(:enjoy:) Well I just finished reading about an interesting legendary yacht owner. John Rossatti has owned lots of yachts and probably has lots more to come. They have ranged from the 35ft Ciggarette Executioner to the 185ft yacht he plans to build. He has owned 15 yachts with 2 currently under construction. I got this information from… [B]http://www.superyachttimes.com/editorial/20/article/id/2641
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Hell, how many MEGA yachts does Paul Allen or Roman Abramovich own? And each of those is over 80M! Truly sickening to think about how much they love themselves!
F’ing mega wealthy…they should be made to pay an equal amount they spend on their toys to a charity that cares for the mega POOR of the world! Not since the time of the great “robber barons” has the world seen so many extreme yachts built and even though the economies for much of the world is still reeling from the great bubble blowing us all to pieces, the mega rich keep building their monuments to their wealth and power. Every one of these testiments to ultrawealth is nothing more than a great phallic symbol!
btw, do you know how much masters are making on these great floating penises? Just heard the otherday of one making $350k/year! Oh well, if I had to keep such a huge dick in my mouth all the time I guess you can’t blame him for being a high priced whore!
Yes, I pretty much loathe the mega rich but I give both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet high praise for not being of the same ilk. Both donate huge amounts of their wealth to charities and DO NOT surround themselves with conspicuous oppulence. They show how the very very rich should all be.
Guess you haven’t seen Gates house on Lake Washington. And neither got philanthropic until Bill met his wife, and Buffet is getting to the end of his journey. I’m somewhat sure that some of the obscenely wealthy do contribute quite a bit to charities. And, the mega wealthy have ALWAYS had their personal monuments, and even personal armies. If I had the dough, I’d spend it like crazy. Keeps the ‘little people’ employed.
[QUOTE=RkyMtn Paul;43252]Guess you haven’t seen Gates house on Lake Washington. And neither got philanthropic until Bill met his wife, and Buffet is getting to the end of his journey. I’m somewhat sure that some of the obscenely wealthy do contribute quite a bit to charities. And, the mega wealthy have ALWAYS had their personal monuments, and even personal armies. If I had the dough, I’d spend it like crazy. Keeps the ‘little people’ employed.[/QUOTE]
You are right, before Bill Gates married he was pretty into himself and his power but except for the house on Lake Washington he hasn’t gone for the extreme conspicuous consumption life. I used to have some pretty negative feeling towards Bill when his competitiveness was take no prisoners like cutting off Netscape’s “air supply” but he has rehabilitated his image. When Melinda came along is when he became philantropic and now, I do give him high praise.
Old Warren has just been true to his Nebraska roots throughout. A genuinely good man from middle America. I don’t think he ever cut off anybody’s “air supply” in his life and certainly has never been of the mega rich lifestyle even though he is the richest man in the world.
The one I really have negative feelings towards is Paul Allen. College professor to Mr. OCTOPUS himself. Not a cell of humility in his body. Does he have even one charitable foundation in his name?
Oh, Geez. Paul Allen employees more people than you have friends and you want to tear someone down like that because he has toys relative to his wealth, someone that you don’t even know in the least? If you follow some of his businesses, and how he constantly invests, builds, and employees people in all facets - I think that is just as noble - to build institutions and jobs that will last, as apposed to a finite hand out that will only last as long as the money does. Then what? Where do you think the money comes from? I will bet he gives more away than you think. I can’t see questioning anyone’s wealth unless I walked in their shoes, especially when I was afforded that same opportunity - unless of course I was just jealous. And, I would bet my left ball that you would take a job on the Octopus for $350,000 year …cock and all.
A-Man let’s do a simple math problem:
if providing healthcare + educations for impoverished children in Africa = Bill and Melina Gates Foundation
and playing on a 350’ OCTOPUS + personal submarine = Paul Allen
then which is worth more to the World?
Last time I checked none of us were employed by poor men. I love the rich, they keep cutting me a check to work for them.
So what if they don’t give like you think they should! It’s their money, they earned it, they should do as they please with it.
C.Captain,
Your theories of wealth reallocation when applied to Paul Allen are contrary to those that you preach on this board all of the time about “American jobs” going to overseas (read: mariners who often have a lower standard of living and will work for less) labor. If we applied your politics to shipping then all of us would be on the streets because we are mega-rich compared to many of those foreign mariners that replace us and we wouldn’t deserve to have high paying jobs until everyone is else is on an equal plane.
If it bothers you that people are hungry, poor and without healthcare then Mercy Ships is advertising on the top of this page and could use some volunteers with your skill set.
[QUOTE=Jemplayer;43262]Last time I checked none of us were employed by poor men. I love the rich, they keep cutting me a check to work for them.
