If you’ve ever been underwater on a car loan, you know what an uneasy feeling that can be. Barack and Michelle Obama are currently in escrow on a $15 million beachfront estate which itself may one day be completely underwater if climate research funded by his own administration is anything to go by.

How can they sleep at night?

Climate Central, backed by a Who’s Who of climate alarmists (and sometimes your tax dollars), warned in 2017 that the part of Martha’s Vineyard featuring the Obamas’ new summer home could fall victim to rising seawaters under the group’s “Extreme Scenario 2100” model. That’s according to new research by the Daily Caller’s Peter Hasson.

Poor investment. Martha’s Vineyard is literally going to be swallowed by the ocean if we don’t hand over all of our money and freedom to the government to stop Global Warming. https://t.co/oCkFjK45mK — The Red-Headed Libertarian ™ (@TRHLofficial) August 23, 2019

There’s a fun little tool at the group’s website, where you can use Google Maps to get a 3D view of what happens anywhere in the world under the Extreme Scenario. Living at 7,400 feet above sea level in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, I didn’t bother to punch in my own address. I figure Monument Hill is pretty safe under any scenario except for Extreme Ice Age, which actually seems a lot worse, globally, than some coastal flooding. Curiously, Climate Central hasn’t issued any dire warnings about another ice age, even though some geologists say we’re overdue for one.

The Extreme Scenario tool’s home page opens with a view of Manhattan fully flooded, which isn’t alarmist at all, even though Climate Central admits that the scenario is, as the name suggests, extreme.

Still, $15 million for a summer home you might someday need scuba gear just to visit, does seem a bit extreme. But as “recovering investment banker” and author Carol Roth reports, the Obamas are “rolling in dough” since leaving office. That’s thanks to “a joint book deal worth $65 million, high-priced speaking engagements and a deal with Netflix,” Roth writes.

Plus:

Obama, 2008: "When you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody" Obama, 2010: "At a certain point, you've made enough money" Obama, 2019: "I'll take the $15 million Martha's Vineyard mansion on 29 beachfront acres" https://t.co/VVbdAkaq0G — Adam Ford (@Adam4d) August 22, 2019

But it’s different when the Lightbringer lives the lush life, because he worked so hard for eight years slowing the rise of the oceans and all that.

More seriously, what about the optics involved? It can’t look very good, the Obamas spending eight figures on a summer home supposedly at risk of inundation. Or Al Gore’s carbon footprint, which is one of the few things on Earth still larger than Al Gore. And all those celebrities and royalty flying off in private jets to tiny islands, to be whisked away from the airfield in high-performance cars, all to attend a conference on climate change. How do they think they look, emitting all that carbon and then telling us to jack up our thermostats to 82° on summer nights?

Actually, I think they love the optics.

Barack and Michelle Obama Buying Mega-Mansion in Martha's Vineyard 29 beachfront acres 6,900-square-foot main residence 7 bedrooms 2 guest wings Boathouse Carbon footprint? https://t.co/lsHG0h4Ndx — Matt Wolking (Text TRUMP to 88022) (@MattWolking) August 23, 2019

Way back when, it was so much easier to lord it over the unwashed masses. If, for example, you wanted to hear the symphony, you had to be able to afford a pricy live performance. Today, anyone who can afford a smartphone and a music streaming service — which is pretty much anyone living in the West — enjoys instant access to tens of millions of songs, right in their pockets. Want to read almost any book, without ever leaving the comfort of your own home? There’s no need for a mansion with its own library when there are WiFi and e-readers. Today’s small family sedans boast 0-to-60 times that were once the province of supercars. I’m just old enough to remember when color TV was still something of a luxury, but if you count the two monitors on my desk, the phone on its charger and the iPad I’m using for note-taking, there are four color TVs just in my office. And any of one them can stream from a selection of movies far larger than even the most indulgent home movie theater of yesteryear.

In fact, look around your home right now, and you’ll find similar one-time luxuries that are now commonplace. Look again, and marvel at how many things weren’t luxuries 20 or 30 years ago — because they didn’t even exist yet.

So as the price of luxuries falls year after year, the cost of feeling smug rises faster than the sea levels ever could. And while the Obamas and DiCaprios and Windsors would never admit it, there’s nothing so luxurious as being able to afford the princely sums required by modern hypocrisy.