What it's like to live in Monaco
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Many if not most of the wealthy residents who can afford the insane real estate prices also own multiple properties worldwide (London, NYC, Lugano, Singapore, etc.), and shuttle between them all year round, so they aren't even there permanently. Monaco is only a fiscal residence for many of them.
Beyond the surface-level glitz, e.g. the Formula 1 and the fancy cars parked in front of the Casino, what's interesting is that the little old unassuming lady in sweatpants walking her dog in the morning may actually be a multi-billionaire, and you wouldn't be able to tell. Lot of old money that likes to keep to itself, as opposed to nouveaux riches who like to flaunt.
The article does make it clear that Monegasques have significant state support for housing but that's on the assumption they aren't millionaires. The mobile workforce from outside is presumably given one of two "perks" -lower taxation outcomes (although I suspect there is some bilateral tax treaty) for at least income tax, and higher pay than they'd get working in their domicile.
I'm trying to steer clear of approval or disapproval writing this. I can't imagine making either of the two choices: to be a tax exile living there but with no statehood, or to be a mobile worker working there but having to return to an EU economy every night. The third option, being Monegasque is not open to me any more than Maltese citizenship, which is also much sought, and hard to get although not as hard as this one.
A surprising number of british working class people have Maltese citizenship, similarly Gibraltarian: thats what the british Navy does for you. I wonder if in millionaires row their advice for non-dom includes "marry a maltese"
Re: the mobile workforce, there's a tax treaty between Monaco and France (which was imposed by the latter after a total blockade of the former in the 1960s) by which French citizens working in Monaco still have to pay income tax in France, even if they are Monaco residents. It's the only case of "global taxation" of French expatriates in the world. There are, therefore, no incentives for them to live in Monaco. People who set up fiscal residence in Monaco to avoid taxes are, therefore, not French.
Ha, it's amazing how fast and efficient the French government can be at blocking these legal loopholes so that the handful of workers working in Monaco couldn't avoid paying French taxes anymore, when many publicly listed French corporations like Airbus, ST Microelectronics, Balenciaga, etc. have their financial residence in the Netherlands depriving the French state of billions in taxes for decades and nobody bats an eye, but if a few ordinary people do it then there's hell to pay.
It's almost as if there's an agenda for a double standard here, where the system is rigged against the peasantry and for the benefit of wealthy elites. Maybe those guillotines have been gathering dust for too long now.
I've always wondered how that worked, because in Switzerland you are taxed based on the area you live, not the location of the company you work for.
No, that is exactly how it works if you are not resident in Switzerland. Quite logical IMHO. How else would you do it :)
are you sure it's based on where you live and not where your finances live ? ('residance fiscale')
here a website that tells you where you have to file taxes depdending on where your work in Switzerland: [guides/fiscalite-frontaliers](https://www.allo-declaration.com/guides/fiscalite-frontalier...)
This market is definitely ripe for disruption.
Well, even if the current governments had the same policies as 60's France, they probably couldn't act because the Netherlands are in the EU and there are already laws to govern these things, that are not easily changed because they involve 27 countries.
Monaco on the other hand is just one little non-EU country that is nominally independent but in reality utterly dependent on France (and indeed, only independent as long as France tolerates it). So it's much easier to pressure.
French were/are not some nice baguette eating and coffee sipping polite 'bonjour monsieur' artists that visiting Paris as tourist may make you believe, rather colonialists to the core (at least people in government with actual power).
And yes French treatment of even modestly wealthy is straight out of communist guidebook - vilify, tax to hell, make up laws that even break european treaties but ignore european courts rulings on those, blame on rich all mismanagement of vast (not only social) state wealth on population deemed lazy even by french citizens themselves (I have tons of french colleagues and none hired french workers when doing some home reconstruction and they were clear why).
There are various protections in Monaco for local populations, companies have quotas on minimum mandatory hires from local population, so sometimes clueless people are hired to just sit on chair to get the numbers going, earning massive salaries (for France and western Europe at least). But its still well worth for the companies (mostly banks), some scenes are pretty surreal - 90+ senile guy barely coherent coming to the bank branch, accompanied by few 20-something models, taking literally full shopping bag worth of cash and heading right back to casino or yacht for next party. Definitely old rich money's place, overranked in my opinion but its mainly tax haven so thats not relevant.
