Why Sales of Rolls Royce Cars are Booming
Economic distress has become the name of the game for many Americans who grapple with unemployment, poverty, inflation, a devalued currency and declining wages. While the government pays lip service to the poor, the rich are getting richer with the help of the federal government. The increasing wealth of the nation’s most wealthy people has led to a surge in sales for some of the world’s most elite cars, including the Rolls Royce.Rolls Royce set a new company record in 2011, selling 5,358 high-end luxury cars. The surge in business has been welcome in the UK where the elite automaker operates and where any boost to the economy is appreciated. BMW, a German automaker, owns the Rolls Royce Company.In another record set by Rolls Royce during the year, Chinese customers bought more Rolls Royce cars than buyers in the U.S. for the first time. This actually makes sense since so much American money is being transferred directly to China in the form of interest payments. Awash in cash, that nation has a growing elitist class of its own causing a wage gap that ultra-wealthy Americans might envy.Rolls Royce’s sales in China exploded by 47 percent during 2011, while its domestic sales increased by less than one-third.No Recession?AlthoughThisMoneysees the booming sales for Rolls Royce, Bentley and other ultra-fine cars as a sign that the recession is over, it could be a sign of continued economic polarization.Spreading the Wealth to ChinaAs the ranks of the ultra-wealthy now swell, it is only a very small percentage of people who get to enjoy the global recession. Although a communist nation, China has allowed its elite class to benefit from the gains the nation enjoys from its cash cow, foreign loans. This has led to a growing group of government-sanctioned wealthy people who now have so much money they are buying up the best products of every type the world has to offer. The story is almost the same in the U.S.USA Still a PlayerAlthough China has surpassed the U.S. as the largest market for Rolls Royce, sales in the U.S. are also increasing. In a nation where a higher percentage of people live in poverty now than at any other time in history, according to theNew York Times, the affluent are scoring major boosts to their wealth.Unlike China, the U.S. doesn’t have billions of dollars of interest payments from foreign loans enriching its Power Elite class; the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans has its own source of free cash: the federal government.Transferring American WealthAlthough many Americans deride their government as spreading the wealth of the middle class to the poor, the poorest 99 percent of Americans are spreading what little they have to finance the wealth explosion the ultra-wealthy have enjoyed during the economic down turn. According toInvestor’s Business Daily, the federal government now seizes $10 billion of wealth from the poorest Americans and gives it to the wealthiest. With all this extra money, the top 1 percent of American society is on a spending orgy, trying to snap up all the finest things in life, including Rolls Royces.Good News and Bad NewsThe news is really good for Rolls Royce. That company is now flush with cash and gearing up a strategy to produce enough of their fine cars to meet the demand for them.The bad news is that as a miniscule percentage of the world’s population enjoys unprecedented wealth, the overwhelming majority of the world’s population is suffering unprecedented poverty and despair as the fruits of its labor are seized to help pay for the growing excesses of the ultra wealthy. For workers around the world, recessions are still very bad things.
