Member-only story
Super Cars And Other Toys; Some Perspective
Some people in the world can pay the cost of a car that in many parts of the world is the combined annual income of tens of thousands of families.
The most expensive car in the world is the Bugatti La Voiture Noire with a sticker price of $18.7 million US dollars. This price includes taxes. The pre-tax cost is $12.4 million.
The monthly lease on this expensive toy assuming a $1.0M down payment, sales tax and luxury tax of 25% on a 5-year lease would be $250,000 a month. To put this into perspective for a majority of people on the planet, consider the following:
One in every four children on the African continent suffer from stunted growth as a result of malnutrition. $40, will feed a starving child for an entire year. Dividing $18.7 million by 40 equals 467,500. That is the number of children that could be raised slightly above the poverty line for a year for the cost of this one supercar.
Who can afford to buy this car? As of January 2020, there were 2,150 billionaires globally. Currently, there are 2,850 billionaires in the world today who could afford these pricy wheels — maybe. Probably, more than a few have their billions tied up in non-liquid assets.