BBC 6分钟英语 The super rich

From BBC, learning English. Hello, and welcome to Six Minute English, the program where we bring

you an interesting topic and six items of vocabulary.

I'm Neil, and I'm Catherine. Today, we're taking a look into the lives of the super rich, and we're going to look at one of their favorite pastimes.

The super rich are people with over $30 million

of assets. Ooh. Now, assets are things that we can own and sell, like property, boats and private planes, expensive toys.

1st things. 1st let's do our question, catherine, in which country is the percentage of super rich expected to grow fastest over the next ten years?

Is it a China, b Brazil or c Vietnam?

I'm gonna go for Vietnam. I think that's an upper coming country, and I think there's going to be a lot of growth in wealth in the future.

OK, well, we'll find out if you write a wrong later.

The number of super rich are expected to increase by 43% over the next decade.

Now, this doesn't mean income is rising at the same speed for everyone.

You might remember a report last year which said the world's richest 62 individuals owned as much as the poorest 50% of people in the whole world.

So my question is, what on Earth the people with so much money spend it on?

One academic in the UK has been researching just that, and her answer is Neil yachts, A yacht, a luxury boat used for pleasure, the ultimate status symbol.

That is, an item which allows you to show off your wealth and position in society.

Let's listen to Emma Spence from Card of University in the UK.

What's so unusual about yachts if you, you know, have an exclusive wine collection, or art collection, or even the purchase of a business jet, these are investor assets, some of that you can retain value, or a crew value on a business jet.

A private jet can cut costs and make business more convenient by running faster, more comfortably than commercial airlines.

So these purchases, they make good sound business sense, whereas Supio is essentially a black hole.

Before we get to the yacht, emma talked about certain assets, like plains and wine that made business sense.

Now, to make sense is a phrase you'll be familiar with, so if we say something makes business sense, it means it's good for business.

But yachts are different yachts, and especially what she calls super yachts, actually lose money, so much so she calls a Superot a black hole of wealth.

Now, a black hole, in scientific terms, is a place where gravity is so strong that nothing can escape, not even light.

So in business terms, a black hole eats all your money.

It's also used conversationally to mean a place where things go missing.

These superots are big. The world's longest is 180 m in length, and they require a professional crew, which is how Emma began her study.

She used to work on the yachts.

She's now spent six years studying the world of super yachts and the super rich.

So what else did she learn?

She says that in the world of the super rich, the size of your yacht shows your place in the pecking order.

And the pecking order means the social system from most powerful to least powerful.

If you're higher up in the yachtting pecking order, you get the best place in the harbor, which is very important to your owners.

Apparen'tly? Apparen'tly? So it's all about seeing and being seen.

You could actually say that yachts are the ultimate form of conspicuous consumption.

Now, that's another great term. Conspicuous means visible or noticeable, and consumption means spending.

So the phrase conspicuous consumption refers to the kind of buying you do so that other people notice your money before we sail off into the sunset.

Catherine, how about we answer today's question?

I said that Vietnam is a country in which the percentage of super rich is expected to grow fastest over the next ten years.

Well, I am very pleased to say that you are right.

Yes. In fact, vietnam, according to this same report by Knight Frank, the population of ultra wealthy is expected to grow by a staggering 170 in the next decade.

Now, how about we have another look at the wealth of vocabulary in this program?

Very good. We started with assets.

Here, it means things we can buy or sell.

What are your assets? Oh, you know, my diamond rings, my bike, my laptop.

I'm not like you those neil.

I don't live in an expensive mansion.

That would be a real status symbol, and if only that were true, but it's a good example.

A status symbol is a possession that shows off our wealth and our place in society.

Yep. And we have the phrase to make business sense, in other words, to be good for business.

We could also say that a particular policy makes economic sense, or I could say investing wisely makes financial sense.

Not like yachts, which are expensive to buy and run.

In fact, they are a black hole for our money.

Now, did you know that our next phrase pecking order actually comes from chicken behavior?

And finally, the phrase conspicuous consumption, e.g.

you could say that dining at the finest restaurants wearing expensive clothes is conspicuous consumption.

And to clear up two similar phrases, A status symbol refers to the object itself, like a luxury car, whereas conspicuous consumption refers to the act of spending money on things like expensive cars, but you're spending money so that other people notice.

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