Life At The Top

Three good examples of absolute inequality within the capitalist system:

1)
Plenty of corporate execs run outfits that profit off the misery at the bottom of America’s economic ladder. But count Family Dollar CEO Howard Levine among the few execs who fail at that profiting and still lavishly fill their own pockets. Dollar- store retail, overall, has soared since 2008 as the ranks of Americans in poverty have jumped by almost 40 percent. But management blunders have kept Family Dollar the only dollar-store “Big Three” corporation with drooping sales over the past year. Last week, Dollar Tree — a top Family Dollar rival — announced an agreement to buy Levine’s troubled retail empire for a price well above Family Dollar’s share value. Levine will report to Dollar Tree's CEO once the deal finalizes, if he chooses to keep working. He may not. His likely take-home off Family Dollar's sale: $130 million . . .

 2)
America’s top 1 percenters, Too Much related last week, are spending record thousands to assure their kids spots in the nation’s most sumptuous summer camps. Not included in those thousands: the big bucks wealthy parents are now spending to pack their kids up for summer camp. Barbara Reich of New York’s Resourceful Consultants charges $250 an hour to fill trunks with “delicate touches like French-milled soaps and scented candles.” A typical job runs four hours. Two years ago, Reich had one packing order, last year five. This year she had 10 orders before Memorial Day. Her fellow packer Dayna Brandoff of Chaos Theory says well-heeled parents want the trunks she packs to help “recreate their child’s bedroom so they can feel completely at ease in air-conditioned bunks.”

3)
 How do you park into a narrow harbor a super yacht nearly the length of a football field? You back it in, of course. Very carefully. Yachtsman Andy Wheeler enlisted a drone last month to make a video of his Chopi Chopi backing into the harbor at Corsica’s port of Bonifacio. Wheeler’s yacht, the largest ever built in Italy, launched last year. Analysts at that time valued the boat at $107 million.




















No doubt most readers couldn't even aspire to be the owner of one of the boats in the background?


from here