Based on your comment I'd say you're working in the banking sector in Geneva. Just be aware that your French colleagues are extremely biased.
Would you mind saying which EU country that is?
well, I think there's also a rather small number of French worker available in the construction sector anyway...
Come on, it’s Monaco we are talking about. It’s a small island visible from the cost of France, dependents on it for absolutely everything - food, energy, water, transport, defence - and surviving as a tax haven for the ultra wealthy. It’s not colonialism. The fact that it remains independent to this day is an insult to tax paying French citizen.
It wouldn’t even be a colony. It’s literally part of the land. It’s been going around being more or less independent since 1400 and was part of France a mere 200 years ago. And to be fair 90% of what was independent willingly joined France years ago. What remains is an insignificant piece of rock which doesn’t really have its own culture and is only allowed to stay this way because French residents pay taxes in France and the foreigners who use it as tax haven are powerful. It’s nearly as shameful as the Virgin British Islands.
Jesus dude, you jumped from “tax policy is unfair” to “let’s chop off some heads”.
That’s got to be be against HN rules.
Monaco is so small and so similar to neighbouring France so it does not make much difference versus having to commute to another neighbouring town. It just so happens that this neighbouring town is also another country.
Doesn't Malta have a "golden passport" programme of citizenship through investment, where you can get a passport by investing less than $1,000,000 and moving to Malta for three years, virtually no questions asked? [0]
This contrasts strongly with Monaco where even the billionaire residents find it extremely tough to get citizenship.
[0] https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/eu-golden-visas/malta-golde...
Not at all. This program is now extremely difficult and far from "no questions asked".
In Canada I'm not aware of any rich people small towns (unless you consider Vancouver, West Vancouver, or Toronto, or the Shaunhessy neighbourhood of Vancouver), but there is the Muskoka area of Ontario where Kevin O'Leary's wife recently smashed her boat into and killed someone
why doesn't she hire a dog walker then?
/s
Far nastier stuff than some nerd striking it rich by making a fun app.
I suppose you could call Amazon a fun app.
You should google the Pittsburgh steel strikes and Henry Frick.
You think someone who has to shoot their workers is more ethical?
It’s genuinely hilarious to see how poor HN’s grasp of history is.
You mean the guy who survived an assassination attempt by labor activists, who were running a totally illegal blockade of his business? And it’s not even like the laws have changed about it since then, their blockade strike would be totally illegal today as well.
Let me know if it's still legal to have your workers work with highly dangerous machinery for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week (for wages that would be comparable to federal minimum wage today ~ although it's hard to find a good inflation calculator that tracks back to the 1880s).
I'm sure that's totally comparable to the plight that Google/FB/Amzn employees have to put up with.
Obviously I admire what he did with the Gospel of Wealth & his philanthropy, but that doesn't excuse his horrible treatment of workers.
Honestly, it's just so astonishing that you can even argue in support of Henry Frick.
You should read up about the Johnstown FLood and the failure of the South Fork Dam.
I feel like the HN crowd just skims the wikipedia bio and uses that to craft a hilariously terrible argument.
I am not so much arguing in support of Frick but rather against a completely dishonest narrative where he is villainized for “shooting workers”, while completely omitting the details as to what events led to that situation.
But looking over the fact that the advertising industry is fundamentally about the exploitation of cognitive biases in order to convince folks to buy things that more often than that they do not need just betrays a certain naïveté of what's going on out there.
I could go on.
1. “New rich” is flashy and gaudy and that’s not perceived as a positive. Flaunting wealth is seen as trying to show off for the admiration/approval/jealousy of the less rich. Being old rich is to be above it, and so comfortable with money you don’t need to show it off.
2. “Old Rich” is a separate world, it’s like royalty, no amount of success today makes you old rich yesterday. Since having the right connections is an important factor in success, it’s another way to close doors for everyone but your kids.
3. I think there’s a certain “aesthetic” that old-money is associated with (enjoyed by the not rich). A quasi-royal preppy guilded sort of image, and people seem to like that.
