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Re:Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber by Shivetya on Wednesday June 22, 2016 @08:59PM (#11958216)
One thing to understand is that a lot of new wealth is not in Western nations and some, regardless of where they live, have access to where they can play with their toys. Throw in exclusivity which some makers exploit by having limited run versions.

While the prices are silly, one can ask why would anyone pay more than 20k for car when that can buy you safety and comfort for four? Just like my impulse purchases can be a certain amount that is fine for me but extravagant for some and cheap by others.

Re:Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber by pm90 on Wednesday June 22, 2016 @10:40PM (#11958526)
Exactly. Luxury good manufacturers have recognized this trend a while ago, that the nouveau riche from non-western countries have a tendency to purchase all these toys in a me-too competition with their counterparts in the west.

Its a shame since I would expect them to have better sense than that to have accumulated that much wealth. Then again, its their money so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re:Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber by pjc50 on Thursday June 23, 2016 @04:37AM (#11959604)
Depends what you think the purpose of having wealth is. Why can't it just be the means to the end of having more toys?

Especially when the wealth is inherited or kleptocratic.

Re:Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber by pm90 on Thursday June 23, 2016 @10:53AM (#11961340)
I guess that's true; one can't really tell or moralize about other people's money. They are free to do as they wish; I agree with that on a personal level.

But if we think of wealth more than an abstract thing and more as a societal contract, then things do change a little bit. Wealth is society's way of abstracting the capacity to work. You can keep all your wealth in gold coins in a big building but without a society that values it, its really not worth that much. Wealth is a claim on other people's work, other people being members of a society. So, we have the situation that only the combination of wealth and society is actually worth anything.

If that is the case, it is in the interest of the wealthy, to foster a society in which 1) More work can be obtained in total and 2) More work can be obtained for less money. The former leads to philanthropy (betterment of society), and the latter leads to lobbying against taxation for the rich and other measures to redistribute income; since when more wealth is held by few, the few can make the many work for less (more labor than capital).

But wait, there is another dimension: if you think about the wealthy in Germany buying an expensive BMW, it still doesn't seem as bad, since the wealth is still within German society. But when you have wealthy Chinese buying a German car, then the wealth which was accumulated by the labor of the Chinese society is now going to the German society.

Re:Lamborghini Is Forging Ahead with Forged Carbon Fiber by saiya-jin on Thursday June 23, 2016 @08:11AM (#11960326)
I will make an assumption you've never ridden even decently-engined BMW 3 series (or 1,2,4) or anything better in terms of handling? suddenly the act of driving moves from i-have-to-get-to-that-place into wow-lets-do-more! (all within speed limits).

there is certainly some tipping point for this and after it's not worth it, and poorly-handling muscle cars leave me uninterested, but it works, it can be joy on normal roads and on track even pure adrenalin.