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Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
RICH-I-STAN n. 1. a new country located in the heart of America, populated entirely by millionaires, most of whom acquired their wealth during the new Gilded Age of the past twenty years. 2. a country with a population larger than Belgium and Denmark; typical citizens include “spud king” J. R. Simplot; hair stylist Sydell Miller, the new star of Palm Beach; and assorted oddball entrepreneurs. 3. A country that with a little luck and pluck, you, too, could be a citizen of.
The rich have always been different from you and me, but Robert Frank’s revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are truly another breed.
RICH-I-STAN n. 1. a new country located in the heart of America, populated entirely by millionaires, most of whom acquired their wealth during the new Gilded Age of the past twenty years. 2. a country with a population larger than Belgium and Denmark; typical citizens include “spud king” J. R. Simplot; hair stylist Sydell Miller, the new star of Palm Beach; and assorted oddball entrepreneurs. 3. A country that with a little luck and pluck, you, too, could be a citizen of.
The rich have always been different from you and me, but Robert Frank’s revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are truly another breed.
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2007
89 people are currently reading
1203 people want to read
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Robert Frank
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September 10, 2022
There ought to be a way to give a book two scores. If there were I would give this both a 2 and a 4.
I have been looking for a book that would update things I read in the 70s; books that emerge from the C. Wright Mills school of political economic sociology. For example, Mills' Power Elite, Domhoff's higher circles and Lundberg's Rich and Super Rich. This book would seem to fit into this collection.
If Frank is correct, he also updates my thinking. I was/am still working under the influence of the above books which claim that the old money -- Rockefellers, Duponts, etc. -- control much of the economy, polity, and culture. Frank claims that the old money is no longer in power. The new money -- millionaires and billionaires that have emerged from within the middle class within the last 25 years have far, far more money and they are currently working their way into politics and culture as well. I will have to read a few more things before I can rest easy with Frank's claim, but if he is correct than he has done me a great service.
Frank is not an academic. This is good since this means he writes well; bad, since we get very little theory, just a few references to Thorsten Veblen. Nor is he a critic of capitalism. This is also good and bad. First the bad: he accepts that the accumulation of vast private wealth is ethically acceptable. Indeed, the weakest aspect of his ethnology of what he calls the Richistanis, is how completely he identifies with them. The umpteenth reference to the size of their houses, yachts, and bank accounts, the constant mention of their jets, cars, watches, and vacation all amount to a kind of thinly veiled envious voyeurism. They let him into see their stuff and their lives and he is utterly seduced.
This absence of ethical judgment and critical reflection serves him well in once sense -- it allows him to describe their lives in great detail. And especially in the last 6 chapters, the descriptions really add up to something despite Frank's rich-struck gaze.
Chapter 7, "Size Really does matter" is the most theoretical chapter. Relying on Veblen he explains how the Richistanis are forced into a competition amongst themselves to have the biggest boats, houses, cars, etc. and how this competition disallows them to ever slow down their lives, enjoy their possessions, or search for meaning.
Their competitive drive is apparent even when Richistanis move into philanthropy (chapter 8). This chapter would go nicely with the claims of those such as Maren's Road to Hell who demonstrate the utter emptiness and destructiveness of philanthropy. There is a section, however, in which frank holds out hope that the new philanthropists will save the world.
Chapter 9 shows how four of the new rich have helped to defeat the republicans in Colorado. Frank claims that the new rich are more enamored with Democrats -- they have so much wealth that they don't need to be greedy and thus turn to make their lives meaningful either through philanthropy or quasi-socialist politics.
Chapter 10 is really quite useful. Frank shows what Marx so brilliantly understood, that once we realize that the drive to wealth is infinite and therefore without an objective target, then eventually we also understand that wealth on its own is utterly incapable of satisfying human desire. For Marx, wealth is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a good life. This chapter is about the problems of the super rich and it shows how they set up support groups in order to buoy each other's spirits. Marx makes the claim that capitalism exploits the capitalist and Frank's ethnology helps us see how this is the case.
Nevertheless, the benefits of this book accrue to the reader, often, despite Frank's naivete. He ends his book with a section titled "A Sliver of Hope." Allow me to quote from page 249:
"There is, however, one glimmer of hope. Even as the economy and the global markets dump more an more money into the hands of a few (or few million), the Richistanis will have even more wealth and power to fix society's most pressing problems. If we accept that the rich aren't the cause of the current inequalities, but merely the lucky beneficiaries, we can also hope that they will use their wealth to target society's deepest problems."
What?! Having shown us that they are mere mortals, that they are, in a sense mere victims of wealth, that their fortunes are the result of simple and stupid luck (they do work hard but so do most of us), he pins the planets hopes on their intelligence and good will? Fat chance.
One day Frank will re-write this book with the sensibility of a theorist and historian. Until then the rest of us will have to give his evidence a resonance that his pop sensibility cannot provide.
I have been looking for a book that would update things I read in the 70s; books that emerge from the C. Wright Mills school of political economic sociology. For example, Mills' Power Elite, Domhoff's higher circles and Lundberg's Rich and Super Rich. This book would seem to fit into this collection.