Thanks. I needed something to induce vomit.
I'm thinking of some Hiphop stars.
Over the top behaviour, perhaps, but I'll always respect that more than the old rich dripping in the unearned benefits of their generational wealth, connections and status worship. But I'm not bitter.
I guess what I'm getting at is that I'm curious as to how the Old Rich feel towards these non-New-Rich-but-newly-rich types. Are they still considered part of the New Rich riff-raff even if they do happen to be more sensible with their money? Or are they seen as honorary Old Rich out of respect? Or something else?
Hopefully some Old Rich HN commenter (we know you're there!) can give me some insight.
None of this crap really matters. There's plenty of old money types who spend on flamboyant crap and plenty of new money types who don't and trying to generalize based on how many generations they've had money is beyond a fool's errand.
I am not saying it’s an important distinction to me.
Such as? 4 dinner forks?
It is not about what you do have and what you do, but rather what you don’t do that distinguishes.
To say someone has the wrong 'qualities of tastes, behaviors or values' is arrogance. Everybody's culture is handed down, that's another weasel-phrase that just disguises bigotry.
But anyway ...
As a result of proximity over time, the 'old rich' have developed unique cultural habits that are easily recognized as different to 'new rich'. Every group does this. Sure, there is good and bad to it, but it's a natural and expected outcome.
1. old money is afraid to spend frivolously because (a) they are embarrassed because they know they didn't earn it themselves and (b) they don't believe they could make it on their own if they had to. Also, old money shamelessly flaunts their wealth. Hospital naming rights, charity events, art collections, etc.
2. because old money is the opposite of meritocratic (inheritance based) they have to come up with all kinds of gatekeeping strategies to maximize the advantage of their social position.
3. social rules that keep the old monied themselves in check, to slow down the inevitable reversion to the mean.
I think charity type stuff is seen a bit different than flashy ridiculously expensive cars and such. It's a way that might be seen as showing off but is not perceived as badly and so less likely to get you noticed in a less desirable way. Similarly those art collections unless lent/donated don't leave the estate and are hardly flashy
And the art world is small. People know who the collectors are.
I don’t bootlick billionaires and I generally consider wealth inequality a major societal failure, but I can recognize that someone who built immense wealth usually worked hard (and got very lucky!), and potentially possessed some entrepreneurial skill I lack. I also admire musicians because I have no musical ability, and I admire athletes because I have no athletic ability.
The folks that do nothing but own land and raise your rent every year are oh so classy, and the folks that actually work invent things that improve your life like idk wifi are oh so gauche.
Both are equally laughable. We shouldn’t put others in pedestals because of their wealth, full stop.
Middle class people have correctly concluded that hustling is not a virtue, and that hustling more is a fool's errand.
I personally don't aspire to work any harder than I already do, and given the choice, would strongly prefer to inherit my fortune over "earning" it.
Sheesh, those guys got skinned and mounted as trophies over a century ago.
Look up Pareto foxes and lions.
New rich on the other hand feel the need to display the fact that "they've made it", talking about money is important to them.
So there's a certain incompatibility between old and new rich, where old rich feel bothered by the talk about money.
Note. By rich here I am talking upwards of 100MM although it would appear B would soon be replacing M as the place to be money-wise in terms of wealth recognition.
When you’re newly rich, this ability is yet unproven…
Does this old lady have no security detail at all? Are they as prone as us to street-mugging?
Do people like usual unicorn CEOs, I know some who have street-facing houses or houses without a big fence (they don’t live in gated communities), have armed guys to protect against intruders? Do they walk their dog at night? let their kids walk to school in the morning? Do they have security detail for all this, or are they just like us, crossing their fingers that crime be low? Being CEOs with large interests at stake, they surely receive targeted blackmailing in large quantity, don’t they? Even as billionaires, do they simply take the first Uber from their airport to a downtown hotel? Do they simply assume airport-uber-hotel facilities are naturally safe, even considering how much interest they concentrate on their person?
In countries known for their lawlessness, perhaps Brazil for example, or Papua New Guinea, HNW people do indeed have security details and live in pretty fortified areas (whole districts, typically, not just houses). A visiting CEO or whoever, depending on how well-known they are and how publicly knowable their visit is likely to be, might well organise such protection when they visit. Countries like this, all countries actually, have companies specialising in exactly that.
