It’s a kind of pornography of capitalism,
Seeing as how this guy is a prince and acquired his wealth by being related to a Sultan, I see this more as a pornography of absolute monarchy than capitalism.
no sense of shared national destiny:
That seems like kind of a weird clause to throw in with the others. Perhaps I’m misreading it, but I hear that phrase as being unpleasantly nationalistic.
I see your point, and am suddenly inspired!
think of that wonderful trickle-down effect! He’s single-handedly saving the world economy!
Speaking of the trickle-down effect, I wonder how much he spent on VD medication after his rendezvous with “haremsfuls of exotic prostitutes”?
That’s all you’ve got? That’s the best you can come up with. Kill a bunch of people - the right people, mind you - and then everything will be better.
Welcome to the entirety of recorded human history as it’s been 'till this point.
How progressive.
“he is believed to have blown $14.8 billion on a series of follies including grotesque mansions; enormous collections of sportscars; haremsful of exotic prostitutes kept on standby at home and abroad; fleets of jets; musesumsworth of gaudy gems; private football tutelage from NFL greats for his pampered son; private concerts by Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston”
… and the rest he WASTED!
Prince Jeffri, his mother Cersi and his uncle/father Jeimi. I can see the grand design here.
Even twenty years ago, a friend told me about the Sultan going all shits and giggles as his young obese son, riding by the pool in an electric car, pushed servants into the water. Then ten years later, I find out how another friend’s wife, who worked for a major jeweler, had the unsavory task of creating precious-stone buttplugs for this Brunei family.
This story is yet another piece that fits in the jigsaw puzzle.
I’m from Brunei and it’s wonderful to see articles like this out there. It’s good to see how much of my nation’s wealth blown on pussy, toys, drugs. For all the billions/millions we make everyday from sucking out oil and gas from the ground, so much more could be done to improve the nation as it should have. Sure, as a citizen I get free education ,free medical, and have pay no taxes but all that glosses over the autocratic rule of the royal family that continues to suppress so many freedoms.
Hell, we’re still in a State of Emergency after the last rebellion in the 1960’s. To this day, there has been no election held for parliament with all the members selected by the Sultan. Can you imagine that ONE man is the prime minister, minister of finance and minister of defence, talk about a trifecta.
Boy oh boy, I can’t wait for the day the oil runs dry…it will be interesting to see what will happen…
Ouch. (gratuitous text here to get to allotted minimum)
Eww. Oww. (assaulting servants)
Eww. Oww. (precious stone butt plugs)
Proud papa? Yechhhhhhh.
You don’t have to wait for that: you just have to wait for other countries being able to produce enough energy for themselves that they’re no longer desperate to cozy up to Sultans and the like.
In many countries that’ll be renewable energy sources; in the US, probably shale gas (fracking).
The monsters that conspire in mass human immiseration… what would you do with them? Allow them to continue their destruction? Lock them away?
Banks don’t work that way. Banks loan out money when they see fit to, and if they don’t have enough reserves they simply borrow them from the Fed to cover the transfers. There is no world in which we need billionaires to float us credit. That’s just more voodoo economics.
Who the hell says anyone should have the right to live as rentiers? All citizens need to help make society work in what ways they can. Sitting on a pile and earning interest does nothing for humanity.
I should have read your last sentence before replying ;).
Yes, a tiny bit will trickle to actual regular working folks, of course. He has to eat, for example, and someone somewhere is benefitting from that. But the proportions of what he makes to what he gives back are pretty off. “Trickle” is an appropriate word.
This is not true. Banks still have a lot of regulations (including the Community Reinvestment Act) which require them to provide loans to the local community in proportion to the amount they are holding in checking & savings accounts. More money being held in accounts DOES mean more money being loaned out locally.
I’m finding the juxtaposition of “kill all rich people” plus the term “voodoo economics” very confusing. Are your opinions coming from an extreme right wing or extreme left wing perspective?
Please read this with regard to how modern bank lending really works: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/05/banks-are-not-reserve-constrained.html.
And I’m half-joking, at least, about killing all rich people. I’m not into murder. I’m just extremely angry at what has happened to my country, and I see most of it as the result of a quite small crowd of extremely wealthy plutocrats, their corporations and their lackeys. My politics are more on the socialist/left side of the spectrum generally speaking. Though I also have a strong belief in individual liberty and civil rights, which I don’t think is contradictory (libertarians would disagree, but I don’t really take them very seriously).
I do hope your mention of the CRA doesn’t flow from a belief that it was at all responsible for the housing boom/bust.
And you should work until the day you die, as well. Retirement? That’s for suckers.
Who said that? Not me. Are you suggesting it takes millions in the bank to have a comfortable old age?