If Frank is correct, he also updates my thinking. I was/am still working under the influence of the above books which claim that the old money -- Rockefellers, Duponts, etc. -- control much of the economy, polity, and culture. Frank claims that the old money is no longer in power. The new money -- millionaires and billionaires that have emerged from within the middle class within the last 25 years have far, far more money and they are currently working their way into politics and culture as well. I will have to read a few more things before I can rest easy with Frank's claim, but if he is correct than he has done me a great service.
Frank is not an academic. This is good since this means he writes well; bad, since we get very little theory, just a few references to Thorsten Veblen. Nor is he a critic of capitalism. This is also good and bad. First the bad: he accepts that the accumulation of vast private wealth is ethically acceptable. Indeed, the weakest aspect of his ethnology of what he calls the Richistanis, is how completely he identifies with them. The umpteenth reference to the size of their houses, yachts, and bank accounts, the constant mention of their jets, cars, watches, and vacation all amount to a kind of thinly veiled envious voyeurism. They let him into see their stuff and their lives and he is utterly seduced.
This absence of ethical judgment and critical reflection serves him well in once sense -- it allows him to describe their lives in great detail. And especially in the last 6 chapters, the descriptions really add up to something despite Frank's rich-struck gaze.
Chapter 7, "Size Really does matter" is the most theoretical chapter. Relying on Veblen he explains how the Richistanis are forced into a competition amongst themselves to have the biggest boats, houses, cars, etc. and how this competition disallows them to ever slow down their lives, enjoy their possessions, or search for meaning.
Their competitive drive is apparent even when Richistanis move into philanthropy (chapter 8). This chapter would go nicely with the claims of those such as Maren's Road to Hell who demonstrate the utter emptiness and destructiveness of philanthropy. There is a section, however, in which frank holds out hope that the new philanthropists will save the world.
Chapter 9 shows how four of the new rich have helped to defeat the republicans in Colorado. Frank claims that the new rich are more enamored with Democrats -- they have so much wealth that they don't need to be greedy and thus turn to make their lives meaningful either through philanthropy or quasi-socialist politics.
Chapter 10 is really quite useful. Frank shows what Marx so brilliantly understood, that once we realize that the drive to wealth is infinite and therefore without an objective target, then eventually we also understand that wealth on its own is utterly incapable of satisfying human desire. For Marx, wealth is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a good life. This chapter is about the problems of the super rich and it shows how they set up support groups in order to buoy each other's spirits. Marx makes the claim that capitalism exploits the capitalist and Frank's ethnology helps us see how this is the case.
Nevertheless, the benefits of this book accrue to the reader, often, despite Frank's naivete. He ends his book with a section titled "A Sliver of Hope." Allow me to quote from page 249:
"There is, however, one glimmer of hope. Even as the economy and the global markets dump more an more money into the hands of a few (or few million), the Richistanis will have even more wealth and power to fix society's most pressing problems. If we accept that the rich aren't the cause of the current inequalities, but merely the lucky beneficiaries, we can also hope that they will use their wealth to target society's deepest problems."
What?! Having shown us that they are mere mortals, that they are, in a sense mere victims of wealth, that their fortunes are the result of simple and stupid luck (they do work hard but so do most of us), he pins the planets hopes on their intelligence and good will? Fat chance.
One day Frank will re-write this book with the sensibility of a theorist and historian. Until then the rest of us will have to give his evidence a resonance that his pop sensibility cannot provide.
December 13, 2020
A well-written if underwhelming tour of the lives of America's gilded class. The book is dated for having been published over a decade ago and indeed right before the calamitous 2008 financial crisis. Frank doesn't engage the question of whether it is ethical or spiritually healthy for anyone to accumulate hundreds of millions of dollars in personal wealth or to own multiple colors of the same Rolls Royce Phantom. What he does illustrate though is just how many people like this there are (a lot) and the degree to which money itself feels like an illusory concept. Perhaps before 2008 it was still plausible to feel like there was anything remotely wholesome about this kind of accumulation, but I would volunteer that far fewer people would receive this book well today. The analysis is very journalistic, lots of scenes and quotes, but also light on big picture contextualizing. For that reason I would say its analytic value today is limited, although it is an easy read.
May 19, 2011
I have always been fascinated by wealth and social status, or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I am fascinated by my twisted understanding of wealth and social status since I don't have any direct experience with either.
This book, a very quick and light read, provides some good long (almost voyeuristic) looks into the wealthy, how they got there, and what they are thinking. Mr. Frank reports on "wealth" for the Wall Street Journal. He apparently knows his beat very well, though I wondered at times how much his objectivity has been corrupted by long-term exposure to such staggering luxury.
My only complaint about this book is not Mr. Frank's fault: It came out in 2007, so we don't get to see how everyone held up during the big crash of 2008 and the Bernie Madoff scandal. Like Warren Buffett said, you never know who's wearing a bathing suit until the tide goes out.
