The paradox is that maybe the owner of that car, whose dream is just to possess as many things like that to prove he's a successful guy... may be just fired tomorrow, picking up all his stuff in a cardboard box from his office (Merrill Lynch or Lehmann Bros), coming back home wandering how the f**k is he going to pay the huge mortgage he got to afford his massive penthouse... what was I thinking about when I thought bonus and salary would last forever? I may have just a salary, very big one, but just an employee, another idiot serving the system. He may be much closer to the vast majority than what he thinks... And they actually most are.

Or he may be a great guy, hard worker, who decided to follow that path. No resentment at all, he spends his money in what he likes, as any of us. If he does it because of social status... I pity him, it will never be enough then, just a constant suffering because of the Riva yacht he cannot afford. If he is a entrepreneur working long hours, giving young (and old people) a chance in his project, thumbs up, the society needs them and their initiative.

What I am hating here and now are those blood-suckers speculating with food, with raw materials, with mortgages, buying politicians, deciding the future candidates to govern nations, crushing all the SME network, willing to take the pound, the crown or any other currency out of the market with their attacks, no worrying at all about the consequences, the families loosing their jobs, houses, savings (and grandad's gold teeth again!) because of their actions.

The ones who seem to be ruling this world more clearly than ever, calculating in advance what's coming, how the welfare state cannot go any further, how in the future you will only aspire to the be bloody employee of the month in a stupid fast food restaurant, with no space for a family run one.

Those are the problem... although they seem to forget that, if going too far... the minority cannot put the majority under the yoke, no matter how many News of the World to manipulate them they may have.

PS: Time to sleep, I have to produce tomorrow some foie gras for the system...

I believe the human body can survive equally well without both a Bentley AND a seven year old Africa Twin with a full tank of fuel and a carnet in the tank bag. Get rid of the jobs that come with the chance to buy the Bentley and no one can make the AT's. Average the worlds resources equally through the worlds population and we'll be lucky to have a bicycle. Your dangerous chisel in the off grid house is made from metal dug from a multi-billion dollar hole full off multi-billion dollar machinery which is built and operated by a lot of bicycle riders, a few AT owners and the odd Bentley driver. Be careful what you wish for.

Andy

PS Come the revolution when we all get any choice we like, I'm going to be a taster, but only when I'm not out riding

I happened to be born in the 20th c West, I didn't really have much of a choice whether I consumed or not. It doesn't mean I have to like it. But if we are going to average resources, I don't think asking for a few Iron Age tools is asking for too much! I would happily forgo just about everything we have to live a harmonious and self sufficient life off the land. I've not found anything that makes me happier. I liked the Zeitgeist films, but by the third one I thought their solution was ridiculous - we need less, not more.

That's my problem with the 74grand car owner. He, and 95 percent of this country are not puppet masters or controllers. They are the majority, indebting themselves, enslaving themselves, wasting precious resources. The powerful minority don't need to do much, they just offer shiny trinkets and we queue up to be yoked into the machine like cattle, or Indians accepting smallpox blankets.

Unfortunately, I wasn't born in a different world, or a different time, so I am now going to have to be a dreadful hypocrite, and go yoke myself to the machine so I can afford to live!