The next time you’re in the mood to knock around Paris and have an idle $16,000 burning a hole in your pocket, may I suggest flying “La Premiere” on Air France. When you’ve tired of the diversions offered by The City of Light, a personal Mercedes will pick you up at your hotel, whisk you through private customs at De Gaulle airport, drive you along the tarmac in a Porsche Cayenne, elevate you onto the plane via a unique entrance, ensconce you in a curtained off space with both lounge chair and full-size bed, and ply you with gastronomic delights at every turn. You’ll even get a personal visit from the captain, if you’re inclined to meet someone whose undoubtedly both handsome and deferential.

What you not meet, at any step in your journey, is anyone whose existence spills beyond attending to you.

A common theme of this blog is that: what we buy with affluence, is privacy. And every so often, when I come upon an extreme example of how this plays out in the real world, I revisit the idea. Why do humans (purportedly social creatures) go to such great lengths to keep away from each other? The recent NY Times article on flying first class Paris to New York is just that kind of absurdity.

On the surface, the article’s a bit of fluff, a glimpse into a world the vast majority of us will never achieve and yet, for some reason, we’re supposed to aspire to. I really can’t imagine what it’s like to have every single interaction be with a subservient, but the idea gives me the willies. When everyone bows to you, you never question anything about yourself or your role in this world. In fact, each supplicant further inflates your own self-importance and inhibits any chance for critical reflection or personal growth.

How did we arrive at this value system that prizes being coddled and comforted rather than being challenged? So many factors, laid upon each other. Our affluence, for sure. “La Premiere” could not exist without a regular group who hop the Pond without giving sixteen grand a second thought. Madison Avenue, for drilling the idea of comfort and convenience into our brains. Our political narrative that demonizes “the other” (i.e. economy class) as something dangerous, to be avoided AT ALL COST! Overlay our economic myths that equate more money with being a better person. Wealth may be a fact. But it is not a virtue.

The funny thing is, I could fly “La Premiere” to Paris. I have the money. Blowing 16K on such frivolity wouldn’t seriously dent my retirement savings. But I’ll never do it. For the same reason I don’t fly first class anywhere. For the same reason I have an Advantage Plan over a premium Medicare policy. For the same reason I take the T instead of an Uber. Because even though I can afford to set myself beyond what an ordinary person can afford, I choose not to do it. Because living prudently is living more sustainably. Because I strive to be aligned with my fellow man. Because my well-being does not come from being separate from others. It comes from being engaged with them.