobs than however that business is structured. It's a luxury item and I really doubt, just like the sales people selling Gucci bags, that the employees of that company are the significant recipients of the money being spent in the stores.
I mean, sure, it's a transfer of wealth from the very top to someone else, and that's better than nothing. But when someone buys a $150k iPhone, let's not pretend that it's their way of "giving bac
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Exactly, what's so wonderful about "the little guy" that the rest of the world should be bending over backwards to accommodate him? If he was doing anything of any substantial significance, he wouldn't be a "little guy".
And this ladies and gentlemen (Score:3, Insightful)
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is why I'm a socialist. Let capitalism run wild and we'll spend our resources on crap like this instead of Ebola vaccines.
Except that we now have an Ebola vaccine, and it was developed by capitalists.
Re:And this ladies and gentlemen (Score:5, Informative)
The scientists in the Public Health Agency of Canada [wikipedia.org] are capitalists?
This (Score:5, Insightful)
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And the government is funded by capitalism. It takes both to make things work.
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It not so much about being "profitable quick enough". It's that the investment would all be by one company, but the rewards would be spread out over many companies (since the intellectual knowledge acquired is not practical enough to be patentable). So it wouldn't be profitable for any particular company, no matter how long they wait.
This is a case of "externality", which is one of the few cases where even many libertarians would admit that government involvement is justified.
What are you talking about (Score:2)
That's the trouble with libertarians. They're not anti-government, they're anti-"The Kind of government I don't like". They're cheerfully in favor of government as long as it does what they want it to do. And they'll cheerfully crap all over freedom when it's in their interests. There's basically two
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Mostly from China. The national debt caused by both bailing out failing capitalists and handing out military / homeland security contracts like water has made China, a communist country, the holder of most of our debt.
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Well, if it had been sufficiently profitable, then you can bet the capitalists drug companies would have been all over it!
Unfortunately, one-shot cures and vaccines are much less profitable than developing drugs for chronic and incurable diseases.
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Well, if it had been sufficiently profitable, then you can bet the capitalists drug companies would have been all over it!
Merck has licensed the technology and is currently commercializing it.
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Well, if it had been sufficiently profitable, then you can bet the capitalists drug companies would have been all over it!
Merck has licensed the technology and is currently commercializing it.
So the obvious question is whether they got an exclusive license, or even control over any patents involved. Or maybe they don't care that much since the risky and expensive parts are already taken care of?
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Plenty of deseases are cureable. But the medical industrial complex wants to keep you dependened on drugs. E.g. those many psychopharmaca or the time when they claimed ulkus was not treatable while in fact it is just a bacteria or diabetes (not sure if it is type I or II, one is healabke with diet changes, the other one with transplants and or diet changes).
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The scientists in the Public Health Agency of Canada [wikipedia.org] are capitalists?
Canada is a capitalist country. So, yes, this research was paid for by capitalists. If socialism actually worked, we would see all the big medical breakthroughs coming from Cuba and North Korea.
To get back to refuting the GPP's point, Canada certainly didn't fund this by outlawing "bling".
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First of all, North Korea is not socialistic. They are a military dictatorship, in case you lived the last 50 years under the rock. I believe they even call them self communists ... but well a dictator can call his reign how ever he wants and is not oblieged to use the words in the way the dictionary defines them. Also I bet the markets in NK are pretty capitalistic ...
And secondly: plenty of medical innovation indeed comes from Cuba. You indeed live under a rock, do you?
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Well, if you search for the right definition you can make any statement true-ish.
By "capitalist" I mean someone who supports himself by investing in assets as opposed to someone who supports himself by labor. I'm not including everybody who might think that free markets are a good idea for some things.
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Communism isn't the only form of socialism, social-democracy is one too...
No it isn't. "Socialism" and "social democracy" are two completely different things.
Social democracy ("progressivism" in America): Redistribution to promote equality of economic outcomes.
Socialism: Government ownership of the means of production.
Many countries that practice social democracy are even less "socialist" than America. For instance, in Denmark, even the postal service is privatized.
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Something that conservatives have been long pushing for in the US as well.
http://www.thelocal.dk/20160503/denmarks-postal-service-just-got-even-worse [thelocal.dk]
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However your closing statement:
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Well, grasshopper, socialism has been such a raging success that countries the world over are adopting it. Forgetting that it leads to authoritarianism in many cases, it doesn't generate higher living standards. Ah, but you say "Sweden". Look at Sweden a bit more closely and you'll see them giving up their socialist mantra in favor of free market reforms. They started doing that in the 90's when it was clear their economy was circling the toilet bowl. For a faster flush, see Venezuela, and that even with en
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If socialism is so great then why must it be enforced at gunpoint? If socialism is go great then why is it that so many more patents come from nations with capitalism?
