With you Sven - had to look it up too.

Back to the pool view.

Solipsism is an interesting idea. One in the thrall of this idea can learn its meaning by looking at a dictionary written by…someone else. Hmmm.

If you haven't been exposed to true wealth, its a hard subject to grasp. I have a lot of very wealthy friends ( my personal definition of that is + $100million). For the most part, they do not act the part, and the average person would never know they were wealthy. Most of them dress in jeans and drive very average vehicles. One in particular is in work boots most of the time, and his net worth is north of $500million.
These folks pay cash for new King Air 350's or used Challengers and never bat an eye. It's fascinating to be around them and know they can buy anything they want, yet they are generous, humble people who will do almost anything for anyone. They are nothing like the fake social elites that dominate the headlines.
More and more of these types are buying airplanes, and they are, for the most part, insulated from any downturn in the economy. Put another way, when you have $100 million cash in the bank, there isn't much that will affect you. As a matter of fact, they tend to multiply their wealth when a downturn provides a good buying opportunity.

Depending on whether it’s a B C EX LX etc it’s a jump in capex.
Opex is very similar.

Exactly. There are only 38,780 turbine aircraft (non airliner) in the United States... that's total, all turboprops and all jets. Historically, we expect about 6% of a fleet to be for sale. So even 1100 buyers is a huge swing.

This isn't a bubble as we have seen in the past, this is a shift in demand and most likely a permanent one.

It stinks for buying airplanes right now, but it is overall very good for our industry and all of those who support it. Pilots, maintenance, avionics, management, logistics, etc.

This is also huge for aircraft manufacturing in the US, think about what an impact Textron, Cirrus, Piper and Gulfstream have on the US economy!

The truly wealthy don't show it. The wealthy wannabees display it.

Also, Texas is not CA or NY when it comes to the wealthy. Suspect you will find more wealthy snobs on the coasts.

Mike C.

There are only about 100,000 people in The US that have assets of 50 million or more.

I have hangars in SoCal and deal with a lot of wealthy people. My father in law was on the Forbes 400 list so I have experience dealing with the very wealthy .

The people with one to five million were the hardest to deal with. People with 25 million or more were usually easy to deal with.

I regularly deal with a fair number of very wealthy people. I got a call from one of them today who just wanted to check in and say hi. My experience is like Jerry’s - the very wealthy are easier to deal with than those who want to be. And Mike is absolutely correct about the “wannabe’s “.

I think it was Will Rogers who said: "The rich are different from us. They have more money."

"There is no more obnoxious person than one who wants to be thought of as rich."

That is straight from John Green

Jg

To add to Doug’s sentiment, I grew up in Midland, Texas during an oil boom. I could write a book about some of those characters. It was and odd situation, small town in the middle of nowhere with some of the wealthiest families in the world. Two families in particular, owned huge ranches because they were sheep farmers, they moved west in the late 1800’s early 1900’s because people hated sheep. When they got to Midland, no one cared they were there, the harassment of their neighbors ceased, so they settled.

Then oil was discovered.

The truly wealthy don't show it. The wealthy wannabees display it.

Also, Texas is not CA or NY when it comes to the wealthy. Suspect you will find more wealthy snobs on the coasts.

Mike C.

You know what they say about Midland; “It’s not that bad”.