Laureen Sánchez & Jeff Bezos saucy picture! Your thoughts!

[Andy768]

On 11/18/2023 at 10:54 AM, marylander1940 said:

OP note: they look great, they love each other and many other folks have taken and posted online similar pictures!

What's the big deal about this saucy picture and why so many people want to unsee it? 

Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos trolled over 'uncomfortable' Vogue...

PAGESIX.COM

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"This is the #1 most cringe post I have ever seen. Unfollowing," an Instagram user commented under a Western-themed photo of Sánchez and Bezos.

 

I'm late to the game here, but I don't get what's so "saucy" about the photo. Maybe I'm desensitized by seeing people far more scantily clad and suggestive in photos on social media and in porn, but this seems... tame? I don't think there's even anything distasteful about it - they look cute!

As for the extravagant nuptials, hey, if that's what floats their boat, then why not? They can certainly afford it.

[+ Italiano]

7 hours ago, Andy768 said:

 

As for the extravagant nuptials, hey, if that's what floats their boat, then why not? They can certainly afford it.

Of course, there is no doubt, and as someone else said, if their are billionaires they have the right to spend money as they please.

But still, there should be a common sense in life. I personally think that spending $50M (FIFTY!) for a wedding when so many people don't have food on their plate is "slightly" too much.

[marylander1940]

11 minutes ago, Italiano said:

Of course, there is no doubt, and as someone else said, if their are billionaires they have the right to spend money as they please.

But still, there should be a common sense in life. I personally think that spending $50M (FIFTY!) for a wedding when so many people don't have food on their plate is "slightly" too much.

And in a city that is sinking....

7 hours ago, Andy768 said:

I'm late to the game here, but I don't get what's so "saucy" about the photo. Maybe I'm desensitized by seeing people far more scantily clad and suggestive in photos on social media and in porn, but this seems... tame? I don't think there's even anything distasteful about it - they look cute!

As for the extravagant nuptials, hey, if that's what floats their boat, then why not? They can certainly afford it.

Yes you are desensitized!

I'm sure many people in Southern California will consider that picture classy but in the East Coast we tend to be more old fashioned.

[+ sniper]

11 hours ago, marylander1940 said:

I will never understand how lips like this became a thing. 

[+ Pensant]

The contrast between billionaire arrivistes and old money understatement couldn’t be starker.

[BSR]

1 hour ago, Pensant said:

The contrast between billionaire arrivistes and old money understatement couldn’t be starker.

As a financial advisor once told me, old money has money because they don’t spend it.  The common belief is that old money has more restraint, more class, thus no need to flash their wealth.  The other side of the coin is that old money isn’t necessarily classier or more dignified, they’re just cheap bastards who know that if they did blow eye-popping sums on designer wardrobes, flashy cars, or lavish weddings, they’d have to go out there and earn a living.  Tut, tut! can’t have that!

Edited July 1 by BSR
Typo

[Luv2play]

I think old money has had more time to reflect  on the history of mankind and what happens in social revolutions when the oppressors are overthrown. 

[marylander1940]

3 hours ago, BSR said:

As a financial advisor once told me, old money has money because they don’t spend it.  The common belief is that old money has more restraint, more class, thus no need to flash their wealth.  The other side of the coin is that old money isn’t necessarily classier or more dignified, they’re just cheap bastards who know that if they did blow eye-popping sums on designer wardrobes, flashy cars, or lavish weddings, they’d have to go out there and earn a living.  Tut, tut! can’t have that!

I am detecting some social resentment.

Old money folks simply live within their means, something we all should do!

[Luv2play]

Just now, marylander1940 said:

I am detecting some social resentment.

Old money folks simply live within their means, something we all should do!

Bezos has so much money he is also living within his means. 

[marylander1940]

12 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

Bezos has so much money he is also living within his means. 

he could also save Venice!

 

[BSR]

14 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

Bezos has so much money he is also living within his means. 

If you go by the most conservative estimate of Bezos’s net worth ($220 billion, others say as high as $240 billion), the $50 million wedding cost him 0.02% of his net worth.  Contrast that with a couple who puts a huge chunk of their savings to pay for their wedding or whose middle-class parents foot the bill.

