Why superyachts?

I’ve been reading more polemics against superyachts lately, for instance from Paul Krugman (NYT).  I’ve never been on a superyacht, or even a non-super yacht, but I can give you my “hypothesis from a distance” about them.  A super-wealthy individual wants to convene a group of people, all of whom are talented, or friends, or famous, but not all of whom are super rich.  The point is to offer them some kind of extra special experience, namely the superyacht.  And you can’t convene everybody in normal public spaces, in part because the super rich person is famous and would attract notice, and in part because of the security risk.  Thus enter the superyacht.

I don’t know how useful these convenings are on average (do the critics?), but I don’t think they are merely or even mainly about status-seeking by the super rich.  The desire is to have a focal, locational base for drawing people together and sometimes working on projects of mutual interest.  That said, I don’t doubt the super rich person enjoys seeing others admire a beautiful yacht, but is that so crazy or craven?  It doesn’t have to be a zero-sum pleasure.  That is, I enjoy it if my friends enjoy my (rather modest) backyard deck, but I’m not so concerned about whether they like Alex’s house better, etc.  There is room for fun everywhere!  Even on superyachts.

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