Cespedes Is a Prince

Before my son was born, my wife and I used to like to take trips for New Year’s. Our favorite trip was in 2012 when we went to Côte d’Azur. 

Part of Côte d’Azur is the principality of Monaco. To gain citizenship in Monaco, you have to be the richest of the rich.  You have to keep more than €1 million in a Monaco bank at all times, and while there is no income tax, there is a VAT tax. Citizens are required to establish they spent so much money a year. Monaco will find out because they require you providing access to your personal and financial information. 

None of these requirments are particularly onerous for people who wish to apply. These are the people that buy yachts because they have money to burn. 

  

You quickly learn in Monaco the uber rich find interesting ways to flaunt how rich they are. For example, Prince Albert has his private collection of cars on display at the Exposition De Voitres Anciennes de S.A.S. le Prince de Monaco. Loosely translated, this means, “Hey!  I’m so rich that I have more expensive cars than I know what to do with, so come here and look at them.”  There is a notice posted that the cars are a collection and not a museum. Here are some:

   
   
I was reminded of this collection seeing Yoenis Cespedes, who is making $27 million this year, showing off his car collection:

By the way, in addition to these cars, Cespedes has an expensive car on loan to Wilmer Flores during Spring Training:

It’s now apparent that Cespedes is the Prince of Citi Field, and he’s using the Port St. Lucie parking lot as his exhibition of rich and expensive cars. 

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