The Market In Action: It's a Tough Life for Mr. Diddy

(AP photo.)

Sean "Puff Daddy" "P. Diddy" "Diddy" Combs, Harlem hip hop star and clothing designer, released a YouTube video (strong language warning) begging the people of Saudi Arabia to produce more oil. (Perhaps he's mistaken Saudi Arabia for a democracy?)  His beef: He can no longer afford to fly his private jet.

"I'm actually flying commercial. That's how high gas prices are... I'm at the gate right now. This is really happening, proof gas prices are too high."

With due respect to Mr. Combs's trauma, I'd argue that fuel prices have finally risen enough to get people to change their extravagant behavior.

Consider: taking the train produces .46 pounds of CO2 per passenger mile.  Flying commercial on a full jet produces .64, while driving a rental car produces 1.2 pounds of CO2 per passenger mile.  But flying a private jet (in addition to costing Mr. Combs $200,000 per flight) can emit a whopping 22 pounds of CO2 per passenger mile! (e.g. a Gulfstream III transporting a single passenger 1,000 miles.*)  More if you use a special plane to transport your luggage.

Do I sympathize with Mr. Combs?  Not really.  In the blog, he says he flies coach-- but I've never seen seats that wide in coach.  It's a tough life when you're forced to fly first class.


* Like other forms of transportation, acceleration uses more fuel in a jet than cruising at a steady speed.  Take-off uses more fuel than anything else.  That means a long flight is actually far more efficient than a short flight.