That $50 million is a drop in the bucket to Bezos.  If he had a good time, then good for him.  Again, if he can’t enjoy his money, why should he bother working?

[CuriousByNature]

2 hours ago, BSR said:

If you go by the most conservative estimate of Bezos’s net worth ($220 billion, others say as high as $240 billion), the $50 million wedding cost him 0.02% of his net worth.  Contrast that with a couple who puts a huge chunk of their savings to pay for their wedding or whose middle-class parents foot the bill.

That $50 million is a drop in the bucket to Bezos.  If he had a good time, then good for him.  Again, if he can’t enjoy his money, why should he bother working?

His 'splurge' could have been used to house hundreds of people, but relative to his net worth, it was proportionately the same as someone with $100,000 spending $20 on a wedding.  It just goes to show how vast the reality gap is between the uber wealthy and most of society.

[BSR]

41 minutes ago, CuriousByNature said:

His 'splurge' could have been used to house hundreds of people, but relative to his net worth, it was proportionately the same as someone with $100,000 spending $20 on a wedding.  It just goes to show how vast the reality gap is between the uber wealthy and most of society.

How much of our own spending can be criticized in the same vein?  What I spent on escorts in the Philippines could have bought food for hundreds of hungry Filipinos.  If anyone on this board criticized my escort splurge, I’d have a few choice words for that person.

Leave Jeff Bezos alone.  If all the attention he apparently seeks bothers you, ignore him.  But just as I — and you and everyone else — have the right to spend our hard-earned money however we please, free of criticism, Jeff Bezos and the billionaire class do too.

[mike carey]

4 hours ago, Luv2play said:

I think old money has had more time to reflect  on the history of mankind and what happens in social revolutions when the oppressors are overthrown. 

In other words, old money knows to keep its head down for fear of losing it.

I heard a usually conservative commentator (and I'm not saying that he was deviating from his conservatism), who said it's no surprise that socialism emerges in times when plutocracy starts to intrude on the sense of well-being of the rest of societ,. He was reflecting on the gilded age in the US 130 years ago and its resonances with more recent trends.

New wealth sometimes has a caricature of what 'classy' looks like and associates it with ostentatious display, and again for some, being comfortable is not enough, they want the world to know 'who they are'. (Consider how you feel if you hear someone say, 'Do you know who I am?' to that police officer?)

In some senses, whether Bezos can afford this wedding (he can) and what percentage of his wealth it is, is beside the point. People at large take a dim view of conspicuous consumption when they see it as clearly unnecessary, and too far beyond what they can hope to attain (more would resent use of a private jet than flying commercial first class). More so when they see it as nouveau riche tackiness.

Old money may or may not know for whom the bell tolls, but is well aware for whom the tumbrils may roll.

[Luv2play]

In our own lifetime, who can forget when the Soviet Union collapsed and the vassal states did likewise. In Romania the dictator Nicolai Caucescieu (sp?) and his wife Elena, who had milked the state for all it was worth, were lined up against a wall and shot. She in her mink coat. Her last words were “Nicolai, they’re going to shoot us.”

[mike carey]

Douglas Adams (and others before him) had it right when he spoke about those who would be 'First up against the wall when the revolution comes'.

[Lotus-eater]

14 hours ago, Italiano said:

But still, there should be a common sense in life. I personally think that spending $50M (FIFTY!) for a wedding when so many people don't have food on their plate is "slightly" too much.

A common argument made for a wealth tax is that the rich have a lower propensity to consume their stored wealth, which means that they end up with a relatively low income tax liability. Spending $50 million means paying a lot more income and other taxes. So the crowd afflicted with envy really ought to be happy.

[Andy768]

23 minutes ago, Lotus-eater said:

Spending $50 million means paying a lot more income and other taxes. So the crowd afflicted with envy really ought to be happy.

Does it, though? I thought part of the point of the wealth tax was that even when these billionaires do spend a big chunk, it's not because they're selling anything; with the leverage of their immense wealth, they can just borrow and still have low income.

Anyway, back to the topic - I'm no fan of Bezos, but I have no problem with him celebrating his wedding however he wants.

