No, I didn't. The wealth lost due to the falling stock and real estate market is $10 trillion. That is around 25% of the total wealth of this great nation. ... Because this is the second time someone has said that wealthy people can pay more. The real issue though is not that they can but whether they do. ... In every review of any woman that I have read, the price is listed. ... When I have talked about the hobby to other wealthy men, their question is always, "how much does it cost?" The notion that men don't care whether they pay $200 or $2000 is not one I have seen discussed among men. ... Maybe there are men who can afford the HDH, but that is not the issue. The issue is if they do.
Originally Posted by woodyboyd
On your first point ...
What was lost was not "wealth" but rather "potential wealth." And to some degree that loss may well have been temporary.
For example, in 2006 I owned X shares of Y stock. Now, in 2010, I STILL own X shares of Y stock. Nobody came along and took that stock away from me -- it is still sitting in my brokerage account. I STILL own a certain portion of that company.
Now, when I look at that stock, it's per-share value changes and thus the value of my holding in that stock changes. But that value is merely a placeholder until I ACTUALLY SELL THE STOCK.
If I bought that stock for $10 in 2006, it was valued at $16 in 2008 and it is currently worth $11; I have NOT experienced a $5 "loss." I haven't lost a danged thing until I sell the stock. And even then, I have gained $1. That makes it a poor investment for the 2006 to 2010 time frame (because of inflation), I'll grant you -- but the $5 loss is an illusion.
This country did NOT lose WEALTH. The assets still exist. What it lost was current stock portfolio valuation; and that valuation is a number that changes daily in response to everything from weather events to grumblings from the federal reserve. In fact, a number of analysts do quite well by predicting stock movement based upon the psychology of human herd mentality.
What I am saying is that VERY VERY often, the valuation of a stock has ZILCH to do with the underlying value of the entity from which it is derived; and is instead driven by what Greenspan once termed "irrational exuberance." People drive the value of a stock up out of sheer stupidity sometimes, just by jumping on a bandwagon.
Basically, it's a gambling game. What was lost was NOT "wealth" but rather "money that might have been made." But even that is not accurate, as the mere act of selling or buying a stock in any significant quantity will alter its price. If you were to liquidate a million shares of stock X, others would notice that, think maybe something was wrong and maybe you had inside info, and sell their own shares. And the value of that stock would plummet. Likely, it would plummet to well below it's intrinsic worth; others would see a buying opportunity and ... well, you know.
Equating a loss of valuation in a stock portfolio to actual loss of wealth is highly inaccurate.
On your second point ...
I don't consider myself to be "rich." Maybe the Democratic Party does; but I certainly don't. So I don't hang around in locker rooms full of rich guys discussing the going price of providers.
But what I CAN tell you is this: High Dollar Hotties EXIST. That is real, it is a fact. It is not idle speculation, and it isn't based upon a locker room conversation. It is a cold hard fact of reality.
And for HDHs to exist, SOMEBODY must be paying them.
For you to argue that rich guys (however rich is defined) *won't* book them flies in the face of reality; because guys falling below this country's median income of $46k sure as hell aren't booking them.
So ... why don't you tell me ... since HDHs indisputably exist ... WHO is booking them?
BTW, this is a rhetorical question as I already know the answer and so do you. There are rich guys who do NOT hang out in your locker room, do NOT participate on message boards and do NOT write reviews who will book these ladies overnight, for a full weekend, for a week of vacation or even pay them a regular retainer.
And they don't tell you that they are doing it.