But I think in countries where there is a credible claim to rule of law, attacks on the actual person are pretty rare. Kidnapping as a general crime is all but extinct in most of the developed world, and you'd have to kidnap someone to make any actual money - it's not like they have a billion dollars in cash on their person. You'd have to kidnap for ransom (or I suppose crypto keys these days?) which is just extraordinarily risky and unlikely to succeed in the modern, developed world.
As to the "uber from the airport" question, anyone above a certain net worth has at least one assistant who organises their calendar and travel (and their whole lives, actually) and they will have arranged transport to/from airports in advance.
The other thing that makes me think it was him is that Bloomberg looked like they had setup an outside broadcast in one of the squares there as well.
This isn't a problem in a lot of areas. Believe it or not, some places are fairly safe. If you live in a safer area, why would you bother paying for security, especially if no one realizes that you might be worth getting mugged?
I personally know a Monaco national. Typical middle-class lifestyle, maybe he secretly has a fortune be he doesn't look like it. Interestingly, despite living effectively in France, he is not French, he is not even a EU citizen, it means that when he went to study in France, he had to do more paperwork than someone from, say, Germany.
And BTW, while I didn't live in Monaco, I went there a few times (2h drive from where I live) and it definitely feels the way you describe it.
Sounds like Las Vegas. I don't mean to say that Vegas residents are prohibited from gambling; they aren't. There certainly are gamblers among them, both natives[1] and those who moved specifically there to gamble. But to the vast majority of Las Vegas residents the casinos are a) employers and b) a place to take out-of-town guests to for an inexpensive meal.
[1] By which I mean "regular people". Newcomers greatly outnumber those actually native to the city.
I have the luck of being friends with one of the precious few citizens of Monaco, who chose to leave in BC. There are fun trivia about citizenship in such a small city-nation, especially abroad. First of which is that the Monegasque consul to Canada is not Monegasque himself, and has very, very few citizens to tend to (by cheer luck it turns out I also know that person's son! ). When my friend needed to renew his passport, he just called the consul, who told him "oh, I need to figure out how to get you one", which process was effectively more or less having my friend to drop an email to the person in Monaco who prints passports. Same thing when he got kids.
We went to the US together once, and had to get through immigration because as a Monegasque he can't get dual citizenship. The immigration agent kept us longer, asking all sorts of questions because that was the first time he saw a passport.
Interestingly his kids can have both citizenships, his wife could technically acquire it but it would be subject to remaining married with him and thus she would be allowed to keep her citizenship in case they would ever divorce.
He can get a French id card and a French passport and work in France without a visa, but can't vote in the French presidential elections.
.... I could move to a small town. I've always lived in a large metropolis and, to be frank, I'm tired of it. I can't move to Monaco, or make the global population decrease by 90%, but I could move to a smaller community in my state. I think this is what I need to start building more relationships with other people.
Any society can leave you under the boot of some person (or impersonal system).
Don’t wish for universal non anonymity unless you really know what it’s like, especially if you’re not willing to join the local moral majority.
Is actually people being nice (for the most part) in my experience. The failure modes you describe are a possibility, but far from a certainty.
People generally community and a sense of belonging, and I would wager are typically happier with it than without.
The kind of toxicity you find in small communities is just different than big ones.
If you deviate from that in some small way, it gets a lot harder. That includes being from the wrong class, or religion, or ethnicity or political leaning.
Or just being suspected of being something you're not. Some people in Salem in the 1600s learned the hard way what happens when these wonderful small town people aren't so nice...
Even though there's truth in all of that (cities are plagued by these problems) it's an overly pessimistic take and is not equally applicable in all cases.
So too with your description of small towns.
I don't see how that's true. If you have a French ID card, you are a french citizen, and de facto you can vote.
Are you sure of that (i.e. do you have sources?) The French Senate page says the opposite: http://www.senat.fr/questions/base/2018/qSEQ180906725.html
Basically, it is siad that you have to have the French nationality in order to get the identity card. The identity card states "Nationalité Française" on the very top.
