1) 200 craftsmen who have jobs building boats and are therefore not poor are better off than if they were poor and dependent on donations.
2) The folks who sell them ~$500,000 worth of fuel every time they gas up, and all the folks who produce, refine, and transport that fuel are grateful for their business.
3) The folks who run that boat, maintain that boat, and repair that boat, are glad to have paying jobs.
4) All the employees of the businesses that couple owns are glad to have paying jobs, rather than poverty.
5) Need I go on?
I, too, hope that they find the peace of Christ in this world and the next ... I will not, however, presume to judge the likelihood of it.
Please see post 30.
I’m suspect of these fueling costs
At current marine diesel cost that would mean 350-400 tonnes in fuel
No way
Maybe 50-75 tonnes
(Former breakbulk and ro/ro ship owner)
Unlike Soros, I would imagine that most wealthy people really do benefit people who work for their livings through the provision of goods and services.
Don't eat the rich; create a product in which a rich person would want to invest.
I agree with you 120%. These millionaires/billionaires could just commission gold statues of themselves with the money.
Instead, they fund massive high-paid employment programs. A megayacht costs 15% of its initial construction/delivery cost PER YEAR to keep at “like new” condition. A ten million dollar yacht paid the salaries of 50+ skilled craftsmen for three years to build, then puts 1.5 million dollars into the local economy PER YEAR to crew and maintain.
The guys who buy and pay for the maint. of these yachts (and private jets, same deal) are heroes. Each one of them is paying the salaries of dozens of well-paid men who feed their families off those salaries.
Remember, they could just build a mansion with a gold statue, once, with the same money. Yachts (and jets) are “gifts that keep on giving” (to the local skilled trade community.)