this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024
380 points (96.6% liked)

World News

38970 readers
2391 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

A decadent dinner costing nearly €475,000 for the U.K.’s King Charles III helped push France’s Élysée Palace — the office of President Emmanuel Macron —to a record high deficit last year. 

France’s love for grand gestures and opulent dining are fully in evidence in the pages of a damning  yearly audit of the Élysée’s budget, released on Monday by the Cour des Comptes, France’s top audit court. 

The Élysée’s spending, which includes costs related to the president’s diplomatic and presidential duties as well as administration, personnel, security and estate management, reached a whopping €125 million, plunging the books €8.3 million into the red.

Among the biggest deficit drivers were two luxurious state dinners, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and King Charles III.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I have no clue how you define "middle-class" but not even the fanciest weddings I've been to have spent even close to $250 per person. That kind of expenditure sounds quite a lot more like upper-class to me. Assuming you invite 100 people to the wedding, an average Joe will not have 25k to spend on one party.

[–] ArbitraryValue 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

the national average cost of a wedding in 2023 was $35,000

Source.

The average American wedding cost $29,000 in 2023.

Source.

The average cost of a wedding is $33,000 in 2024.

Source.

I assume that these estimates are based on different datasets, and my guess is that they're biased upwards, but they do roughly match what I know from personal experience.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The issue with these statistics is that they look at the average, which is heavily boosted by the exceptionally expensive weddings of the higher upper-class. The median is significantly lower.

https://silkstemcollective.com/median-and-average-wedding-cost/

Also I'm not American, maybe people there just spend a lot more on weddings in general than what I'm used to.

[–] ArbitraryValue 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

You're correct, but even the median (with inflation) is still probably over $20,000 right now (based on the assumptions that it was $18,000 in 2019 and 2020 is not representative). I think my broader point still stands.

I know a person currently planning a relatively small wedding, and she's trying very hard to save money. One cost-cutting measure was booking a space on the fourth floor of a building without an elevator. (She asked me whether or not it would be possible for strong guests to carry elderly guests up the stairs.) Her budget is still $10,000.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I can go to a restaurant down the street that isn't crazy expensive and spend $150/person with alcohol easily. I've had Michelin starred dinners for $500/person with normal person nice wine. This a fancy state dinner for the fucking king with likely very expensive wine. French Laundry, one of the best restaurants in the world, is close to $1000/person with wine and that isn't for fancy $2000/bottle wine.

As far as wedding costs go, $25k is pretty normal for a wedding. My cheapest friend cheaped out hard on his wedding and spent $5000 over 25 years ago in Indiana. Getting a wedding down to $10k is hard these days. The median is now $18.5k. So if the median spend is close to $20k, then middle class people are often spending more than that.

https://www.moneygeek.com/financial-planning/analysis/average-cost-of-wedding/