In today's Wall Street Journal, letter-writer Ed Klodt compares super-expensive watches, yachts, houses, and other luxuries affordable today only by the richest of the rich to the extravagance of Louis XIV’s Versailles. Bad comparison.

Louis XIV was an absolute monarch. He created no wealth. Indeed, by extracting his fortune forcibly from his subjects he destroyed wealth. He was a predator. While some very rich Americans today win their fortunes by unsavory means, most earn their wealth by creating wealth for others. They produce FOR others; they don't prey ON others. They’ve earned their pricey Mercedeses and McMansions.