[zdragnar]

Buying a jet creates high paying, skilled jobs which support families, their children's education, and so forth. The downstream effect from the purchase includes the pilot, the airport expenses, maintenance crew, and the taxes on the expenses and all of those salaries.

Not a cent of the money is in any way wasted.

I'm reminded of the Maryland luxury tax, which allegedly crippled their boat building industry and put a lot of middle class people out of their jobs. I say allegedly because I remember the story, not the source that confirmed that there weren't other coinciding factors.

[Retric]

May I suggest you read this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

Fuel and depreciation is simply wealth being destroyed.

[johnsonjo]

No, I don't believe fuel and depreciation are being destroyed. I think that is the difference between this situation and the broken window parable. They are simply being traded for a service to arrive at destinations swiftly. If we judge purely off opportunity cost the billionaire's time is worth a lot more than the average layman. The extra cost in the goods and services of a private jet may very well be worth the expense to the billionaire.

[Retric]

Renting a jet to get from A > B is no slower. But, it's a lot cheaper and the difference in costs is not a net economic benifit.

[zdragnar]

Fuel and depreciation are only destroyed wealth if there is no lost opportunity by not purchasing them, and that entertainment alone is not a sufficiently worthy value.

Presuming so would also argue that the majority of human endeavor is also waste; everything from entertaining TV shows to having small animals as pets to music lessons to trips to private space flight to works of fiction.

[mlevental]

umm that is literally the opposite of broken window fallacy

[perl4ever]

It certainly seems like an example of the broken window fallacy to me. Invoking the creation of jobs to refute the claim of wasting labor is the same illogical argument. It's just redefining bad as good and pretending it is an argument. Jobs are not a scarce resource. Labor is a scarce resource. Capital is a scarce resource. Instead of making cake for the rich, a baker may instead make bread for the poor.

[brbsix]

Making cake for the rich isn't an example of the broken window fallacy either, and I'm not sure what that has to do with anything.

Cash for clunkers is an example of the fallacy, operating a vehicle (be it a car or jet) for work/pleasure is not.