If You’ve Wondered What Money Is With No Purpose: It’s Dubai

Posted by Join Or DIE on March 20, 2011

They have an an indoor ski resort in the middle of the desert. They also built fake islands. A. A. Gill writes in Vanity Fair:

Its skyline erupting from the desert in just two decades, Dubai is a cautionary tale about what money can’t buy: a culture of its own. After gorging on the Viagra of easy credit, the emirate has the world’s tallest building, the world’s most expensive racetrack, and a financial crisis to match. From the Western mercenaries and Asian drones who maintain the gaudy show to 100-odd families who are impervious to any economic reality…

The only way to make sense of Dubai is to never forget that it isn’t real. It’s a fable, a fairy tale, like The Arabian Nights. More correctly, it’s a cautionary tale. Dubai is the story of the three wishes, where, as every kid knows, with the third wish you demand three more wishes. And as every genie knows, more wishes lead to more greed, more misery, more bad credit, and much, much, much more bad taste. Dubai is Las Vegas without the showgirls, the gambling, or Elvis. Dubai is a financial Disneyland without the fun. It’s a holiday resort with the worst climate in the world. It boils. It’s humid. And the constant wind is full of sand. The first thing you see when you arrive is the airport, with its echoing marble halls. It’s big enough to be the hub of a continent. Dubai suffers from gigantism — a national inferiority complex that has to make everything bigger and biggest. This includes their financial crisis.

Read More: Vanity Fair

Posted in: Debt, Dubai, Economics, Financial Crisis, Middle East, Money, Society

http://strictlyapathy.comoj.com SoulArbiter

It may have many man-made marvels, but no matter how impressive this place seems, I’ve absolutely no desire to go there. It’s a place for only the rich and famous to consider.
http://twitter.com/RodT3 RodT3

You cant afford it…Be real.
Word Eater

Unlike you, I’d love to go to Dubai, if simply to observe. It would be utterly fascinating.
Bachrodi

Dubai sounds awesome!
Anonymous

Also creepy….
Anonymous

Also creepy….
NnI_InN

I suspect that Dubai’s extraordinary wealth has something to do with the Middle East Oil and opium/drug trade. Now please do not crucify me for saying that, it is just a speculation and intuitive. I don’t know how else a country near the middle east can come up with such an incredible amount of money.
NnI_InN

I suspect that Dubai’s extraordinary wealth has something to do with the Middle East Oil and opium/drug trade. Now please do not crucify me for saying that, it is just a speculation and intuitive. I don’t know how else a country near the middle east can come up with such an incredible amount of money.
NnI_InN

I suspect that Dubai’s extraordinary wealth has something to do with the Middle East Oil and opium/drug trade. Now please do not crucify me for saying that, it is just a speculation and intuitive. I don’t know how else a country near the middle east can come up with such an incredible amount of money.
NnI_InN

I suspect that Dubai’s extraordinary wealth has something to do with the Middle East Oil and opium/drug trade. Now please do not crucify me for saying that, it is just a speculation and intuitive. I don’t know how else a country near the middle east can come up with such an incredible amount of money.
NnI_InN

I suspect that Dubai’s extraordinary wealth has something to do with the Middle East Oil and opium/drug trade. Now please do not crucify me for saying that, it is just a speculation and intuitive. I don’t know how else a country near the middle east can come up with such an incredible amount of money.
NnI_InN

I suspect that Dubai’s extraordinary wealth has something to do with the Middle East Oil and opium/drug trade. Now please do not crucify me for saying that, it is just a speculation and intuitive. I don’t know how else a country near the middle east can come up with such an incredible amount of money.
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

At first I read the title “want to know why money has no purpose?” and i got excited. Oh well.

I’d argue this sort of money expenditure breeds pointlessness, at least without money Dubai could have hopes of building giant useless buildings, but now they have nothing left (well except for debt.)
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

At first I read the title “want to know why money has no purpose?” and i got excited. Oh well.

I’d argue this sort of money expenditure breeds pointlessness, at least without money Dubai could have hopes of building giant useless buildings, but now they have nothing left (well except for debt.)
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

At first I read the title “want to know why money has no purpose?” and i got excited. Oh well.

I’d argue this sort of money expenditure breeds pointlessness, at least without money Dubai could have hopes of building giant useless buildings, but now they have nothing left (well except for debt.)
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

At first I read the title “want to know why money has no purpose?” and i got excited. Oh well.

I’d argue this sort of money expenditure breeds pointlessness, at least without money Dubai could have hopes of building giant useless buildings, but now they have nothing left (well except for debt.)
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

At first I read the title “want to know why money has no purpose?” and i got excited. Oh well.

I’d argue this sort of money expenditure breeds pointlessness, at least without money Dubai could have hopes of building giant useless buildings, but now they have nothing left (well except for debt.)
http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

At first I read the title “want to know why money has no purpose?” and i got excited. Oh well.

I’d argue this sort of money expenditure breeds pointlessness, at least without money Dubai could have hopes of building giant useless buildings, but now they have nothing left (well except for debt.)
grooveboss

they enslave migrant workers.
grooveboss

ive read things about it. its not a good place. its full of british expats.
5by5

Dubai is very real to the slave labor that built it.
Anonymous

Dubai was to be the centre of global evil but, modern democracies started cracking down on despot havens, tax havens and money laundering, pretty much ending it’s need for existence before it even began.
When it comes to cracking down on tax havens and money laundering countries, who rely on tax cheats, organised crime, corrupt politicians, arms dealers and drug dealers to survive, the global people’s revolution that is taking place means those crime driven economies are going to be bankrupted.
A real drive will kick on for the rich and greedy to pay for the last thirty years of an out of control white collar crime wave, from the top down designed to impoverish the majority and to leave them at the economic mercy of an insane minority.
Andrew

This is the highest good which humanity can achieve.

…according to Ayn Rand.
Ironaddict06

I like you would like to visit-just to see the architecture.
Noob

Dubai seems cool
Noob

Dubai seems cool
CafCat

Grooveboss, do you believe everything you read?

Anyway, us Brit Expats in Dubai (a small minority of the overall population) will be very sad not to see you visiting Dubai to share your open minded views of life.
CafCat

This article is obviously written by someone who has either never even visited Dubai, or if they did, got off the plane, went to a hotel and then got on the big bus tour before going back to their hotel, and getting back on the plane out of Dubai.

Dubai is not perfect, but ignorant articles like this really are disapointing.

If You’ve Wondered What Money Is With No Purpose: It’s Dubai

more disinformation

more disinformation