Conspicuous consumption?

[guest post from Ryan]

So don't get me wrong---Doha is not nearly so bad as Dubai for conspicuous consumption and men trying to building the tallest buildings and largest man-made islands and hotels with the most stars, etc. However, there are a lot of very nice gas-guzzlers on the road and people (at least the Qataris) have some very nice things. One sign of the opulence: when using the "Fast Cash" option at the ATM, one of the amounts you can take out of the bank is $1400. They basically don't even bother with having currency in denominations less than $0.30.