So what if they don’t give like you think they should! It’s their money, they earned it, they should do as they please with it.[/QUOTE]
Buffet, Gates, Carnegie and many others realized that they have a duty to return to the community that gave them their opportunities to acquire their wealth. It’s good PR too.
Richard Branson who is no slouch when it comes to toys said,“Ridiculous yachts and private planes and big limousines won’t make people enjoy life more, and it sends out terrible messages to the people who work for them. It would be so much better if that money was spent in Africa – and it’s about getting a balance.”
My wealth is redistributed with every year at about a 25% rate. The tax laws have been skewed to the wealthy via their congressional employees for years with most deductions, tax credits etc being for them. Socialism for rich people who bitch about"socialism" galls me. Example; for the last 12 years or so long term capital gains taxes have been capped at 15% which means if you trade stocks, derivatives or arbitrages [legalized gambling] you can make billions and only pay 15% tax while I work and pay 25%. Hedge fund managers who make billions a year recently had a law passed saying their income is really capital gains not regular income so they get the 15% rate too. Even Warren Buffet laments the fact that both he and his secretary use all the legal deductions allowed when filing federal income taxes, consequently with the laws being as they are she pays at a higher rate than he. This is just wrong as he has said.
There are responsible people of wealth and then there are greedy bastards. The greedy bastards want to have low paid foreign officers on US vessels. They have their employees in Washington DC trying to make this legal.
tengineer
[QUOTE=c.captain;43250]Hell, how many MEGA yachts does Paul Allen or Roman Abramovich own? And each of those is over 80M! Truly sickening to think about how much they love themselves!
F’ing mega wealthy…they should be made to pay an equal amount they spend on their toys to a charity that cares for the mega POOR of the world! Not since the time of the great “robber barons” has the world seen so many extreme yachts built and even though the economies for much of the world is still reeling from the great bubble blowing us all to pieces, the mega rich keep building their monuments to their wealth and power. Every one of these testiments to ultrawealth is nothing more than a great phallic symbol!
btw, do you know how much masters are making on these great floating penises? Just heard the otherday of one making $350k/year! Oh well, if I had to keep such a huge dick in my mouth all the time I guess you can’t blame him for being a high priced whore!
Yes, I pretty much loathe the mega rich but I give both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet high praise for not being of the same ilk. Both donate huge amounts of their wealth to charities and DO NOT surround themselves with conspicuous oppulence. They show how the very very rich should all be.[/QUOTE]
Well, I would expect nothing less from you than a remark like this. And from one who is quick to jump on any conservative “political” post. Just who are you to determine how much money or wealth one has or doesn’t have, or how they should spend their money? What keeps anyone from deciding that you make too much and need to give it all away.
The latent homosexual content and use of inappropriate language certainly shows your true colors. If you are so jealous of a yacht captain’s pay, why don’t you try to get a job on one? I guess you would rather just bitch about the career you have chosen for yourself. Too bad.
Let alone the comment “just heard the other day”. Right. Conjecture.
Me, I don’t care if the mega rich have yachts or not. It is none of my business how they live. I can say that nobody on welfare has ever created a job for anyone other than a bureaucrat. Like it or not, a vibrant economy needs “mega rich” folks. To not realize that is to you peril.
Unbelievable. I never consider how much one gives a way to measure their worth. Rather their overall impact on society should be the measure. Jealousy is an ugly, infantile emotion.
for the last 12 years or so long term capital gains taxes have been capped at 15% which means if you trade stocks, derivatives or arbitrages [legalized gambling] you can make billions and only pay 15% tax while I work and pay 25%. Hedge fund managers who make billions a year recently had a law passed saying their income is really capital gains not regular income so they get the 15% rate too. Even Warren Buffet laments the fact that both he and his secretary use all the legal deductions allowed when filing federal income taxes, consequently with the laws being as they are she pays at a higher rate than he. This is just wrong as he has said.
Is it fair not really, but lets look at the amount actually paid. Her a few thousand, him a few millions. It’s forgotten that the rich pay over 90% of the taxes collected every year.
It would be one thing if they took their money and hid it under the deck plates of their yachts but they don’t. They reinvest it back into the economy CREATING jobs. Jobs that the government gets to collect more taxes on, those people go and spend their pay checks on stuff thus creating more jobs. It’s trickle down economics and it works. It’s a fact that every time you raise the tax rate on the rich the economy suffers. The last thing this economy needs right now is a tax increase of any kind.
What would be fair is a 10% flat tax and making a constitutional amendment for a balanced budget but that’s to simple.