A few of the surprising facts that I learned from the book:
- In 1890 half of wealth in the US was held by the top 1%; it was only 20% in the 1970s; 30% in the 1980s; it was about 33% in the mid-2000s.
- As of 2005, the US has more millionaires than Europe.
- India has about as many millionaires as North Carolina: 83,000.
- Half of America's wealth has been created over the past 10 years.
- Each of Sam Walton's five kids are worth more than Rockefeller, even adjusted for today's dollars.
- The total stock market in 1980: $3T. The total stock market in 2007: $17T (plus $1.5T in hedge funds and private equity).
When you consider this, it makes sense that only 9% of the wealth of America's top 1% is inherited wealth (vs. 23% in 1989) and only one-third of them inherited any money at all (vs. over 50% in 1989).
So today's rich is a new kind of rich: Generally speaking they are younger, from middle- or upper middle-class backgrounds, more liberal (at least those with over $10M are), and weirdly don't consider themselves all that rich. Many of the people featured in the book got rich due to a weird type of restlessness is only exacerbated by the resources and freedom that comes with being super-rich.
Since we are all playing the same game, and the name of the game is Try Not To Die Alone And Broke On A Grate, it's nice to read about people who have pretty much won.
[[[Aside: To extend this idea of The Game, if I may: The Republicans believe that the game is completely fair and if you lose it is all your fault, and the Democrats feel that if only we gave the government enough power, no one would ever lose the game again. Obviously, only a dangerously insane person would believe either lie.]]]
One other interesting and surprising thing in this book is that the wealthy meet in support groups to help each other out with their peculiar wealthy problems. One group has a minimum of $10M to join, another requires $100M, and yet another requires being female and CEO.
I have never heard of the middle class getting together similarly to share what they've learned, though I can't think of a group more desperately in need of pulling together in an attempt to withstand this systematic assault on their lifestyle. It seems like all the "common knowledge" that we grew up with (like "Buy as much house as you can afford." "You can't spend too much on college for your kids." "I'm a white collar knowledge worker. I have no need for a union.") has been thoroughly disproven and discredited in the past few years. Maybe it's time to bring back investment clubs like Beardstown Ladies minus the idiotic stock picking.
So I believe that this is a very important book to read, if only to find out that the two people in the book who got un-wealthy did so by overextending themselves on margin. (This is in line with what I saw during the Internet boom. I knew people who would rather be 2-digit millionaires on margin than 1-digit millionaires with no debt. Of course, most of them are now divorced and living in apartments in the East Bay.)
I can't think of another book with a similar, judgement-free look at the lifestyles of the wealthy, which is weird given the amount of effort many people put into being one of them.
This book, a very quick and light read, provides some good long (almost voyeuristic) looks into the wealthy, how they got there, and what they are thinking. Mr. Frank reports on "wealth" for the Wall Street Journal. He apparently knows his beat very well, though I wondered at times how much his objectivity has been corrupted by long-term exposure to such staggering luxury.
My only complaint about this book is not Mr. Frank's fault: It came out in 2007, so we don't get to see how everyone held up during the big crash of 2008 and the Bernie Madoff scandal. Like Warren Buffett said, you never know who's wearing a bathing suit until the tide goes out.
A few of the surprising facts that I learned from the book:
- In 1890 half of wealth in the US was held by the top 1%; it was only 20% in the 1970s; 30% in the 1980s; it was about 33% in the mid-2000s.
- As of 2005, the US has more millionaires than Europe.
- India has about as many millionaires as North Carolina: 83,000.
- Half of America's wealth has been created over the past 10 years.
- Each of Sam Walton's five kids are worth more than Rockefeller, even adjusted for today's dollars.
- The total stock market in 1980: $3T. The total stock market in 2007: $17T (plus $1.5T in hedge funds and private equity).
When you consider this, it makes sense that only 9% of the wealth of America's top 1% is inherited wealth (vs. 23% in 1989) and only one-third of them inherited any money at all (vs. over 50% in 1989).
So today's rich is a new kind of rich: Generally speaking they are younger, from middle- or upper middle-class backgrounds, more liberal (at least those with over $10M are), and weirdly don't consider themselves all that rich. Many of the people featured in the book got rich due to a weird type of restlessness is only exacerbated by the resources and freedom that comes with being super-rich.
Since we are all playing the same game, and the name of the game is Try Not To Die Alone And Broke On A Grate, it's nice to read about people who have pretty much won.
[[[Aside: To extend this idea of The Game, if I may: The Republicans believe that the game is completely fair and if you lose it is all your fault, and the Democrats feel that if only we gave the government enough power, no one would ever lose the game again. Obviously, only a dangerously insane person would believe either lie.]]]
One other interesting and surprising thing in this book is that the wealthy meet in support groups to help each other out with their peculiar wealthy problems. One group has a minimum of $10M to join, another requires $100M, and yet another requires being female and CEO.
