OPINION: Wheels of Fortune just spin better for some people

Published 4:30 am Thursday, June 11, 2026

Rest easy, my column isn’t about politics this week. It’s not that I have sworn off political opinions — certainly not in an election year, when the candidates provide a wealth of opportunity for criticism.

This column is about a different kind of wealth. It’s about wealthy people, really wealthy people who live in a fantasy land of too much money and too many toys — and no idea of how they sound to non-wealthy people.

It’s about a $640,000 electric Ferrari and some rich guy who owns more than 40 Ferraris. Yes, that’s 40, not 4. It’s a reminder that while money can’t buy true happiness, it can buy multiple garages full of happiness.

The storied Italian car maker last week unveiled its first electric vehicle. Critics saw through the hype and did not like the look: The entire upper half of the vehicle and many of its fittings are made of glass.

I guess that’s to let the sun shine in, though I always thought rich people liked their privacy. The new car is named Luce, which is Italian for light, so maybe that’s the connection with all the glass.

The price tag, however, is anything but light, starting at $640,000, though I can’t imagine what options anyone would need. Maybe a pilot car to run ahead, clearing away the mud and gravel to protect the finish.

It has an electric motor for each wheel and an “external amplification system” that pumps sound out to the street so that everyone else will think you’re driving a real Ferrari, not an EV. Say it loud and proud, “I can afford this car!”

The Luce was such a big deal in Italy that an all-white model arrived at Pope Leo XIV’s residence in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, where the pontiff posed for a photo.

It appears such a promotional blessing meant little to a Montreal-based real estate entrepreneur. This is the guy who owns more than 40 Ferraris. “Oh boy, how ugly she is,” he was quoted in The Wall Street Journal last week. “How (do you) justify a 400,000 to 500,000 (dollar) price for this? Unbelievable.”

What’s unbelievable to me is that Mr. Rich Guy would admit to owning more than 40 Ferraris.

For the rest of the world who can’t afford 40 gallons of gas much less than many cars, here’s some math.

The average value of a Ferrari is more than $400,000, so Mr. Real Estate’s garage is worth more than $16 million, not counting the garage. That’s about equal to the annual income of almost 200 U.S. households, calculated against the median household income according to the Census Bureau.

If you want to measure that $16 million against a family of four in the U.S. at the federal poverty level, it comes to almost 500 households.

Of course, such inequality is not illegal. Some would argue it’s not immoral — people are entitled to the rewards of their work. Successful business people are free to enjoy life, certainly a much more comfortable life. But how many comfortable bucket seats does one person need?

There is no surprise in any of this. Rich people have more of everything they want, while everyone else struggles to pay for everything they need.

So if you ever think of Mr. Real Estate and his vast parking lot, just remember he has struggles too — like deciding which Ferrari to drive that day.

Larry Persily is a longtime Alaska journalist, with breaks for federal, state and municipal public policy work in Alaska and Washington, D.C. He lives in Anchorage and is publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel weekly newspaper.