I don't care much for cars, but Miles and I do share one common interest: we both like collecting quotes and aphorisms. Here’s one of my all time favorites:
The unexamined life is not worth living. - Miles S. Nadal
OK, now I'm just pandering. But it is true that Miles Nadal understands something that many, many people with surplus wealth do not. Namely, that there's nothing immoral about materialism or consumerism. Let me provide a full defense of this worldview.
Buying cars for 6 or 7 figures is hyper rational and moral
I used to think that buying a super-luxury car was frivolous and morally indefensible. I was completely wrong and naive. At a very basic level, buying a super-luxury car is a ticket to a very exclusive club. There are Ferrari owners clubs around the world. If you join an exclusive golf club, you have to pay dues every year. You buy a Ferrari, you get to enjoy its use, while, over time, it appreciates in value. Plus you get to network with your fellow rich people. So you’ve turned an expense into a capital gain. The world is entirely setup to make the rich richer. So unfair! Viewed in this light, the question is not whether you can afford a Ferrari, but whether you can afford not to own a Ferrari. Of course, you might wonder, does one really need a $100m fleet of cars just to meet people? Well, Miles Nadal is a really social guy. In fact, sometimes, Miles will just stand outside his office with an antique car, hoping that someone strikes up a conversation.
Anyways, Miles is now down to just a tiny collection of 15 cars. I think he has a chopper too. How else would you commute from Muskoka?
Private vices, public benefits
There's also a social benefit from rich people buying luxury goods - it makes the economy work. An ancient economist, Bernard Mandeville, wrote about that in The Fable of the Bees: Private Vices, Public Benefits. That greed and materialism benefitted society overall was considered scandalous in the 1700s, but today it’s widely accepted that consumption and the pursuit of luxury leads to job creation and prosperity. This is the very foundation of how the modern economy works. The top 10% of earners now account for roughly half of all spending. If they retrench, the economy would spiral down. So go ahead and spend millions on cars, it’s your moral duty. Don’t you want the economy to grow? Warren Buffett is constantly boasting that he drives an old car and owns one old home. Clearly, he doesn’t understand the first thing about how economic growth happens.
Miles Nadal doesn’t want to be materialistic. He’s doing it for us. Let me explain why. The pioneering sociologist Émile Durkehim wrote: “The more one has, the more one wants, since satisfactions received only stimulate instead of filling needs.” A 2020 study confirmed this: having high status strengthens the “status motive.” Compared with lower-class individuals, upper-class individuals reported a greater desire for wealth and status. It’s just like when you eat a lot of carbs, it leaves you hungrier. Would you crave ice cream, if you have never had any and have never known what it feels like to eat? Miles Nadal forces himself to indulge in material things - going against his ordinary, humble nature - so that he has the drive to work harder, be useful to society, make more money, which he can then give to charity. Truly, where once I was blind, now I can see. I hope that Champagne Liberal Amber Kanwar can forgive me. From this point forward, I will be exposing those who hoard wealth, rather than recirculating it in the economy.
Beware of grandiose humility
I recently came across the term “grandiose humility". It refers to people who go to great lengths making displays of how much they live below their means. Like Buffett is always saying: “Look at me, I still live in the same home I bought for $31,500 in 1958.” This is just boasting by other means. The great Indian mystic Osho (who led a cult and amassed a collection of 93 Rolls-Royces) figured these things a long time ago. Here he is attacking Gandhi’s grandiose humility:
“Gandhi started traveling on the train in third class. This simply crowded the third class, it is already too crowded. This is not helping the poor. And you will be surprised, the whole compartment was booked for him - a 60-seat compartment! It was very expensive to keep Gandhi poor! And his biographers will write: “He was so kind to the poor.” If somebody is sick, that does not mean that the doctor should come and lie down on another bed, so as to help the sick. Everybody can see the nonsense in it. The doctor has to remain healthy so that he can help those who are sick. If he himself becomes sick out of sympathy, then who is it going to help? The same is true in the inner growth of man.”
In many ways, Miles is ahead of his time, more in tune with Gen Z than boomers. People are catching on to the idea of being authentic about your wealth. Mark Zuckerberg has totally embraced the fact that he is über-wealthy as part of his recent complete makeover. A makeover that has been widely viewed as successful.
Mahatma Nadal?
Did you know that “Mahatma”, as in Mahatma Gandhi, is actually not a name, but a title? It means Great Spirit in Sanskrit. Since Gandhi, no one seems to have been worthy of the title. That is, until I started uncovering the deeper thinking of Miles Nadal. Like Socrates and Jesus, Mahatma Nadal has chosen not to write a book, but I hope this humble disciple has done a reasonable job of expounding His Ways and Teachings.