That means that he is an honorary consul. That's how countries handle diplomatic duties in less-important places; a local person (who might be a current or former citizen of the country he represents, or a local citizen who has done business or studied in the other country) is paid a stipend to handle routine duties and can put "honorary consul of _____" on his résumé.
As others have mentioned, these "ultra rich flashy billionaires" are not the typical Monaco resident. These people are heavily looked down upon if they're just out to attract attention, and usually they're driven out of the principality once the money tap goes dry.
There is a lot of money in the city, a lot of family offices, banks and so on. People are pretty quiet and keep to themselves. Go to Cap d'Ail or Cap Martin for a walk and you'll see the same Monaco 4-character plate cars, but with the actual residents who just want to live their lives without the hassle of trying to look cool at Buddha Bar every night.
And the main point, as has been mentioned many times: people who get the residency card in Monaco are unlikely to spend much time there, beyond the mandatory 6 months + 1 day. Some pay people to run their taps and leave lights on, faking utilities usage as a proxy for physically being there. Others are in either at a nice canton in Switzerland or partying in NYC.
I crossed it recently on my worn out but functional bicycle, to go from where I had to be in France to a cute touristy village in Italy (it was a lovely ~80km ride)
I saw a shinny Ferrari being pulled over as I entered Monaco. (he probably thought he was some f1 driver in the tunnel) On the other end of the small country, a cop saluted me when I asked directions, then blocked the road to let me cross safely.
Only in Monaco.
(I also happened to have asked directions to a French cop earlier, and he wasn't as classy. And riding a bike in the surrounding area in France is very dangerous, because of angry car drivers) I plan to come back to visit the museums, and to go to the stadium.
Quite a few reasons they do this, but the police prefers cyclists so worked out for you.
US is driving this currently at corporate level, which is the more important, but would be good to see on personal rates too. I think this is one of the most important global trade issues today, and it gets very little attention.
If only selfishly, as we see the a continuing race to the bottom on corporate tax rates. Also that they tend to be well below personal rates these days plus this gap widening. Increasingly this tax burden needs to be picked up from citizens. I suspect this is a significant variable of the degrading working/middle class lifestyle.
Would love to see more countries come together on this issue. Most of the time its significantly in the wests interest to make this happen, so shows that the corporate lobby has so much power here in that it doesn't. And generally its important for global trade to compete on a level playing field or we start to break the system and interest in it.
I ask because taxes are the price you pay for (insert your country's services here).
All these services can be provided by businesses, and I can pay for them on a per-need basis.
Maybe I should have called it a price instead of the price.
"The Machinery of Freedom"[0] is a book describing how a lot of these could work. I'm not yet sold that they would, but I'm not outright discarding the ideas.
[0]: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Machinery-Freedom-Guide-Radical-Cap...
What I haven’t heard however are a couple of good examples (in a particular society) that are viable and would make a material positive dent, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear some good ideas, especially in jurisdictions where a govt does a lot.
I feel like most people, including you, have absolutely no idea of how their taxes are spent. Unless you live in an absolute corrupt shit hole you're dead wrong
> Also that they tend to be well below personal rates these days plus this gap widening. Increasingly this tax burden needs to be picked up from citizens. I suspect this is a significant variable of the degrading working/middle class lifestyle.
I think that we should radically raise corporate tax rate on profits, and provide marginally zero tax on any income (up to a large limit, eg $500k) that isn’t capital gains. This would shift the focus of corporations from increasing profits and stock price and instead put the focus on paying employees more. It was also shift corporate focus less on stock price rises and more on dividend increases (capital gains vs income).
These two things seem like they’d provide a much more stable environment for workers. Paying employees more becomes the new tax write off. Employees benefit because they don’t worry about taxes and get paid more, and it reduced the economic benefit of keeping the money in the company instead.
Won't the corporations just make up for it by paying all the profits to their executives?
Corporate income taxes only bring in ~5% of the US Federal budget, all the individual taxes have always been more substantial:
https://taxfoundation.org/how-has-federal-revenue-changed-ov...
If country can do with less money it might attract more businesses. This pushes others to improve their operations too. Global tax minimums remove or soften this incentive which is a bad thing. Most governments are not efficient already and this will not help.