[Lotus-eater]

1 hour ago, mike carey said:

In some senses, whether Bezos can afford this wedding (he can) and what percentage of his wealth it is, is beside the point. People at large take a dim view of conspicuous consumption when they see it as clearly unnecessary, and too far beyond what they can hope to attain (more would resent use of a private jet than flying commercial first class). More so when they see it as nouveau riche tackiness.

Old money may or may not know for whom the bell tolls, but is well aware for whom the tumbrils may roll.

The British royal family makes every American a tacky parvenu by comparison and yet are fond of lavish weddings (with no guillotines in sight).

Rich people in America are far more likely to lose their wealth from profligacy or incompetence than any social or political revolution. Poor Anderson Cooper needs to work because the Vanderbilts are broke and even the Mellons and Rockefellers are now worth a mere $14 and $10 billion, respectively, which is pocket change to the top 10 richest individuals in America today, who are worth $100-$375 billion.

[+ nycman]

1 hour ago, mike carey said:

Old money may or may not know for whom the bell tolls, but is well aware for whom the tumbrils may roll.

Now you’re just showing off…..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbrel

And yes, it makes me hard when a man makes me look up a new word….grin.

[Lotus-eater]

19 minutes ago, Andy768 said:

Does it, though? I thought part of the point of the wealth tax was that even when these billionaires do spend a big chunk, it's not because they're selling anything; with the leverage of their immense wealth, they can just borrow and still have low income.

 

Yes, it can be done, but you still have to pay the consumption/VAT taxes on all the stuff bought.

[mike carey]

16 minutes ago, nycman said:

Now you’re just showing off…..

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbrel

And yes, it makes me hard when a man makes me look up a new word….grin.

Ya gotta use what ya got.

[CuriousByNature]

5 hours ago, BSR said:

How much of our own spending can be criticized in the same vein?  What I spent on escorts in the Philippines could have bought food for hundreds of hungry Filipinos.  If anyone on this board criticized my escort splurge, I’d have a few choice words for that person.

Leave Jeff Bezos alone.  If all the attention he apparently seeks bothers you, ignore him.  But just as I — and you and everyone else — have the right to spend our hard-earned money however we please, free of criticism, Jeff Bezos and the billionaire class do too.

I really don't care how he or anyone else chooses to spend their money, and he can seek all the attention he wants - it makes no difference to me.  I was making a point about the relative cost of a $50M wedding to a centi-billionaire versus someone with much more modest means.  $50M can buy a lot of things - housing for hundreds in need, scholarships for thousands of students,  200 Rolls Royces, or evidently a fancy wedding in Venice.  But it is still a very small drop in the bucket for someone with his bank account - and relatively speaking - about the same as someone like me getting a pizza.

[Luv2play]

2 hours ago, Lotus-eater said:

The British royal family makes every American a tacky parvenu by comparison and yet are fond of lavish weddings (with no guillotines in sight).

Rich people in America are far more likely to lose their wealth from profligacy or incompetence than any social or political revolution. Poor Anderson Cooper needs to work because the Vanderbilts are broke and even the Mellons and Rockefellers are now worth a mere $14 and $10 billion, respectively, which is pocket change to the top 10 richest individuals in America today, who are worth $100-$375 billion.

Over the centuries the British royal family has always managed to portray themselves, more or less successfully, as the head of society with the common touch.
Thus when Queen Elizabeth got married in 1947 when Britain was living on rations to pay for the war, her family used their coupons to pay for everything including her wedding dress, which the common folk helped by chipping in. Same for the wedding cake. Her jewels were recycled from previous generations. 

The Queen also consented during her reign to paying income tax although other adjustments were made in the Royal allowances. The British along with some other Royal families of Europe adjusted to democratic movements in their countries. Like the Dutch and Nordics. And they still exist.

The ones who were swept away like the Germans, Austrians and other Eastern European royal houses fell under autocratic regimes and during wartimes when there was social upheaval. The British clung on and were supported by their people at all levels of society.

[Lotus-eater]

Relinquishing political power was far more important to their survival than any sort of economizing.

The U.S. isn't even in a recession, let alone a depression, so it's the usual envious agitators who are agog and aghast at his extravagant wedding.