I have never heard of the middle class getting together similarly to share what they've learned, though I can't think of a group more desperately in need of pulling together in an attempt to withstand this systematic assault on their lifestyle. It seems like all the "common knowledge" that we grew up with (like "Buy as much house as you can afford." "You can't spend too much on college for your kids." "I'm a white collar knowledge worker. I have no need for a union.") has been thoroughly disproven and discredited in the past few years. Maybe it's time to bring back investment clubs like Beardstown Ladies minus the idiotic stock picking.
So I believe that this is a very important book to read, if only to find out that the two people in the book who got un-wealthy did so by overextending themselves on margin. (This is in line with what I saw during the Internet boom. I knew people who would rather be 2-digit millionaires on margin than 1-digit millionaires with no debt. Of course, most of them are now divorced and living in apartments in the East Bay.)
I can't think of another book with a similar, judgement-free look at the lifestyles of the wealthy, which is weird given the amount of effort many people put into being one of them.
June 3, 2008
You know...I enjoyed the book, but not in the way that I expected. I thought I would be like, "Wow, that would be so awesome to be rich. I would do that and this and that!" But instead I kinda felt bad for these people.
Ok, I didn't really enjoy the feeling bad part, but I enjoyed thinking "Hey...my life is pretty awesome. I have two cats and neither of them wears a gold and diamond collar." I say that because one of them, Rocco, tends to lose his collar several times a year, usually just after I bought him a brand new one. I think he might actually bury them or burn them. No one ever calls me (my phone number is on the tag) to say hey, I found a brand new collar on my porch. Anyways, point being, when Rocco loses his collar it really only costs me about $10, rather than $200,000. So, I really have a lot less to worry about. Also, there were no cats in this book that wore fancy collars. Truth be told, I don't remember cats being mentioned at all.
Ok, so the chapter that made me laugh out loud was about the rich people who have had to set up support groups for each other because it is just so awfully difficult to have lots of houses. Staffing those houses is a beast, apparently, because it is really hard to get people who want to serve your every whim. Never would have guessed that. Also, their money is a real problem. They really need each other's help to find out how to make more. Otherwise, their wives will just spend them right into the ground. (Ps...I bought a Gucci and a Prada and a Coach purse last week. Total cost: about $30. They are all fakes. So I won't really feel bad if I get ketchup or something on them. Plus my husband makes enough to cover the cost of them without being in a support group. Also, as I pointed out to him SEVERAL TIMES, I could not buy purses for less than that at Walmart. Actually, I think buying the fake ones actually saved us about $5. Sweet!)
Oh, I also laughed at the butler-training school that all of the best butler people must attend. It costs as much as an entire bachelor's degree, but really only qualifies you to be a servant, not give you any sort of thinking-growing-becoming-more-awesome-ability. If I was hiring someone and their education was "I went to the most acclaimed butler school in the nation" I would say, "Dude! We have a perfect position for you. The janitor's closet is down the hall. And I arrive between 7 and 7:15 am every morning. Could you please open the door for me?"
Ok, so back to feeling bad for these people: I felt bad for them because they were totally out of touch with reality. One man mentioned that his life style was just getting too expensive and he really needed to make more money. People of the lower ranks, money-wise, would say this: "Well, I need to cut back on some stuff. Maybe get a part-time job in the evenings. Man that stinks." But these idiots NEEDED a larger yacht and larger houses and totally had no concept of need vs want. That is why I feel bad for them: they cannot understand what a need is. There are so many people who not only want, but desperately NEED, basic things like food. They die without those things. A yacht is not a need. Not having a yacht never killed anyone, that I know of.
Ok, I didn't really enjoy the feeling bad part, but I enjoyed thinking "Hey...my life is pretty awesome. I have two cats and neither of them wears a gold and diamond collar." I say that because one of them, Rocco, tends to lose his collar several times a year, usually just after I bought him a brand new one. I think he might actually bury them or burn them. No one ever calls me (my phone number is on the tag) to say hey, I found a brand new collar on my porch. Anyways, point being, when Rocco loses his collar it really only costs me about $10, rather than $200,000. So, I really have a lot less to worry about. Also, there were no cats in this book that wore fancy collars. Truth be told, I don't remember cats being mentioned at all.
Ok, so the chapter that made me laugh out loud was about the rich people who have had to set up support groups for each other because it is just so awfully difficult to have lots of houses. Staffing those houses is a beast, apparently, because it is really hard to get people who want to serve your every whim. Never would have guessed that. Also, their money is a real problem. They really need each other's help to find out how to make more. Otherwise, their wives will just spend them right into the ground. (Ps...I bought a Gucci and a Prada and a Coach purse last week. Total cost: about $30. They are all fakes. So I won't really feel bad if I get ketchup or something on them. Plus my husband makes enough to cover the cost of them without being in a support group. Also, as I pointed out to him SEVERAL TIMES, I could not buy purses for less than that at Walmart. Actually, I think buying the fake ones actually saved us about $5. Sweet!)
Oh, I also laughed at the butler-training school that all of the best butler people must attend. It costs as much as an entire bachelor's degree, but really only qualifies you to be a servant, not give you any sort of thinking-growing-becoming-more-awesome-ability. If I was hiring someone and their education was "I went to the most acclaimed butler school in the nation" I would say, "Dude! We have a perfect position for you. The janitor's closet is down the hall. And I arrive between 7 and 7:15 am every morning. Could you please open the door for me?"
