A whole new level of conspicuous consumption

Following my plea for those caught up in recession (see the post below this one), I'm rather sickened to read about the conspicuous consumption of cellphones.

To me, a cellphone is a utility item. I carry one when traveling, for the sake of keeping in touch with my friends, and for use in emergency. The cheapest one available is fine. I don't need bells and whistles. That's even more the case when I reflect that the technology changes so fast that whatever I buy today will be obsolete in two to three years time, and will have to be replaced.

However, that clearly hasn't stopped some folks with more money than sense from investing in 'jewelry-grade' cellphones. I can't believe that they spend this much money on something that'll have to be replaced so soon . . . but then, maybe I'm not used to moving at such rarefied levels of affluence.

Here's the Tag Heuer Meridiist, priced at a mere $3,900:




At a similar price level, there's the entry-level Vertu phone:




This one can get much, much more expensive, though, as we'll see later on.

Moving up-market, there's the Dior, a snip at $22,000 or so:




Starting at $23,500 and running all the way up to about $150,000, we have the Swiss-made Goldvish:




And then we come to the ne plus ultra of them all, the Nokia-based Vertu, heavily embellished by Boucheron in Paris. There are several models available. Prices range all the way up to a staggering $1.5 million or so for this one:




I was tempted to post this article as another in the 'Doofus Of The Day' series, but that seemed unjust to me. Even our most stupid Doofi are unlikely to blow their money on bling-bling like this! It boggles my mind that people are apparently willing to pay such outlandish sums for something that'll be obsolete in a year or two, and serves no purpose whatsoever other than to be a glittering target for every thief within range who sees you use it.

Sheesh . . .

Peter