I had a half day off as we had a training session this morning .. anyway I was so bored that I was browsing the web during the lecture and came upon some of the things sold by Loro Piana. Who on earth buys the following?
http://www.mrporter.com/product/361614 ~£8,500 for a hoody
http://www.mrporter.com/product/375759 ~£4,500 for a plastic shelled puffa jacket
http://www.mrporter.com/product/375774 ~£550 for a scarf
You would have to be an utter idiot to buy any of these surely? I know there are people as rich as Croesus in the form of Russian Oligarches, Chinese party workers (let a hundred crooks bloom sic), idiot sons of arab oil sheiks (or their fifth cousins twice removed) et al. However, do even they think these are a good buy? I mean who would ever think you could build a billion dollar business on the back of this? Clearly this Italian knows something our little friend at Passagio doesn't .. maybe he needs to start making vicuna ties, putting the price up to perhaps .. oh I don't know .. £850 and aim for a similar demographic.
fruity
Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-10-30 15:25:41)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HK0VQvJAmY
I think you answered the question OF ... the kinds of people you mentioned in your list and the shop owner/manager who gets it at a very steep discount after nobody else goes for it or steals it himself ... possibly a celeb who gets to expense it out, maybe forces a producer to obtain it ostensibly for a film or something ... maybe a footballer or pro athlete ....
Fitballers definitely! Someone sent me a PDF copy of Alex Ferguson's autobipgraphy yesterday and I glanced through it and there was a wonderful statement of how in the last forty years he had presided over an industry that has gone from paying the fitballers 6 quid a week to 6 million a year!
Happy days, if you can kick a ball around a field.
Last edited by Sammy Ambrose (2013-10-31 02:56:37)
Once you start talking about what their 'work' is worth, you then need to consider whether specialized surgeons are, in comparison, over or under-paid and wonder where society's values are and what they are: they are certainly generally determined by morons. And I am sorry but I think that it is pathetic when morons are revered - whatever their physical abilities in kicking a ball around. They don't even have the courage of a boxer or a surfer - they are largely over-indulged, misbehaving bone-heads.
Last edited by Sammy Ambrose (2013-10-31 06:46:52)
Last edited by formby (2013-10-31 10:06:02)
Mmn. I am not saying that footballers don't justify their pay in commercial terms. I'm just saying that it is a pity that most people are bone-headed enough to value them so much that their pay is commercially justified. But then most people are boneheads!
I can understand why you guys are trying to find a reason to explain the wages of a footballer, our minds are wired to try and work out why everything makes sense. However, I will let you into a secret that most of society haven't worked out yet, as a market practitioner who has spent a lot of his life looking at prices of various things, you are trying to work out what something is worth based on its fundamental worth, however in the short term (& I would argue that in labour markets the short term is decades) prices are not necessarily based on fundamental worth (i.e. what revenues someone generates/contribution to society, in any case most football clubs are not run as profit driven businesses, but more as vanity projects or in some cases safe assets to park dubious money for cash rich tycoons). In the 'short term' all that matters is pricing, which is subject to the machinations of the market, the secret is that the markets don't always make sense, so don't look for sense where there isn't any.
On this note, I have come round in a circle and answered my own question of why those prices of Loro Piana are so ridiculous.
fruity
Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-10-31 09:22:26)
If you wanted to look at the big picture fundamentally then the reason for levels of pay are that football and popular sports have become a key part of the modern entertainment industry, the 'stars' who are seen as the producers are paid fabulous sums as growing middle class has excess time and money to spend over the last 40 years in the pursuit of entertaining themselves and spending on discretionary items which advertisers want to push like crack dealers. footballers are the modern equivalent of roman gladiators. however if the global economy falls into a deflationary phase, social discontent and general economic well being fall back over the long term, the money floating around in the entertainment industry will deflate like a balloon talking wages with them (with one caveat that it could continue if the oligarchs act as benefactors in football (or in entertainment generally) like a modern day version of nobility acting as sponsors of renaissance art LOL).
Since most of the stars are spendthrifts they seem to spend a high portion of their new found wealth on conspicuous consumption, property, cars, clothing, jewelry, services of bankers, lawyers, entertaining themselves at clubs and restaurants, which all helps a whole host of businesses, as well as most footballers paying a lot of tax (I dont think they keep non domicile status in the UK, no idea why not although other entertainers like J Carr obviously are very keen on tax evasion schemes).
Last edited by Oldfruit1 (2013-10-31 09:54:54)