Oh, I’ve offended some of you…I’m so sorry, but I do not like the fact that the mega rich can have such oppulent lifestyles while there is so much suffering in the world. It bothers me that there are billions in abject poverty…PARDON ME for feeling that way. I am an honest believer that the rich have a social contract with society. That we, the non wealthy of the world, allow the very rich to make and keep their money. It is not their God given right and that in the end, it is the society at large which allows them to have such wealth including the requisite playtoys. I have very high praise that the likes Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet, George Soros and many others with their kind who do believe that they have a moral obligation to use at least a percentage of their wealth to help those at the very bottom of society’s ladder and who forego conspicuous oppulence. I feel it is morally WRONG that there are mega rich who DON’T feel that it would be RIGHT and JUST to donate to a charity an amount equal to what they spend on their multiple mega yachts, private jets, etc… Extreme mega yachts like OCTOPUS and ECLIPSE (Roman Abramovich) are an epitome of selfishness of the mega wealthy. If you feel it is morally ok for the 500+ billionaires in the world to NOT help others who suffer and applaud that they have six or seven mega yachts then that’s your opinion which you are entitled to. I do not have the exact statistic to quote but something like the top 400 earners all together in the US make as much as the lowest 19 million combined. Your opinion might be wealth disparity like this is just grand but obviously you do not care too much for the single mother with 3 kids working as a hotel maid for $7.25/hr. and has to go to a payday lender who’ll charge her 391% interest if her kid is hurt and needs treatment or her tired old car breaks down. Btw, just in case you might care about the payday loan industry you can read an article W. Allen Jones founder of Check Into Cash here.
Ok, so in it ends up being your opinions vs. mine and I certainly know that there are those of you who always want a piece of me when I express any opinion, but don’t shit all over me for praising the Gates Foundation or Warren Buffet for their helping the impoverished. I guess I’ve hurt the feelings of others here by pointing out that Paul Allen does not feel such an obligation and would rather continue to increase his wealth and reward himself with many extreme playtoys. Now is this political? I didn’t mention tax rates or the Congress or Administration or redistribution of wealth. I speak from a societal standpoint. I guess there are you who call that political, but there are plenty of you who will call something black if I happen to I say it is white just because you feel a need to take a contrary position and to declare me wrong. Fine, I am used to it, even the “latent homosexuality” BS. Some here like to fight that way.
So in the end, it is simple. Do the rich have any moral obligations to society at large or are they ultimately “entitled” to surround themselves with unlimited extreme luxuries without any obligations to anybody else at all?
I think that’s why Paul Allen is giving away most of his fortune when he dies. The reason why you’re not “suffering in the world”, is you’re working for a rich man or company. In your case, that might be called charity. (Sorry, I could not help that one). I suppose, as not to be a hypocrite, you have a charity in your Will or Testament as well (10% of your 401k Maybe) - similar to Mr.Allen? Nothing wrong with having opinion, but how can people just tear someone down, and say how sorry they are, and don’t have a clue what they’re talking about is beyond me…and that is all based on a few expensive toys, which by the way puts a lot of people to work so they’re not poor and suffering. Paul Allen does have a foundation - look it up.
I don’t think you offend anyone by having any opinion or genuine feelings. Tearing people down, for arguments sake, and for no reason is something I don’t like, or care for.
[QUOTE=anchorman;43292]I think that’s why Paul Allen is giving away most of his fortune when he dies.[/QUOTE]
Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have made public statements that they felt is was wrong for people to suffer for years waiting for their money to help…they wanted their wealth to go to those who needed it today and for that wealth to be ultimately gone BEFORE they were dead and buried. They wanted to see with their own eyes the good they could help bring about. That to me is a true hallmark of selflessness.
Saying that I am going to give away my wealth after my death says I am going to wrap myself in it as long as I possibly can until I am gone and what does it matter then? I’m as dead as anybody else would be. You don’t have to be the co founder of Microsoft to know that you can’t take it with you.
[QUOTE=c.captain;43293]Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have made public statements that they felt is was wrong for people to suffer for years waiting for their money to help…they wanted their wealth to go to those who needed it today and for that wealth to be ultimately gone BEFORE they were dead and buried. They wanted to see with their own eyes the good they could help bring about. That to me is a true hallmark of selflessness.
