With open, candid and undisguised joy, I read in the newspaper today that the Chinese pearl market of Zhuji is shortly before collapsing. Not because I begrudge the people who are trying to make a living by growing and harvesting pearls their income or prosperity, my amusement comes from the apparent fact that pearls have become so cheap – as cheap as 8 Euro a kilo - that they don’t even serve to show off ones richness any more.
This is a good thing to know for the Rolls-driving, caviar-eating, champagne-guzzling and toenail-polishing upper-class ladies, who are possibly still deriving a sense of status from their jewellery. They might be ridiculed by the natives on their next trip to China.
Speaking of which: drinking Champagne is not a sign of high-culture any more either since my fellow Northern-Italians have discovered the Dutch taste for good Prosecco.
What a drag it must be: being rich while at the same time having the in suppressible desire to let it all hang out. How must one go about it then, nowadays?
Well, there is still gold! And there are still many surplus luxuries one can only obtain when one has ample financial resources. A yacht, for instance, is not within the average man’s reach. It is certainly not in mine either, although I would have no objections at all to be able to try my hand at a ships wheel. My very own ship, even, because I personally have nothing against being wealthy. Especially not if this wealth is mine. And with a yacht comes real substance. It even takes one from place to place.
Hence, for me: no pearls, thank you very much!The pearl industry is sliding towards a steep low on the market, because there are simply too many people producing pearls in China. It were good if the same thing happened with gold, which is unlikely, because gold can’t be “produced”. But someone could strike a monster deposit and just flood the market with tons of the stuff. I must admit to liking the prospect. Because why? Because I value merit and usefulness, and neither pearls nor gold have either.* And I would find it extremely funny if they were useless to show off with too.
I have never concealed the fact that I am an enthusiastic Trekkie. I happen to like the Star Trek Universe a lot. Not only does it have computers which have reached such maturity that one can just speak to them (and they will understand…), but it has also abolished the use of money. Having intelligent computers means that they can be operated – and interconnected – without mice or keyboards, which is a huge advantage in comparison to the clumsy interfaces we are using now, whilst the abolition of money means that being “rich” has no real meaning any more. Not financially in any case.
In the Star Trek Universe, being affluent is no longer measured along ones bank account, but it is determined by ones excellence in some subject. And exactly that is a great way to be assessed. Ones accomplishments simply have better value than money, or gold or pearls. All three one could obtain without doing anything real for it; by inheritance for instance, or by pedigree.
After the financial crisis, which has left us with a strong reduction in CO2 emissions in the past year, the news of a notorious richness-flaunting item losing power, sounds like music to my ears. It gives me hope and it makes me feel good. To be rich might become unfashionable after all. And that would suit me fine, not to speak of the planet, which could use a permanent break from the shameless resource-depleting capitalism. I already feel like a trendsetter.
* If one ignores the use of gold in the high-tech industry, of course….
