Conspicuous consumption without asset protection leads to the path of economic perdition. Predators are constantly roaming the earth in search of easy prey.
Even animals, like porcupines and skunks have defensive ways to ward off attackers who wish to have them for lunch. Albeit humans have developed refined ways to discourage carnivores, they are their own worst enemies because they brag about their net worth. Fortune magazine’s annual “Richest People in the World” issue is a veritable hit list for predators. Living a lavish lifestyle is an open invitation to lawsuits.
Driving a brand new Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Pajero, or Expedition could get you into trouble in more ways than you can imagine. Wearing a Patek Philippe, Jaeger-LeCoultre, or Audemars Piquet wristwatch is a declaration of affluence. If you have a high net worth, you may encounter bigger threats to your properties. Some “bountiful ladies “who dabble in dubious charity work are also at risk. The economist Thorstein Veblen, in his classic work The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899) called such work an example of conspicuous leisure, an aspect of conspicuous consumption. “It advertises that the lady has free afternoons to spend on projects with some specious object of amelioration” (Wflls, Certain Trumpets, 1994).