Y20 mil gold handset from Vertu

why?

20Million Yen/one handset? I'm anxiously waiting for the next news on who's buying them...:)

We live in a world where 1% of the population control nearly 40% of the wealth, people go daily without food or water, others live on $1 or $2 dollars a day, many go without any form of health care and then there are the legions of displaced and homeless.

Anyone wasting money on something like this is a moral criminal who should be spending less on conspicuious consumption and more on being a good human being. Afterall most of the accumulated wealth in this world was gathered at the expense of poor working people, their resources, labor and blood.

Such a product should be seen as a symbol of shameful greed and inhumanity and not something to be admired. It makes me sick to see this kind of product and disgusted by the people who would buy it and even more so of the people who would aspire to own such a thing.

tkoind2 -- I totally agree.

"A moral criminal"? Are you sure about that tkoind2?

How about people who own an iPod? Are they a moral criminal? Do you own an iPod, a car, a TV etc? Or are you a "good human being" who gives all of your disposable income to worthy causes?

Just curious

tkoind2;

Bet there's are also a lot of people around the world on $1 or $2 a day who would consider owing any cell phone or having Internet access (like you?) to be a symbol of conspicuous consumption and the sign of a moral criminal.

Afterall most of the accumulated wealth in this world was gathered at the expense of poor working people, their resources, labor and blood.

So how did you accumulate your personal wealth?

If you're going to preach from a soapbox, consider that for the poor of the world your lifestyle would also be seen as wasteful and full of needless luxuries. The only difference between you and someone who aspires to own a phone like this is one of scale - for someone really at the bottom, that scale is not so noticeable.

I agree with tkoind2. This sort of vulgar showing off is admired here in shallow Japan. Saw the Kanu sisters last nigh on telly wearing 3 million GBP of jewelery and everyone was in awe and nobody says or ever says haow vulgar they are. This phone is equally as vulgar and demonstrates lot of what is wrong with Japanese society.

This sort of vulgar showing off is admired here in shallow Japan

Vertu is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Finnish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia.

What happened to discretion?

if you got the money, its yours to do what you want. its easy to gripe and say what other people should do with their money. for all anyone knows, the people that do buy this phone probably do give a lot more to charity than average. they can afford to and there are incentives for them to.

Actually, stevecpfc, here in "shallow Japan" brands like Louis Vuitton are getting the heck out because none of the young people buy their stuff anymore. And might I mention, the "Kano" sisters are gawked at only by middle aged men for their big, umm... you know whats, not for their jewelry.

Yes I do own an ipod. And yes my economic situation is far better than many of the people on this planet. But yet I am still a million miles away from being in the top 1% who own most of the world's wealth.

Look it isn't hard to see that concentrating so much wealth in such a tiny number of human beings is wrong when so many go without. How many of we working people engage in obscene conspicuous consumption? I don't own a car, don't live in a rich home, don't buy brand clothing and do a lot of charity work.

Do I have it better than many people on this planet? Yes, yes I do. But I don't have millions of yen to drop on obscene trinkets. I don't have massive amounts of money that I will never need in my lifetime. I don't have a half dozen homes, several cars, tons of diamonds or anything else that could be deemed economically immoral.

But there is a 1% out there that does. People who have more disposable income than the entire population of some countries. The people who waste millions on a lighter, the people who waste millions on jewels, non-essential cars, multiple homes and more. These are economically immoral people.

The current system depends upon one small ultra rich class, an educated working class and a massive labor or disposable class. The system itself is immoral for not equally valuing all people and for leaving so many out in the cold.

The world needs a massive redistribution of wealth. One that takes the 40% and shares it well beyond the 1% who hold it today.

There is NO VALID REASON that anyone on this planet has to starve, go without water or live without shelter and clothing. There is no valid reason that people must die from treatable diseases. And no valid reason why people must horde massive amounts of wealth why others have nothing.

But there are very good reasons why every human being on this planet should have the right to shelter, food, health care and security. And every capacity of the world to support this if the tiny ultra-rich were no longer hoarding wealth.

Sooner or later, humanity will learn and change will come. For now working people like you and I can do all we can to volunteer, donate and help out. But the people with the greatest capacity to help choose instead to waste money on conspicuous consuption of idiotically priced goods. This is without doubt immoral and wrong.

bicultural, the designer labels make more from Japan than any other country. There are many who live in tiny rabbit style hutches here who get massive loans to buy a bag or a phone like this because Japanese society makes them feel special because of it. They spend their days eatin g pot noodles and onigiri because they are broke.

I know the phone is Finnish, i am talking about teh Japanese obsession for junk like this and the Kano sisters were on telly displaying theri vulgar wealth to the adulation of all on set, inclusding brainless talents.

Someone else said the rich who can afford this kind of thing give more to charity. Not true , in very developed nation the poorest are the highest donors to good causes as a % of income. The rich buy idiotic phones like this so fellow shallow people can admire them, and they feel special.

