"But the worst offender of all, this weekend, is not WSJ but rather the NYT's T magazine, and specifically a section called The Must Haves. What are this season's must-haves?
- A $19,992 chandelier.
- Shoes: Pick from four different pairs, which cost $1,100, $375, $995, and $785.
- A $1,495 puffer jacket.
- Bikinis (yes, bikinis in December, presumably for those of us who regularly holiday to the southern hemisphere around now).
- A $1,355 table.
- Handbags: Another set of four. These cost $3,900, $3,775, $6,950, and $2,295.
- Watches: Four of these, too. Costing $14,650, $20,000, $54,200, and "price on request".
On what planet is a $54,200 watch a must-have? In which economy does a $2,295 handbag qualify as cheap? I don't know the answers to those questions, but with a bit of Googling I can tell you what "price on request" means: $126,700. And no, there's no bling -- it's even got a rubber strap. But there is a tourbillion, which is French for "utterly useless widget which adds an extra zero onto the price".
I know that lead times for these magazines are long, but we've been in recession for a year now. And these kind of prices don't generate escapist reveries, they generate revulsion and disgust. I'm sure the editors don't care what I think, but maybe we can hope that the advertisers will start phoning up the NYT and asking them to tone things down a bit. The New York Times Company needs T magazine, which is probably its most profitable arm -- it simply can't afford this degree of cluelessness."
You don't have to be Veblen or have taken a vow of poverty to be bothered by such tastelessness. Perhaps, if things get really bad, we can have rich people drive through poor neighborhoods so that people can see up close what they must have.
I don't have a watch, car, bikini...Um...wait...what's a "puffer" jacket? The mind addles.
Fine. I don't go anywhere or spend much, but here's what I need:
Food. Warmth. Housing. A Library Card.( A PC. TV. These I can actually get, if I had to, with a library card ). Clothes ( I buy in bulk and on sale generally. No joke ) . You get it. Fortunately, I have enough of these commodities. There are other things which, of course, it's hard to buy. I won't say that you can't buy them, because you probably can, somewhere.
Oh, I am spending $30 today for an Electric Menorah, and buying two books. It's a major order for me. FYI, I believe they threw that bikini in just to tantalize and titillate poor sods like me, whom they hope will immediately reason that in order to get one of these women in these bikinis, we're going to need a lot of cash, and so we'd better check out the NY Times in order to figure out how to get it. Or maybe they just like the word "bikini".
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