Gold Christmas Tree

Reuters:

The tree-like ornament is made of 88 pounds of pure gold, standing about 7.9 ft high ... It is decorated with pure gold plate silhouette cutouts of 50 popular Disney characters and draped with ribbons made of gold leaf. The price tag? A mere $4.2 million.

• [margaretpoa]

  Saturnalia excess. Think of how many homeless that price would feed or how many it would treat.

  • [plyx]

    But they never buy ANYTHING!

  • [millie fink]

    Exactly right, margaretpoa. 

    It’s sick sick sick.

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    You can’t eat gold. It doesn’t really work to say that that price would feed people.

    • [margaretpoa]

       Money is fungible. The MONEY that someone would use to buy the thing could be put to better use. I find your suggestion that you missed the meaning of my comment unbelievable.

      • [Dave Jenkins]

        Money is fungible, true.  That’s why it’s the best way to allow people to decide what they want to do with their money.  How about you stick to thinking about your money, and I’ll do the same. If someone wants to buy a gaudy gold tree, that’s their decision.

      • [Antinous / Moderator]

        Money is fungible within a given monetary system.  But gold is not money.

      • [wreckrob8]

        There is a limit to fungibility – not all commodities can be turned into any one other commodity. Not all money can be turned into food to feed the hungry. Beyond that it is a problem of need and desire.
        I’d be more concerned with the conditions of the workers who produced the gold in the first place.

      • [Stooge]

        But nobody has bought it, so your comment lacked any meaning from the get go.

      • [signsofrain]

        For whatever reason Antinous doesn’t like the idea that some things we as humans do are incredible misallocations of our resources. Why feed the poor? Why pay more than minimum wage? Why provide decent health benefits? Instead you can buy enough gold to make a ridiculous tree for your window display! Sounds just dandy! Antinous, why do you always defend excess of this type? When you were smacking me around about this issue you were claiming the $25k watch had some sort of artistic merit and that I was therefore wrong to be offended that its price tag, which to me represents decades of hard work, scrimping and saving, was to someone else a toy, a conversation piece! The wastefulness of such toys is shameful when we can’t even feed, clothe, and shelter, much less provide employment opportunities, to everyone in North America. Pointing out that shamefulness should not get you a smack from a BB moderator. 

        • [Antinous / Moderator]

          What part of “You can’t eat gold” don’t you understand?

        • [signsofrain]

          What part of “The store didn’t mine that gold, it paid cash money for it that it could have used in about a million better ways” don’t you understand?

          How about “This is a symbol of a corrupt and decadent society that prioritizes all the wrong things” – what part of that is so opaque?

          There’s nothing inherently wrong with luxury items. I own a few dumb toys myself, but a christmas tree made of gold is spitting in the face of anyone who can’t buy toys for their kids because they’ve gotta eat and pay rent.

• [vtboinger]

  I gotta say it: “Meretricious. And a Happy New Year!”

• [s2redux]

  The perfect pick-me-up for those dreary winter days when a treasure bath just doesn’t satisfy.

• [Peter]

  And only half the $4.2 million is for the fees for licensing the Disney characters!

• [chgoliz]

  Ugly.  Quelle surprise.

• [Hardley]

  I’m still trying to work out who has enough money but sufficiently lacks taste to buy such a thing … Donald Trump?

  • [Ray Perkins]

     I’m sure they don’t expect a buyer. Just melt it down after Xmas and they’re only out the cost of manufacturing it. Probably pretty cheap advertising for all the notice it generated.

• [Daniel Tose]

  It looks like a massive glittery poop

• [Boundegar]

  I would like to steal it.

  • [wreckrob8]

    The tree or the gold?

• [Ian Wood]

  The price tag?A mere $4.2 million.

  Quite a markup. 88 lbs of gold @ a spot price of $1730/oz is a bit over $2.4 million.

  I blame Disney licensing.

• [Ipo]

   It’s a great weatherproof lawn ornament.  Comes with a no-rust warranty. 

• [Dr. Chronobiologist]

  Does it look like a spray painted turd up close as well?

• [travtastic]

  I would like to throw that into the sun.

• [anderalert]

  Smash…grab..

• [PickMyChristmasGifts]

   anyone bought this?