As with so many things we have to take the bad with the good. People with enough freedom to dedicate their lives to medicine and develop vaccines is also the society that has people free enough to take the money they earned in business and spend it on useless crap like a gold plated iPhone.
Re:And this ladies and gentlemen (Score:4, Informative)
What do they have to do with socialism? You might want to look up the word, it doesn't mean what you seem to think it does.
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Only because it's easier to see through it. The lie in socialism is "work hard and we'll all be living in paradise tomorrow". The capitalist lie is more insidious because it's more personal, "work hard and you'll have the money to also shit on the rest of the world like those that shit on you today".
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And yet resources are irretrievably consumed in its manufacture that could be used for something else.
Mammon (Score:2)
It's the reason for the season.
Meh. (Score:4)
Not sure why this is news, I can probably order a case with anything etched on it, even gold if I want, though platinum turns me on more.
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There are places which will throw gold and encrust gems on anything. A few years ago, there was a place selling gold flecks in a capsule so one could have blingy poop.
The fact that the phone is expensive and has Trump's name on it is notable, but if someone wanted the same thing with someone else's face, I'm sure Goldgenie would be more than happy to do that.
As for a phone, an iPhone 7 is OK... but if one is going to spend the big bucks, why not a phone from Vertu? Might as well have the name recognition
Have a look at the gold Mac Book Pro... (Score:2)
At £9995.00, the gold Mac Book Pro isn't that far off list price... ;)
His face is not even engraved on the case. (Score:3)
It's as if he weren't expected to win, and they quickly overlaid all the Hillary ones. Then decided to charge $1000 more.
FYI, that is the way the filthy rich negotiate discounts. They bicker while bringing the price upwards, as onlookers shout their disgust.
$151,000 is a lot of money (Score:1, Troll)
To each their own (Score:2)
Lord knows I've blown money on overpriced cheap crap before. If $150,000 to them is not much more than $50 in my mind and they're fans of Donald Trump - let them blow their money.
I do think the conspicuous consumption is a bit perverse though. On this Christmas Eve though, I am thankful for the things I do have and remind myself not to be envious.
I've got my old Android phone which will never receive another update and I think someone installed systemd on my Windows laptop so I've got that going for me.
Well, it just goes to show. (Score:4, Insightful)
Being rich doesn't mean you have taste or sense.
Sigh (Score:3)
"A gold-plated racing bike will set you back about $350,000"
And about a few billion brain cells, if you really think adding a layer of heavy metal on a 'racing bike' is a good idea.
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That isn't saying it's a good idea, just ridiculous for reasons other than weight.
I'd love to see someone buy this.. (Score:2)
Why (Score:2)
Why would rich people be able to afford this? Oh... wait....
Will Become Collectable (Score:2)
It will become collectable once Trump is impeached.
When you have everything... (Score:2, Funny)
sometimes its very difficult to buy gifts for them because they have everything
What about buying a grammar checker? ;)
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Doesn't make sense (Score:1)
A nice gold coating on a peasants phone?
To quote Syriana... (Score:1)
It's a magnet (Score:1)
DISCLAIMER / WOOKIE NOTIFICATION (Score:2)
This promoted item uses country level targeting and triggering and may have been shown to you because of your location and fragile mental state.
Yeah I noticed that too.
It's about time a Wookie had broad grassroots support for a clear and decisive win. They're the best damned engineers in the galaxy, loyal and mission-focused to a fault, do not become distracted with petty emotional concerns or shallow drama, If you need to set things right and rebuild your manufacturing base, elect a Wookie to get the job d
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With all the best karma and thoughts out to Carrie Fisher in this difficult time...
Re: I'm glad our new President is a capitalist... (Score:1)
Sorry to bust your bubble, but the last real capitalist went extinct a while ago. It is mostly scammers, lobbyists, etc. now. And you just killed the middle man by handling the government directly to corporations. Congratulations.
Re: I'm glad our new President is a capitalist... (Score:1)
Do you mean "capitalist" in a True Scotsman sense? Because most of your comment reads as gibberish.
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Capitalism requires a well regulated market to function correctly. Without regulation, it tends to degenerate into oligopoly. What we currently have is a lack of regulation and, unsurprisingly, the rise of oligarchs who have sucked all the money out of the system and effectively run the show. So one can be capitalist and against the current system at the same time.
But you can't possibly be all that and still vote for fucking Trump. At least not if you have a brain.
Re: I'm glad our new President is a capitalist... (Score:1)