The Very Rich May Be Mutants

Forbes is reporting that real estate mogul Tim Blixseth is building and plans to sell the world's most expensive home, for $155 million dollars. What strikes me most about this story is this quotation, "Some of (the world's richest) just have to have the best. Price is not an issue." How can $155 million dollars for a house not be an issue? Sometimes I wonder if the very rich have a different genetic make-up than the rest of us? I don't know how else to explain spending that is equivalent to more than 11 different countries' GDP?

According to the CIA World Factbook (and Wikipedia), these countries have a GDP all less than $155 million:

217 Marshall Islands 115
218 Anguilla 108
219 Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) 75
220 Nauru 60
221 Wallis and Futuna 60
222 Saint Pierre and Miquelon 48
223 Montserrat 29
224 Saint Helena 18
225 Tuvalu 14
226 Niue 7
227 Tokelau 1

Now, I am one of the biggest proponents of capitalism I know, but this seems frivilous even to me.