@spendius,
You only need observe a lady wearing the latest fashions purchased in Paris in a roomful of frocks from the shops to see how exciting invidious comparisons with others can become.
We now have international firework display competitions to instill national pride from bringing excitable cells,
en masse, into a certain congruence when comparing themselves with lesser mortals. In fact there are so many competitions designed to instill national pride from bringing excitable cells,
en masse, into a certain congruence when comparing themselves with lesser mortals that I think investors might look at this sector to their advantage. The touchdown or the goal is when the congruence of a mass of excitable cells is at its most fulfilling . The more-so when it is a deciding score near the end of a ding-dong struggle for supremacy.
In a firework display the scarce resources have to be seen to have gone up in smoke. We can only get an idea of who can waste the most by witnessing the event with our own starry eyes. The ads on either side of the screenings begging £3 a month for a starving kid notwithstanding.
It would be useless to compete at shoveling currency notes into a furnace because they can easily be reprinted and the colour and the movement of the bright sparkling lights would not be as effective at exciting those cells which are excited by such things and which express themselves by "oooohing" and "aaaahing" and jumping up and down, clapping the hands together and having what I thought looked very similar to religious fervour on their smug fissogs.
I once saw the bill of lading for
The Bounty and there were trunks full of shiny coloured objects, trinkets and gee-gaws to ingratiate the crew with any exotic ladies they might meet and compartments full of shovels, spades, mattocks and the like for the gentlemen.