There are diseases of poverty, such as tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/Aids. There are diseases of affluence, such as lung cancer, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. And then there are the hazards of extreme affluence, such as being thrown off a polo pony, flipping your speedboat or succumbing to altitude sickness on a vanity expedition to the Himalayas.

This point was brought home this week by the presumed death by drowning of Philip Merrill. The 72-year-old Washington-area press baron was sailing alone on his 41ft boat, probably without a life jacket, when he disappeared into the Chesapeake Bay. I mean no disrespect to Mr Merrill – or to the late Robert Maxwell – when I say that the risk of meeting this sort of end goes in to the small but poetic category of problems unique to the rich and famous. Members of the middle class do not have to worry about falling off $250,000 sailing boats, because they do not have $250,000 sailing boats off which to fall.