How the rich are coping
– Stranded on super yachts or confined to their sprawling mansions worrying about their wine cellars, the world’s superrich have invited ridicule throughout the coronavirus pandemic with their apparent insensitivity to the plight of ordinary people.
“Sunset last night ... isolated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus. I’m hoping everybody is staying safe,” US media mogul David Geffen wrote on his Instagram account at the end of March.
Above his message, he shared a picture of a huge yacht sailing in calm waters off islands in the Caribbean.
The message triggered an avalanche of online indignation over the inequalities highlighted by the crisis, with Geffen’s paradise scene a world away from the grim spectacle of hours-long food queues of scores of people elsewhere in the world.
Some of the global elite rushed to dream homes in the countryside, or were whisked away by private jet to seaside retreats.
Specialist company PrivateFly said it had seen a surge in bookings from people wanting to leave at-risk countries, according to The Guardian.
Others chose to invest in underground shelters, with Texas-based firm Rising S Bunkers telling the Los Angeles Times that their telephone had been ringing off the hook.
Their bunker of choice, called the Aristocrat, includes a gym, sauna, swimming pool, jacuzzi, greenhouse garden and a garage – all for a cool $8.35 million (about R157 million).
The Wall Street Journal, daily newspaper of the US business world and a favourite of the wealthy, wondered on 16 April: “For the Rich, A Dilemma: Quarantine With Staff, or Do Their Own Chores.”
The article cited the manager of a New York finance company who found himself calling his personnel management agency because he could not get the bag out of his vacuum cleaner.
“How to spend it”, the weekly glossy supplement of the venerable Financial Times in London, offered advice to the “problems” faced by its prosperous readers.
It focused on the renowned London wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd, which sold its entire stock of fine Bordeaux wines at £150 (about R3 500) a bottle.
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