Ah, Thursday. A perfect day to talk about wealth and luxury, wouldn’t you agree? Let’s get to it.
The lure of luxury goods: Why people prefer premium brands. [Boston Review] — “The debate over the psychology and politics of non-utilitarian goods isn’t just about the whims of millionaires, then. Everyone has an appetite for non-utilitarian things; most people own things that they don’t really need. It is worth thinking about why.” Related reading: Therealreal’s online luxury consignment shop. [The New Yorker]
How the world’s first floating hotel ended up as a doomed wreck in North Korea. [Messy Nessy] — “A tropical cyclone delayed the public opening, damaging multiple amenities including the swimming pool, sinking the underwater observatory, and destroying the guest transfer shuttle boat. Stranger yet, within weeks of guests arriving for their vacations, a shock discovery revealed that more than 100,000 pieces of WWII ammunition filled with anti-tank mines and artillery rounds were resting on the seabed below. Within a year, the hotel had closed.” (More on Wikipedia.)
People who grew up rich, when did you realize you were living in a bubble? [Ask Reddit] — Terrific discussion thread with 4200 comments, including this one: “Rich is relative. I grew up in a trailer park, so definitely not well off. Made a new friend one day and invited him over for dinner. Kid was blown away by the size of the hamburgers we were eating. And you could have another one if you wanted. Just typical 1/3lb or so patties. We were poor, but they were ‘rationing serving sizes’ poor. We had HVAC, they didn’t even have window units. We didn’t have holes in our floors/ceilings, it rained inside and out at their place.”
Infographic: The growing Tiny Home movement. [Visual Capitalist] — “Today’s infographic from Calculator.me illustrates how the tiny home market got so big, and how it fares against traditional housing when it comes to providing environmentally friendly and affordable options.”
Lastly, here’s a fun video from 1977 in which a 108-year-old woman recalls growing up in Victorian England.