Small countries can afford to be tax havens because even getting 1% of a multibillion company covers their needs well enough. Meanwhile, the country housing the thousands of workers, damaging roads, using infrastructure, healthcare, etc, get nothing. Global tax minimums are the only way we have a society that keeps functioning.
This isn't what is at play in the case of tax havens.
It doesn't take a genius to see the problem either, look at companies like airbnb who barely pay any tax in countries they operate in because technically they just have a "customer service office" in said country while the money is moved to Luxembourg, Ireland, &c.
> therefore we need global tax minimum agreements
how does this follow? this isnt reddit or 4chan; your particular philosophy isnt assumed to be truth.
when i pay tax personally i am getting scammed (robbed). i dont work for a corpo like 99% of the users here that creates deliberately broken products nor do i get any funding from the government to spend on OLED screens while pretending its to boost the economy
Why does Singapore have better infrastructure and governance than your country? With no natural resources and no land.
You cannot buy your way out of bad governance. If you want a better "lifestyle", elect a better government, the tax rate paid by people in foreign countries has nothing to do with it.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement
Also FYI most companies in Singapore pay 17% tax, not zero.
And you ask why singapore has good infrastructure, well ~$70k per capita GDP helps these things.
Monaco, Spa, Suzuka, and Monza are some of the best and most iconic tracks in the world.
Believe it or not, a modern Formula 1 car has basically the same footprint as a Chevrolet Tahoe
A 2022 Formula 1 car was 5.5 meters, and 2.0 meters in width. Or 11.00 m². By comparison, a 2023 Chevrolet Tahoe is 5.35m in length, and 2.06m in width. Or 11.02 m².
Sure, they only weigh 800kg (1760lbs), but we're basically racing full-size body-on-frame SUVs at this point. I guess we can be glad they're not yet the size of a Suburban, but yikes.
Michael Schumacher's 1995 Benetton-Renault B195 was 4350mm x 1990mm, or 8.66m².
Ayrton Senna's 1988 McLaren-Honda MP4/4 was 4394mm x 2134mm, or 9.37m².
Niki Lauda's 1977 Ferrari 312T was 4143mm x 2030mm, or 8.41m²
Jim Clark's 1965 Lotus-Climax 33 was 3604mm x 1650mm, or 5.95m².
Spa and Suzuka are great tracks. Monaco and Monza are horrible tracks. The only reason they don't remove Monaco is that it has this air of glitter.
Winners were made by the best-qualifying racer’s team simply being ill prepared to service their car. Other factors are accidents and weather conditions that could possibly destroy what would otherwise be a perfect strategy.
Personally, I feel no race in Monaco was boring until you can actually say nothing really interesting happened in hindsight. But the race itself always has me at the edge of my seat no matter if there’s a chance to have excited talks around the water cooler on Monday.
Cars used to be 1.8m wide before they became 2.0m wide. I'd prefer smaller to see the technical brilliance work with less.
Really hard thing to do without making the cars less safe as the modern crash structures are one do the main reasons for the size.
The plan is also to remove MGU-h (waste engine heat to electricity) and add active aero while still keeping the cars roughly as fast as current regulation ones.
Living, for most, would include things like grocery shopping, getting around, transport, activities etc but this article does not mention any of that.
Discussing housing, citizenship, government, all seems quite relevant to living. The “vibe” and what to expect as the culture seems quite relevant.
Also, USA salaries tend on the bigger side, and USA food is also cheaper do to loads of subsidies and bad regulation(so, sugary, worse quality checks, but cheaper), corporation centralisation (EU is made of different countries which used to mean different food corps as well), so the grocery experience is not as relevant.
I was somehow disappointing, however. It turns out a Walmart is a supermarket, like in any other place. So it's indeed not news worthy.
I was surprised how family friendly the whole Principality felt once you are in residential neighborhoods outside the whole casino area, plenty of 'average' moms with strollers, children's parks etc.