Ok, so back to feeling bad for these people: I felt bad for them because they were totally out of touch with reality. One man mentioned that his life style was just getting too expensive and he really needed to make more money. People of the lower ranks, money-wise, would say this: "Well, I need to cut back on some stuff. Maybe get a part-time job in the evenings. Man that stinks." But these idiots NEEDED a larger yacht and larger houses and totally had no concept of need vs want. That is why I feel bad for them: they cannot understand what a need is. There are so many people who not only want, but desperately NEED, basic things like food. They die without those things. A yacht is not a need. Not having a yacht never killed anyone, that I know of.
August 23, 2007
I am fascinated by the growing problem of income inequality in the US and this book drives home just how out of whack it's become. The author, a Wall Street Journal reporter, covers all facets of the lives of the ultra-wealthy (those with $10 million or more in assets) and shows how they live such different and removed lives from the rest of us that they've essentially created their own country, which he calls "Richistan." The author almost makes fun of this group, with his tone of voice, but it's also a very serious book in that he has laid out with exquisite detail just how far removed the ultra wealthy have become.
September 7, 2020
54th book of 2020: Rich People Problems.
Since 2000, the number of wealthy people in the united states has exploded. Millionaire isn’t much of a distinction, with >9m millionaires in the country at the eve of the great recession. Sure the financial crisis took a bite out of the most wealthy, but with another 10 years of bull market behind us, inequality, and thus the ranks of the rich are on the march.
It’s easy to gaze at Mt. Olympus and lump all ‘the rich’ together, but as every book on inequality will tell you the strata higher than our own include multiple gradations that we just can’t tell apart. In Frank’s telling, there are three classes within Richistan:
* Lower Richistan: ~8m households. Net worth $1-$10m, with a primary residence worth ~$1m and who spend about $5k a year on spa services.
* Middle Richistan: ~2m households. $10-$100m. Often business owners, primary residence is now more like $~4m
* Upper Richistan: 1000’s of households. $100m-$1b. Primary residence $16.2m.
As Frank points out, for each of these classes, the amount of money needed to feel ‘secure’ is about 2x whatever the participant in the survey currently has. (read also: the hedonic treadmill). For the rest of the book, the author abandons any statistical framework for an attempt at fun anecdotes of rich people problems.
* Learning how to deal with a household staff of 100 when they profess to want a ‘simple life’.
* Nouveau riche competing with old money in the charity balls of palm springs.
* A dramatic reading of the family P&L for rich therapy groups.
* Becoming social entrepreneurs, or getting into politics.
* Teaching kids the lessons of insane wealth (and how to ensure that SOs get a prenup)
This s the pre-recession, American version of Billionaire Raj. Someday we'll get a more considered study of the class but for now, this journalistic rendition will have to do.
Since 2000, the number of wealthy people in the united states has exploded. Millionaire isn’t much of a distinction, with >9m millionaires in the country at the eve of the great recession. Sure the financial crisis took a bite out of the most wealthy, but with another 10 years of bull market behind us, inequality, and thus the ranks of the rich are on the march.
It’s easy to gaze at Mt. Olympus and lump all ‘the rich’ together, but as every book on inequality will tell you the strata higher than our own include multiple gradations that we just can’t tell apart. In Frank’s telling, there are three classes within Richistan:
* Lower Richistan: ~8m households. Net worth $1-$10m, with a primary residence worth ~$1m and who spend about $5k a year on spa services.
* Middle Richistan: ~2m households. $10-$100m. Often business owners, primary residence is now more like $~4m
* Upper Richistan: 1000’s of households. $100m-$1b. Primary residence $16.2m.
As Frank points out, for each of these classes, the amount of money needed to feel ‘secure’ is about 2x whatever the participant in the survey currently has. (read also: the hedonic treadmill). For the rest of the book, the author abandons any statistical framework for an attempt at fun anecdotes of rich people problems.
* Learning how to deal with a household staff of 100 when they profess to want a ‘simple life’.
* Nouveau riche competing with old money in the charity balls of palm springs.
* A dramatic reading of the family P&L for rich therapy groups.
* Becoming social entrepreneurs, or getting into politics.
* Teaching kids the lessons of insane wealth (and how to ensure that SOs get a prenup)
This s the pre-recession, American version of Billionaire Raj. Someday we'll get a more considered study of the class but for now, this journalistic rendition will have to do.
October 24, 2013
Americans are enamored with the wealthy.
We take national pride in the rags-to-riches story, the mom-and-pop store that makes it big. We say things like “only in America” and call the United States a “land of opportunity.” We value the better mousetrap and laud its inventor with gobs of money.
But those are more the marks of success than of wealth. What really fascinates us is the money. We drive by McMansions and wonder what the owners do for a living, how much money they make, and how they spend it.
