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Comment by kijin | Hacker News Reader

> There are many people who have money but don't show it.

You could attribute that to humility or good manners, but you could also attribute it to the fact that their persona is good enough of a signal that they don't need to add another signal.

This is especially true of traditional nobility and the super-rich. It doesn't matter whether Bill Gates wears a $40 watch or a $40K watch because everyone already knows that he's one of the richest guys in the world. Marie Antoinette wore diamonds not because she felt a need to demonstrate her status and power, but because she liked diamonds and happened to have the status and power to get them.

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For the record, Gates's watch apparently cost $10.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/sep/30/bill-gates-...

However if you appreciate a fine watch that does more than tell the time (and who's to dissect the whys and wherefores?) buy it and support the families of the workers who are part of the company that produce it. Someone sweeps the floor in their workshops and needs the job. Ditto all the other luxury goods.

That was his previous watch. Gates apparently upgraded to a slightly more expensive watch last year.

Buying a $20 watch will support some Chinese workers. Buying a $2K watch will support Japanese or Swiss workers. But I don't think buying a $20K watch will support workers any more than a $2K watch does. It probably depends on the company and the watch, but I think it's a safe bet that most of the markup at the extreme high end of the spectrum goes to a small number of managers and dealers.

2K watches are made mostly by machines. 20K is where you start having a substantial part of the cost being handmade finishes. The dealers cut is similar in percentage.

Ordering an expensive watch straight from a known master is one option, they usually don't spend a lot of money on managers, dealers or even advertising. For 20k you've got plenty options. The only downside is that selling your generic-but-good-quality rolex is easy and repairing/maintenance can be done everywhere while things with small brands can sometimes be more complicated.

Designing and making a mechanical watch with many complications takes a lot of time, so it's entirely possible to buy even a 200k watch where you are mostly paying for the actual labor (of a high-skilled professional/artist).

Why workers producing goods that exclusively go to benefit the upper class be considered a good thing?

If there were no idle rich to make expensive products for, (say they were all beamed off the planet to work in an alien slave mining facility) the end product that was produced from any job would defacto have to help those in the same or lower class of the worker, benefiting everyone.

In other words, what's better for the world, yet another rich man's yacht, or cheaper, better tasting loaf of bread that a poor person can buy and eat?

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