A Luxury Good?

Is private education a luxury good? Many, maybe most, people working in the field resist labeling what they do as such, but this seems less logical as the price climbs out of reach of the middle class without financial aid. Reading this piece by acclaimed restauranteur Vivian Howard in the NY Times on fine dining in the wake of the Noma restaurant closure, we couldn't help but see parallels with our sector as represented by a few quotes.

On leadership:

A restaurant is a hefty investment that looks terrible on paper — but when we have a spitfire talent at the helm, we convince ourselves that it just might work.

On pricing:

We could raise prices, but any price adjustment that would wholly fill the cracks in our foundation would be so high that it would drive customers away. 

On alternative revenue sources:

For us, any culturally appropriate concept would have done as long as it involved less service, labor, square footage — really less of everything than its demanding, insatiable money pit of a big sister. All we needed was volume. The goal was to make enough profit from burgers and pizza to ensure the future of the mother ship.

The parallels abound.