Since 2003, The Wall Street Journal has devoted a full-time reporter to chronicle the comings and goings of America’s New Rich – the dot-com billionaires, hedge-fund managers, CEOs, etc., that are redefining America’s upper-upper class.
Journal reporter Robert Frank got the idea in 2003 when he discovered a report from the Federal Reserve Bank that said the number of millionaire households in the United States had more than doubled since 1995.
“After seeing the Fed numbers,” he writes, “I started to wonder about all these rich people. Who were they? How did they get rich? How was money changing their lives? Most importantly, how were they changing life for the rest of us?”
The answers have come in the form of the Wealth Report column and blog that Frank writes for the Journal and his new book, Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich.
Frank’s premise – that America’s rich have formed an insular, separate country unto themselves – came from his reporting at a 2004 yacht convention in Ft. Lauderdale. A yacht owner from Texas told him: “You look at all these boats and you’d think everyone’s making loads of money. It’s like a different country.”
Even in Richistan, there is a class structure – “upper-class warfare between the haves and have-mores” – that Frank divides into Lower ($1 million to $10 million net worth), Middle ($10 million to $100 million) and Upper Richistan ($100 million to $1 billion). Billionaireville, the have-mosts, has grown from 13 American families in 1985 to more than 1,000 today.
And no one is content. When asked how much money they would need to feel secure, millionaires routinely give an answer that is twice their personal wealth, whether that is $5 million or $50 million. Middle and Upper Richistanis call Lower Richistanis “affluent” as a pejorative.
Even billionaires get insecure. Timber baron Tim Blixseth – worth $1.2 billion and ranked No. 322 on the Forbes 400 – had a multi-billionaire buddy over to his estate to play a round at his private golf course. Afterward, the multi-billionaire made a $400 million offer for the entire estate. Blixseth politely declined. “Now that guy,” Blixseth said, “he was rich.”
The book’s chapters are narrative anecdotes that describe particular facets of life in Richistan, from a college for butlers (now “household managers”) to a clash of new money vs. old money in a Palm Beach ballroom to innovative approaches to philanthropy to multi-millionaire support groups.
Richistan’s cast includes predictably self-congratulating boors – including one who gave Frank a spreadsheet of his charitable giving and “permission” to write about it – but also fascinating characters who illustrate the complexity and variety of life in Richistan.
Blixseth is one of the more interesting. He made a fortune in timberland speculation in the 1980s, lost it all by getting over-leveraged, started over, and by 1990 was again worth millions. He now has 500,000 acres of real estate holdings, luxury destination clubs, a record label, and a strict no-debt philosophy. For his wife’s 50th birthday party, Blixseth put on a lavish Wizard of Oz production – Munchins and all – and Paul Anka sang a special version of “My Way.”
Ed Bazinet, who founded the company that makes Snow Village ceramic cottages, mocked his devotees by stamping “Get a Life” – he had a special stamp made – on effusive letters from collectors. Retired since 1997, Bazinet built a $30 million Manhattan penthouse that became a constant frustration to him: he sued the contractor, cannot understand the lighting and security systems, and obsesses over a scratch in the glass stairwell. He recently put the penthouse back on the market.
There are undoubtedly boring billionaires who live in modest homes and watch soap operas all day, but a chapter about stealth Richistanis would have cut against Frank’s definition of New Rich as not just rich but flamboyantly rich. Still, the modestly wealthy are out there, and the contrast could have been compelling.
Frank gives little attention to the question he said was most important – how the rich are changing life for everyone else – but in his summary chapter he talks of the growing divide between the rich and poor that presidential candidate John Edwards has called “Two Americas.” Franks seems to agree, noting that median household income in America fell for the fifth straight year in 2005 and that the rich have, essentially, education and healthcare systems that are far superior to those available to the poor.
(Cornell economics professor Robert Frank – same name, different guy – covers this ground more thoroughly in his recently published “Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class.”)
Richistan has factoids galore: North Carolina has more millionaires than India. Lower Richistanis skew Republican, but Middle and Upper Richistanis skew Democratic. The inflation rate for the super-rich is triple the national inflation rate because of soaring demand for luxury goods. A pair Iranian immigrant brothers started Hot Pockets (frozen pizza snacks) in the 1990s and sold the company to Nestle in 2002 for $2.6 billion.
Frank covers the New Rich like a foreign correspondent or Atlanta Braves beat reporter, providing a close-up perspective of a topic with wide interest and narrow access. Whether the topic merits the attention (or this kind of attention) is open for debate, but Frank certainly makes wealth feel important, as American an institution as baseball, SUVs and apple pie.
We take national pride in the rags-to-riches story, the mom-and-pop store that makes it big. We say things like “only in America” and call the United States a “land of opportunity.” We value the better mousetrap and laud its inventor with gobs of money.
But those are more the marks of success than of wealth. What really fascinates us is the money. We drive by McMansions and wonder what the owners do for a living, how much money they make, and how they spend it.
Since 2003, The Wall Street Journal has devoted a full-time reporter to chronicle the comings and goings of America’s New Rich – the dot-com billionaires, hedge-fund managers, CEOs, etc., that are redefining America’s upper-upper class.
