LONDON — "The have-yachts and the have-nots" is a phrase used in London to distinguish between the very rich and not so rich. It reflects the growing disparity between the mega-rich and the rest.
The mega-rich include hedge fund managers as well as the chairmen and senior directors of financial institutions and of large companies with headquarters in Britain. They also include Russian oligarchs and some of the growing number of Indian and other Asian businessmen as well as Saudis and others from oil-rich countries who have business interests and houses here. In many of the harbors of the Mediterranean there is a shortage of available yacht berths, while the prices of houses in fashionable parts of the west end of London have reached huge sums well beyond the means of middle-income families.
The mega-rich or dollar/pound sterling billionaires are, of course, a small minority of the population, but their consumption is conspicuous. This attracts the attention of the media, the envy of the not-so-rich and the ire of leftwing politicians who criticize the ways in which at least some wealthy individuals manage to reduce their tax liabilities.