Leading article: Rich man's world
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Your support makes all the difference.Tell me, how do you feel when you read that Mr Donald Trump has put a house on the market for $125m (£72m), which is three times the amount he paid for it only 12 months ago?
Do you shake your head and wonder if your life could have been different, with a little more attention to the maths homework? Do you curse your parents for giving you too comfortable a start, smothering the drive, the hunger?
Do you look around your own home; has some of the gloss gone off the kitchen units, some of the shine off the pine? Do you begin to regret the water feature, and not stretching to that larger loan and the next rung on the ladder?
Or do you just find the whole thing obscene, a nightmare of excess in a pinched world, the sad triumph of selfishness and style over concern and content?
Whatever, you will not be happy; and the provision of at least a wry smile is the purpose of this particular space. So here, I hope, are some reasons to feel better about Mr Trump's latest venture: 1. He's painted the walls beige. 2. He's removed the replicas of famous paintings which hung in the ocean-side rotunda. 3. It's in Florida. 4. It's in Palm Beach, which can get quite muggy. 5. The nearest mini-golf is seven miles away. 6. One report speaks of "some unpleasant animal-related odours" at the nearby Lion Country Safari Park.
And, besides, this rich thing is much over-rated. As the great Cole Porter so tellingly put it, "Who wants to tire of caviar?" J P Getty had a point too: "Remember, a billion dollars doesn't go as far it used to." Exactly.
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