Journal reporter Robert Frank got the idea in 2003 when he discovered a report from the Federal Reserve Bank that said the number of millionaire households in the United States had more than doubled since 1995.
“After seeing the Fed numbers,” he writes, “I started to wonder about all these rich people. Who were they? How did they get rich? How was money changing their lives? Most importantly, how were they changing life for the rest of us?”
The answers have come in the form of the Wealth Report column and blog that Frank writes for the Journal and his new book, Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich.
Frank’s premise – that America’s rich have formed an insular, separate country unto themselves – came from his reporting at a 2004 yacht convention in Ft. Lauderdale. A yacht owner from Texas told him: “You look at all these boats and you’d think everyone’s making loads of money. It’s like a different country.”
Even in Richistan, there is a class structure – “upper-class warfare between the haves and have-mores” – that Frank divides into Lower ($1 million to $10 million net worth), Middle ($10 million to $100 million) and Upper Richistan ($100 million to $1 billion). Billionaireville, the have-mosts, has grown from 13 American families in 1985 to more than 1,000 today.
And no one is content. When asked how much money they would need to feel secure, millionaires routinely give an answer that is twice their personal wealth, whether that is $5 million or $50 million. Middle and Upper Richistanis call Lower Richistanis “affluent” as a pejorative.
Even billionaires get insecure. Timber baron Tim Blixseth – worth $1.2 billion and ranked No. 322 on the Forbes 400 – had a multi-billionaire buddy over to his estate to play a round at his private golf course. Afterward, the multi-billionaire made a $400 million offer for the entire estate. Blixseth politely declined. “Now that guy,” Blixseth said, “he was rich.”
The book’s chapters are narrative anecdotes that describe particular facets of life in Richistan, from a college for butlers (now “household managers”) to a clash of new money vs. old money in a Palm Beach ballroom to innovative approaches to philanthropy to multi-millionaire support groups.
Richistan’s cast includes predictably self-congratulating boors – including one who gave Frank a spreadsheet of his charitable giving and “permission” to write about it – but also fascinating characters who illustrate the complexity and variety of life in Richistan.
Blixseth is one of the more interesting. He made a fortune in timberland speculation in the 1980s, lost it all by getting over-leveraged, started over, and by 1990 was again worth millions. He now has 500,000 acres of real estate holdings, luxury destination clubs, a record label, and a strict no-debt philosophy. For his wife’s 50th birthday party, Blixseth put on a lavish Wizard of Oz production – Munchins and all – and Paul Anka sang a special version of “My Way.”
Ed Bazinet, who founded the company that makes Snow Village ceramic cottages, mocked his devotees by stamping “Get a Life” – he had a special stamp made – on effusive letters from collectors. Retired since 1997, Bazinet built a $30 million Manhattan penthouse that became a constant frustration to him: he sued the contractor, cannot understand the lighting and security systems, and obsesses over a scratch in the glass stairwell. He recently put the penthouse back on the market.
There are undoubtedly boring billionaires who live in modest homes and watch soap operas all day, but a chapter about stealth Richistanis would have cut against Frank’s definition of New Rich as not just rich but flamboyantly rich. Still, the modestly wealthy are out there, and the contrast could have been compelling.
Frank gives little attention to the question he said was most important – how the rich are changing life for everyone else – but in his summary chapter he talks of the growing divide between the rich and poor that presidential candidate John Edwards has called “Two Americas.” Franks seems to agree, noting that median household income in America fell for the fifth straight year in 2005 and that the rich have, essentially, education and healthcare systems that are far superior to those available to the poor.
(Cornell economics professor Robert Frank – same name, different guy – covers this ground more thoroughly in his recently published “Falling Behind: How Rising Inequality Harms the Middle Class.”)
Richistan has factoids galore: North Carolina has more millionaires than India. Lower Richistanis skew Republican, but Middle and Upper Richistanis skew Democratic. The inflation rate for the super-rich is triple the national inflation rate because of soaring demand for luxury goods. A pair Iranian immigrant brothers started Hot Pockets (frozen pizza snacks) in the 1990s and sold the company to Nestle in 2002 for $2.6 billion.
Frank covers the New Rich like a foreign correspondent or Atlanta Braves beat reporter, providing a close-up perspective of a topic with wide interest and narrow access. Whether the topic merits the attention (or this kind of attention) is open for debate, but Frank certainly makes wealth feel important, as American an institution as baseball, SUVs and apple pie.
human-ways
April 28, 2011This book is fairly well covered, it seems to me, by other Goodreads reviews.
I’d only note that it had, in my reading, much in common with an imagined television program on the same subject: a similar mix of vivid anecdote (though the vividness here is usually denoted by the number of trailing zeroes rather than visual impact); condensed vignettes of financial rise (or more uncommonly, of fall); short sympathetic interviews juxtaposed with, if not exactly taking place in, glamorous settings (the private jet, the paneled study, the yacht harbor, the charity ball); some pouty rich offspring (and by implication attractive ones); the occasional dramatic reenactment; a hint of scandal (or at least humiliation); and, in conveniently easy to swallow doses, a scattering of small servings of sometimes slippery statistics, all, in true to television fashion, with almost no broader analytical context. It is certainly not economics, but nor is it sociology, nor even, as Mr. Frank sometimes likes to suggest, some sort of anthropology; it is TV.
