有人说豪华游艇和轿车是有钱人的玩具，这是真的吗？为什么很多富人喜欢购买这种天价的商品？在英语里，我们把富人的这类消费行为称作什么？

 

Do you consider yourself to be rich? Do you have plenty of cash and no financial worries? Or maybe, like me, is it something you can only dream about? For most of us, the closest chance of becoming a millionaire would be to win the lottery¹ but if you don't buy a lottery ticket, are there others ways of becoming super-rich?

 

A 'super-rich' person is often defined as someone with over $30 million dollars of assets – so it's not just about having a suitcase stuffed full of banknotes! They usually own property, an expensive yacht or eat in swanky restaurants. And there appear to be more and more of these people, as it's reported that the number of super-rich is expected to increase by 43% over the next decade.

 

If you save your pennies, make the right investments and work hard, could you be one of them? It's unlikely because a report last year highlighted inequality in the world, saying the richest 62 individuals owned as much as the poorest 50%. But for those lucky ones who are loaded, what is it that they splash the cash on? One academic in the UK, Emma Spence, has been researching just that - and her answer is yachts! It's the ultimate status symbol but she also says "a superyacht is essentially² a black hole of wealth" – in other words, it continually eats your money and doesn't increase in value like an art collection might.

 

But if you've got the spare cash, why not have one! It's an excuse to show off your wealth and position in society. Interestingly, Emma Spence found that the size of someone's yacht shows their place in the pecking order. This is a good example of conspicuous³ consumption – buying something so someone else notices.

 

In the past you may have expected to find a super-rich, yacht-owning, billionaire to live in developed countries like the USA but now the wealthy can be found hanging out in most corners of the world. According to a report by Knight⁴ Frank, Vietnam is the country expected to have the fastest growth of super-rich over the next 10 years – an amazing 170% increase.

 

If all this makes you feel poor, remember that being wealthy doesn't necessarily make you happy. You don't have to waste time worrying about what to spend your money on. And you can feel rich in other ways by having good friends and family, good health or just a happy life - things that don't cost the earth. And if you really want a yacht, how about a toy one to play with in the bath?! How rich do you feel today?

点击收听单词发音