Why spend $250,000 on a gold shirt?

[The Straight Story]

An Indian man has bought one of the world's most expensive shirts, made with more than 3kg of gold and worth $250,000. His is an extreme case of an Indian obsession with the precious metal.

Datta Phuge's nickname is "the gold man", and it's easy to see why.

His knuckles, neck, and wrists are weighed down by the precious metal - signet rings, chunky bracelets, and a medallion that even an Olympic champion might envy.

And on top of that, draped resplendently around him, glittering in the light, is a shirt of gold.

Weighing a staggering 3.3kg (about 7lb), it cost him a cool quarter of a million dollars (£162,000).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21994873

[Helen Reddy]

1. Crikey!

[Dreamer Tatum]

2. India has rappers? nt

[Poll_Blind]

3. He still looks like a goofball. nt

PB

[FSogol]

4. Without the gold shirt, it would be hard to tell that he's a douche. n/t

[Electric Monk]

8. well, there is the 'stache....

[edbermac]

6. How much did his gold underwear cost?

[Cleita]

7. For that kind of money, he could have gotten something a little better designed

and stylish. A J. C. Penney's polyester shirt from the sixties is just that no matter if it's made of gold or polyester.

[alcibiades_mystery]

9. "I call that gettin' tricked by a business..."

[Xyzse]

10. I thought they saved gold for heirlooms and it doesn't go in to banks

It is used also for dowries and so forth.
In that sense, I can understand it. Crazy, but that is how it has been going supposedly.

[sofa king]

11. It's now worth $232,500

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022675617

[krispos42]

12. Beats him using the money to support conservatism, I guess.

Jeez, that's gaudy.

[bettyellen]

13. PR

[Apophis]

14. Soooo...is this what the rich buy when they run out of things to buy?

[NightWatcher]

15. He needs a mohawk and a van

[Initech]

16. Is he Goldmember?

Schmoke and a pancake?
Flapjack and a cigarette?
Cigar and a waffle?
Pipe and a crepe?
Bong and a blintz?

Then there is no pleasing you!

[TheMadMonk]

18. My money would be on him next to no "member" at all. /nt

[Tender to the Bone]

17. With the gold price dropping..

It's probably worth $125,000.

Nice to see that he has to take a loss on a lousy shirt.

[cthulu2016]

19. Someone who wants to own a $170,000 shirt

[hfojvt]

20. well Veblen called it

"conspicuous consumption"

and since capitalism IS all about invidious comparisons, this would seem to be the reductio ad absurdum of this system.

But I sorta wonder if babelfish could translate that last sentence from jargonese to English.

[MrScorpio]

21. If he's not married yet, he's definitely on the market now

I'm sure that he'll get a lot of prospects with that get up.

[petronius]

22. What, he couldn't afford the dressier long-sleeve version? Piker...

[Ganja Ninja]

23. Still it looks a lot better than this.

[pinboy3niner]

24. Lame. nt