If you are in good condition you can basically traverse the whole place by walking, very walk-able despite some very busy roads. We were traveling along the French coast but we just parked the car in a shopping mall park and traveled around the Principality by bus and walking. Public transit covers the whole Principality with bus lines, immaculate and very regular. One thing I did notice is that despite very good public transit it doesn't seem to be heavily used but I also didn't witness 'rush hour' from people traveling from France.
Like it's been mentioned a couple of times the whole place is video surveilled and there are Police men in pretty much every busy spot, plus all entry/exits into the principality, so overall it feels a bit like Singapore in the sense of being a heavy on rule-of-law fortress.
The negative aspects I recall:
- The amount of air pollution in some of the roads but this was summer time with little wind so that might play into it.
- Architecture wise apart from the old town parts and the palace/castle hill, looks like they went through heavy construction in the 80's and 90's so you see lots of concrete forest ugliness throughout the Principality.
Of course there are fancy expensive ones in the most premium areas, but you can find French prices around easily.
Public transport (buses) is cheap, and currently they're experimenting with making it free.
To get to France or Italy, you can use a French train (SNCF) which goes every 30-60 minutes most of the time.
But the other side is F! notable people who become tax residents. Lewis Hamilton, Toto Wolff, Daniel Ricciardo, Max Verstappen and probably many others. They're Monaco residents for the zero income tax. As an aside, how long are we, as a society, going to tolerate people being able to pay no tax just by having a certain address?
But F1 has always had its fair share of what are known as "pay drivers". These are drivers who only really have a seat because their family owns a team or spends a significant amount or is a title sponsor. Lance Stroll is an example of this on the current grid.
And then there's Charles LeClerc. He's a driver for Ferrari and a Monaco resident but what makes him interesting is that he's a native Monagasque.
Wealth is (thankfully) mostly ephemeral, typically only lasting 3 or so generations. Cornelius Vanderbilt made a fortune in the railroads in 19th century America. Anderson Cooper is a Vanderbilt. As his mother (Gloria Vanderbilt) told him: "there is no trust fund". The Astor name and fortune ended when the last heir died on the Titatnic. The Rockefeller family is still rich but nothing compared to their Standard Oil forebear namesake. The early Roman Republic had ~45 Patrician families. By Julius Caesar's time this had dwindled to ~15.
So I'm always interested in when someone of incredible privilege like Charles Leclerc also somehow becomes extremely driven and talented (which he is). I feel like it's hard to avoid the trap of having no unmet needs tends to make one completely useless.
European old money held through long standing urban land deads is incomparable to wealth made from industrialization.
It is quite unique. The entire riviera’s economy is focused on tourism, but Monaco takes that to the next level : it is a city designed to attract the ridiculously rich and extract as much money from them as possible while they are there through a carefully maintained wealth signaling culture.
My go-to example is this : a couple of years back I visited the region with some friends and took them to Monaco one day. Obligatory visit to the Casino, around which two things had changed :
- the park in front of the casino had been redesigned. You know how airports force you to go through the duty free, or IKEA has you walk around the entire store to find the exit ? Well that’s what they did with that park, the only way to the casino is through the (luxury brands) shops - in front of the casino itself, there was a new statue with a plaque. The plaque states « artist : anish kapoor. Donated to the principality of Monaco by miss so and so »
Nothing says « wealth signaling » like donating an anish kapoor to Monaco.
When I say that culture is carefully maintained: the Monaco police will turn you down at the city entrance if you’re driving a beater. They have asked me to take a detour rather than drive my crappy moped in front of the casino. I general, Monaco only exposes you to luxury and incentivized you to show off by burning money.
The default tip to service staff is the highest denomination bill. When the currency changed, it went from the highest francs bill to the highest euros bill - easy conversion.
I could go on and on about how ridiculous this all is, the permanent yacht completion in the port, the luxury sports cars stuck in a permanent traffic jam (locals drive mopeds), the dozens of « out of touch oligarch » stories, the looks of disgust and disbelief I’d get for wearing regular clothes…
In the flip side, Monaco treats their workers well. I have worked a few summer jobs well and everyone I know in the area works is has worked in Monaco. The minimum wage is higher, low income jobs get more after tax than before (there is a « prince’s bonus »). You will at least double your income from tips if you work in the service industry.