Saying that I am going to give away my wealth after my death says I am going to wrap myself in it as long as I possibly can until I am gone and what does it matter then? I’m as dead as anybody else would be. You don’t have to be the co founder of Microsoft to know that you can’t take it with you.[/QUOTE]
You have no idea what you’re talking about…
http://www.pgafoundations.com/
With lifetime giving exceeding $1 billion, Allen has been named one of the top philanthropists in America. In July 2010, Allen made public his intention to leave a majority of his estate to philanthropy. That philanthropy takes many forms today. The Paul G. Allen Family Foundation supports nonprofits working to strengthen communities in the Pacific Northwest. In 2003, Allen pledged $100 million to create the Allen Institute for Brain Science, a research facility dedicated to performing innovative basic research on the brain and disseminating its discoveries to researchers around the world. Researchers at the Institute have developed an online interactive atlas of the human brain that shows the activity of the more than 20,000 human genes. Work at the Institute continues to lead scientists to new insights and propel the field of neuroscience dramatically forward.
from gatesfoundation.org:
we’re talking real giving here for causes that help the world’s poorest right now, not some pet project. $1B vs. $23B…that difference sure covers a whole stable of mega yachts and who gives a shit about putting food into the mouths of children right now today? They can wait.
and
Buffett to Give Bulk of His Fortune to Gates Charity
Warren E. Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and one of the world’s wealthiest men, plans to donate the bulk of his $44 billion fortune to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four other philanthropies starting in July.
The donations, outlined in a series of letters that Mr. Buffett released yesterday and will execute today, represent a singular and historic act of charitable giving that vaults him into the top tier of industrialists and entrepreneurs like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller Sr., Henry Ford, J. Paul Getty, W. K. Kellogg and Mr. Gates himself, all men whose fortunes have endowed some of the world’s richest private foundations.Mr. Buffett plans to give away 85 percent of his fortune, or about $37.4 billion, all in Berkshire stock. Of that amount, he will channel the greatest share, about $31 billion, into the Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation, dedicated to improving health and education, especially in poor nations, is already the United States’ largest grant-making foundation, with current assets of almost $30 billion. Mr. Buffett’s huge contribution may permanently solidify that philanthropy’s standing as the biggest and most influential organization of its kind. Mr. Buffett will join Mr. and Mrs. Gates as a trustee of their foundation.
and neither owns an OCTOPUS! which:
features include two helipads on the top deck (one in front and one on the back, each with a helicopter), a sixty-three foot tender docked in the transom, seven boats, a pool on one of the upper decks, a basketball court, and two submarines: one a ground crawler operated by remote control for studying the bottom of the ocean and the other a 10-man vessel with the capacity to sleep eight for up to two weeks underwater
I wonder if Paul takes poor kids on 2 week underwater field trips?
note: correction on earlier report that the vessel was 350’…she is in fact 416’ and disappointedly only 11th in the list of world’s largest yachts 
Paul Allen’s other yachts are TATOOSH which at 302’ is currently the world’s 26th longest yacht and the 199’ MEDUSE which must feel like a skiff to him when he is aboard. Oh so many yachts and so little time!
[QUOTE=c.captain;43295]from gatesfoundation.org:
we’re talking real giving here, not some pet project. $1B vs. $23B…that difference sure covers a whole stable of mega yachts[/QUOTE]
That’s the difference between an endowment and personal giving. It would not matter if you knew the difference anyway. You have shot yourself out of the saddle so many times - I can’t watch any longer.
Geez. All I said was that if I had that kind of money, I’d be spending it like crazy. 
Figure I couldn’t spend it all. I’d buy a bunch of yachts so all you slackers could have a job. Schint had better work and be clean, though!! 
Jem, love the Capt Ron!!
[QUOTE=anchorman;43296]That’s the difference between an endowment and personal giving. It would not matter if you knew the difference anyway. You have shot yourself out of the saddle so many times - I can’t watch any longer.[/QUOTE]
And the endowment was funded by whom exactly? They don’t just create themselves or do you think the money just appears like magic?
Let’s keep this going if you want and remember it is supposed to be about ultra megayachts. If you think ultra megayachts are just wonderful and bring benefit to the people of the world then just come out and say it. I think Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are better men for not being that cut of wealthy person. If you think that the ultra wealthy who have these vessels make the world a better place then just say so…it’s really very simple.
[QUOTE=c.captain;43298]And the endowment was funded by whom exactly? They don’t just create themselves or do you think the money just appears like magic?
Let’s keep this going if you want and remember it is supposed to be about ultra megayachts. If you think ultra megayachts are just wonderful and bring benefit to the people of the world then just come out and say it. I think Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are better men for not being that cut of wealthy person. If you think that the ultra wealthy who have these vessels make the world a better place then just say so…it’s really very simple.[/QUOTE]
Ok. You got me. I think it’s better to have a yacht than to feed hungry people, and really love the fact that I am wearing shoes right now. Grow-up. The man has a boat. A big one. You don’t like it because in your twisted mind, people should not have such things. Now go ahead and practice what you preach and get a smart car and some banana leaf shoes, and give the rest to charity and post your reciept here.