20Million Yen/one handset? I'm anxiously waiting for the next news on who's buying them...:)

bet we see a story first about who's stealing them

Bet there's are also a lot of people around the world on $1 or $2 a day who would consider owing any cell phone or having Internet access (like you?) to be a symbol of conspicuous consumption and the sign of a moral criminal.

the UN did a poll recently in africa and 80% of respondents chose 'having a phone' over 'having food'

It's OK to buy ridiculous expensive things people!

That money isn't just thrown away. It's used by the makers which with they buy crap and then the money goes around and around. It's a transfer of money not the destruction of it.

jbro888, the trickle down gets less and less each year to the average person. The vulgarity of this product symbolises the way Japan has turned , completely away from family values to one where a alrge section of society mostly functions for possesion to boost their own ego in public.

The game between the ultra wealthy and the average becomes increasingly wider and products such as this phone are a sad example of that fact.

I prefer the green public phones

Wow stevecpfc, you make it sounds as though Japan is the only materialistic country in the world.

tkoind2 -- I totally agree with you.

"It's a transfer of money not the destruction of it." But it is only the transfer of money between already relatively wealthy people. The transfer of wealth in the existing economy is not the solution. The redistribution of global wealth is the only way that every living soul on the planet has the opportunity to live with all that they need.

stevecpfc is right the gap between wealth and poverty is growing as the middle classes are pressed ever downwards as labor devalues and economic stability for working people becomes less real. Add to that increasing debt and reduced access to education the trend becomes clear. We are heading back to a structure where there is a tiny ruling class, massive peasant class and a tiny merchant middle class, or in our case a small intellectual class.

Sooner or later the masses will grow tired of this, especially as the poor classes start to be populated by more educated people. There are only three long term outcomes possible. 1. Revolution: which endagers everything and everyone. 2. Domination: of the world by the rich ruling class, or 3. Evolution: towards a flatter society where the gaps are minimal and the high and low ends of the economic spectrum diminished if not done away with. Japan had this kind of flat system for a brief time and it truly worked for this society. It can and should work for the world. The other two outcomes are just too dangerous to allow to happen.

"But it is only the transfer of money between already relatively wealthy people"

The makers of the phone are not all millionaires i bet. I bet there are some non-wealthy people putting together these phones, and I bet they get a salary for doing their jobs.

jbro888. We are not talking about iphones of the latest docomo here that is made on some assembly line somewhere. More likely this is made by some high end focused master maker who takes the guts of a phone and adds obscene amounts of jewels and gold to it.

But let's explore your comment. The gold was most likely minded by very poor workers in very dangerous and difficult circumstances. Any jewels are equally likely to come from very poor hard working people. And yes they get a salary. But if you look at the percentage of that phone that is real cost of labor vs the price, I think there would be massive gap.

Let's face it, most of the gold and jewel "employment" is one step away from slavery. Wage slavery leaves most of those workers making tiny salaries while their companies and the owners and shareholders of those companies make massive amounts of money. Thus the 1% owning 40% gap. Just because they pay tiny wages does not negate the fact that such a product represents excessive wealth.

Second. Even the urban workers who support such products make a tiny fraction of the amount changing hands here. Their wage slavery entitles them to TV, consumable goods and better living conditions, but it is wage slavery by comparison to the horrific wealth controlled by their clients.

Much of the world's wealth was born of the past, from war, from exploitation and the rule of long standing rich families. The ongoing exploitation of resources and labor are still concentrating wealth away from the common people who do most of the world. Look at the wage gap between the common OL and the bank trader.

Wealth is too concentrated and is under a moral imperative to be shared so that all have a place in this world where dignity is possible. We have too long labored under the hoarding and centralized rule of a tiny global rich class. It is time for that to change.

Moderator: All readers back on topic please. The story is about a luxury cell phone, not exploitation of the world's wealth.

Only 20 million yen?!? I'd say it's worth at least 22 million. Can't wait to buy it first thing in the morning!

Considering how Japanese change cell phones almost as often as they do wardrobes, I can't see how something this expensive would be purchased. This year's hot unit becomes next year's old technology. So you spend 20 million yen for this shiny new "4G" network phone, only to find out next year that they now will have 3D hologram "5G" phones for 50,000 yen. I feel sorry for whoever gets conned into buying one of these. It will be too expensive to throw out when they're ready to move on.

Filthy rich people see things differently. And I think nobody here understand how things work for them in their plane of consciousness. Who does? Most of them neither understand how it is to be filthy rich. But everybody here makes a lot of sense in this plane of consciousness - reality.

tokind:

" Anyone wasting money on something like this is a moral criminal w "

Why? Once they spend it, the money is out of their hands and and circulating in the economy. And they have a useless gadget to flaunt. Sounds fair enough to me.

What else do you suggest the ridiculously rich should do with their spare money, without being called a moral criminal by you?

You could get over 12 lbs of gold for that price.