Like the article says, The country has been good with its population, allowing them to benefit from living in a playground for the rich rather than displacing them. As a result the royal family is well liked, and it’s not uncommon to meet the prince at places where the workers hang out.
If you think Donald trump has good taste in interior design, love the smell of money and tax evasion or just have a lot of money you’d like to get rid of, visit Monaco !
More seriously, I’d recommend paying it a visit if you find yourself in the vicinity. It is a unique place that will be of interest to curious folks.
So, is the default tip 500 (highest available) or 200 (highest you will ordinarily be given in a bank) or 100 (highest most people usually have on hand)?
You’re joking about the briefcases, but a friend of mine had a group of bodyguards swarm the $LUXURY_SPORTS_CAR dealership he was working at, followed by the customer who bought a car cash - as in « literal cash from a suitcase »
I’ve long imagined someone walking in, handing over $300K or whatever in cash, and driving it out the secret car exit on the third floor.
The mall downtown has Rolls Royce, I assume you can drive that right down the escalator if you want.
Because we're not barbarians, we may tolerate that they don't eat croissants for breakfast.
Now if you are complaining about tax evasion, that’s something about your country policy. What Monaco does as tax policy only matters if you have shitty treaties. France has fixed some loopholes there, tou country should do the same, instead of war.
Monaco IS the loophole, and is hardly independent.
It's also surprising that this place was allowed to be. The first article of the French constitution says France is indivisible, and that every citizen should be equal to law without difference from 'origin'
In the meantime, they create this artificial 'country' for the über-wealthy, where they can do whatever they want in casinos, get rid of the poor at night with multi-million euro flats, have a bespoke overly funded police department, while evading taxes.
So yeah, it provides benefits. But it's a proof that equality has limits.
Inflation will do that.
Millionaires and billionaires take note of this sort of thing, and while it may not be an overnight exodus, it certainly does change things. Like most finance text books begin with: "money goes where it is treated best".
> Neutral Switzerland has mirrored nearly all the sanctions that the European Union imposed on Russia over its military intervention in Ukraine.
Other countries located further East or in the South have decided not to mirror EU's or the West's (more generally) sanctions on Russia, they effectively remained neutral to this conflict. Switzerland has not done that.
On a more general note, Switzerland's "neutrality" is only a marketing thing at this point, the fate of Wegelin & Co [2] and the subsequent changes in how the Swiss banks handle some of their clients (who happen to hold US citizenship) can attest to that. The "most" neutral countries right now most probably can be found in the Gulf, the UAE (and Dubai) first among them. That's why the recent prisoner exchange involving Viktor Bout and that WNBA player took place in there, and not in Geneva or Zurich.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-switzerland...
[2] https://www.france24.com/en/20130104-oldest-swiss-bank-wegel...
I think this predates the Ukraine - Russian conflicts. Swiss banks have been giving client names when asked to do so by foreign judges. Much harder to get info from banks in Hong Kong or Dubai.
90 Euros per square meter per month - for 100 m^2 (small) that's 9000 Euros/month
70,000 Euros per m^2 to buy - 7 million Euros for a small 100 m^2 condo
It sounds like a person with a net worth of 1 million Euros would be forever unable to buy anything, and spending a small fortune for rent.
Sounds off...
Yeah no. The world is getting safer and hasn't become "so dangerous", especially not "nowadays".
Indeed, this is quite common in south of France. I'd suspect that Monaco has much higher police presence.
There are quite a lot of them too around Nice so i'd be curious to know why they don't go there.
When I watch those programs which celebrate the 'glamour' and 'lifestyle' of these people, all I wish for is a small suitcase nuke that could improve the world overnight.
Lets not forget gold diggers, influencers, and poor people commuting in from France/Italy every day to all the boring work. Sounds like a pretty cool place!
Unlike many ‘news articles’ emanating from the likes of CNN, this one is attributed to a named person. What qualifications does this person have and what research was undertaken to write a credible article on life in Monaco? My conclusion is that it is click-bait junk. Why was this article deemed important or interesting or relevant to the HN community?
I personally clicked because Monaco = F1 in my brain, I am curious about the town. Primarily I am interested in tech news but occasional side tracks of interesting things are welcome.