Luxury spending by the ultra-wealthy can aid those who aren't well off, just as charitable contributions from those wealthy people can do so.

The New York Times details the case of Dennis Jones, who paid $34 million last year for a super yacht. Jones could afford that after selling his drug company Jones Pharma to King Pharmaceuticals for $3.4 billion in 2000.

Since 2000, Jones has matched the $34 million he spent on the yacht with $34 million in donations to help the needy in the St. Louis area.

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The money he spent on the yacht helped rescue Christensen Yachts of Vancouver, Wash. The company was forced to slash its payroll to 75, from 500 after the financial crisis of 2008. So Jones created jobs, and well-paying ones at that.

"The company is up and running better because of us," he tells The Times. There's now a three-year waiting list for Christensen's yachts.

"Ninety-plus percent of the contract price of $34 million goes into payroll, healthcare, American-made materials, goods, services, local and federal taxes," Joe Foggia, chief executive of Christensen Yachts, explains. "One boat affects close to 1,000 households nationwide."

Jones wants to inspire other rich people to think about how their luxury spending can spark job creation.

Ken Nopar, principal at Nopar Consulting, a philanthropic advisory that helps wealthy people give their money away, also sees the ultra-wealthy spending as a good thing. "If people are spending money, it is creating jobs and providing a way of life," he notes.

"There is nothing wrong with it. Without that type of spending there would be a lot more people in need of help from social service agencies."

Meanwhile, the prognosis for luxury spending doesn't look so bright for the short term.

Shares of LVMH, the world's largest luxury goods seller, have dropped 10 percent in the last month. On Thursday it reported that first-half profit fell short of expectations amid sluggish Chinese spending.

"We believe this sends a cold chill to investors who bought back into luxury in the spring in expectation of an upturn in demand from Chinese buyers," JP Morgan Cazenove analyst Melanie Flouquet tells Reuters.

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