Jewel for Dagny

[Jarous]

Hello,

I don't fully understand the passage from Atlas Shrugged where Hank gives a jewel to Dagny as a present. The stone is described as very famous, which only a handful of men in the world could properly afford to purchase. That Rearden was not one of them is then added. I don't think that Rand is referring to financial costs here, Rearden is rich. Is it that the woman he gives the stone to cannot afford to wear it in public? But I guess that Dagny is the kind who would not care to display it anyway... Anyone understands why Rearden could not afford to purchase the jewel?

[softwareNerd]

Rearden was not one of the handful of the richest people in the world who could financially afford that jewel. He was stretching his budget there

[Sir Andrew]

I remember there being a reference about the "People's States" selling crown jewels on the black market, but no one was left to afford them. Maybe he got it that way?

[musenji]

I always understood it to mean what softwareNerd said: that it was an extremely expensive jewel, only a few men in the world could "properly" afford to buy it, and Rearden was not one of them. "Properly" doesn't refer to social rules or legality. "Properly" in this case means it would be comfortably within the man's budget to buy.

For example, if you're a billionaire, a 50 million dollar ruby is still within your "comfortable" price range for a very important gift. If, however, your net worth is 60 million dollars, much of which you use to develop your business, then 50 million is NOT comfortably within your budget, even though you technically have enough to buy it.

From the way it was described, I would guess that the ruby cost Rearden at least 1/4 of his net worth. (That's the low end of my estimate range.)

[JMeganSnow]

That scene reminded me a lot of my grandfather taking my grandmother shopping for a fur coat while she was sick (she had cancer and died a year or two later). She found a coat that she just LOVED but it was VERY expensive and she started saying "well, I'd love to have it but do I really have anywhere to wear it?" and grandpa said "BUY IT!"

Ayn Rand was just indicating that Rearden was splurging without worrying about keeping a budget, which makes sense once you consider the character. Prior to falling in love with Dagny, he'd bought nice things but never gotten any enjoyment from them. On realizing his capacity for enjoyment, he set out to enjoy life as much as he could. It wasn't important to him any longer if a purchase was excessive or put him out--he knew he could afford it in a different sense.