At the end, only a few things remain uncomfortably in my mind: one, oddly, is Mr. Frank’s repeated claim (as I recall he cites only a “2005 World Wealth Report” as reference) that the “inflation rate for millionaires” is substantially greater than the broader rate: 12% in 2004 for those worth $30 million or more, compared to the then 3% national rate.
What does this mean? Obviously someone (the cited “World Wealth Report” is distributed by Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management; interestingly it measures the wealth of its “HNWIs” (High Net Worth Individuals) and “Ultra-HNWIs” in terms, unlike Mr. Frank, of investible assets, a qualification which would about halve the population of Frank’s Richistan) has created a “market basket” for the rich. Not that they too don’t need their fruits and vegetables, but the evident assumption is that they need also, at the least, extraordinary financial management services and, I presume, other items deemed indispensable in their own peculiar domain: high end consumables, real estate, specialized personal and personnel services, etc.
Somehow this notion of a distinct “market basket” and the culture it reflects seemed to argue more clearly to me for the reality of an actual Richistan than all the catalogues of nouveau riche bling which Mr. Frank otherwise supplies.
In the last few pages of the book Mr. Frank returns to what I take to be his central analytic claim – that the recent acceleration in the population growth of Richistan is the result of a globalized excess of liquid assets (apparently accepting a so-called “savings glut” model) – and offers the observation (for reasons he does not pause to explain) that this “river of money” which has so irrigated American Richistan for the last two decades will soon turn (also? largely?) to other lands. Then, Mr. Frank says, “the world’s rich will form a ‘third’ culture – not from their own country, or from America, but from a different, shared world of wealth” – in effect a global Richistan.
It’s hard of course not to mention that this has always been the case, but what it made me conscious of – evidently I had been sufficiently distracted by the mansions, yachts, jets and $600,000 wristwatches not to have been much conscious of it previously – was the extent to which ‘Richistan,’ even if titled “A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom,” had, for 250 pages, so largely ignored the planetary culture of the rich and super rich.
I am not complaining that Mr. Frank did not write a book other than the one he intended, but merely noting a significant limit to his program. And somehow I do suspect he might not have objected too much to the opportunity to extend his study to the extravagances of that global elite, tracking the advances of the planetary culture he claims to be still on the horizon, had he, of course, the means to do so.
February 26, 2010
A quick and funny read about the new ultra-rich; how they made their money, how they live, and how they want to change the world.
Summary from Random House:
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own “arborists.” They’re also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century’s nouveau riche:
House-training the rich. People with new wealth have to be taught how to act like, well, proper rich people. Just in the nick of time, there’s been a boom in the number of newly trained butlers—“household managers”—who will serve just the right cabernet when a Richistani’s new buddies from Palm Beach stop by.
“My boat is bigger than your boat.” Only in Richistan would a 100-foot-boat be considered a dinghy. Personal pleasure craft have started to rival navy destroyers in size and speed. Richistan is also a place where friends make fun of those misers who buy the new girlfriend a mere Mercedes SLK.
“You want my money? Prove that you’re helping the needy!” Richistanis are not only consuming like crazy, they’re also shaking up the establishment’s bureaucratic, slow-moving charity network, making lean, results-oriented philanthropy an important new driving force.
Move over, Christian Coalition. Richistanis are more Democratic than Republican, “fed up and not going to take it anymore,” and willing to spend millions to get progressive-oriented politicians elected.
“My name is Mike and I’m rich.” Think that money is the answer? Think again as Robert Frank explores the emotional complexities of wealth.
And, as Robert Frank reveals, there is not one Richistan but three: Lower, Middle, and Upper, each of which has its own levels and distinctions of wealth —the haves and the have-mores. The influence of Richistan and the Richistanis extends well beyond the almost ten million households that make up its population, as the nonstop quest for status and an insatiable demand for luxury goods reshapes the entire American economy.
Summary from Random House:
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own “arborists.” They’re also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century’s nouveau riche:
House-training the rich. People with new wealth have to be taught how to act like, well, proper rich people. Just in the nick of time, there’s been a boom in the number of newly trained butlers—“household managers”—who will serve just the right cabernet when a Richistani’s new buddies from Palm Beach stop by.
“My boat is bigger than your boat.” Only in Richistan would a 100-foot-boat be considered a dinghy. Personal pleasure craft have started to rival navy destroyers in size and speed. Richistan is also a place where friends make fun of those misers who buy the new girlfriend a mere Mercedes SLK.
“You want my money? Prove that you’re helping the needy!” Richistanis are not only consuming like crazy, they’re also shaking up the establishment’s bureaucratic, slow-moving charity network, making lean, results-oriented philanthropy an important new driving force.
Move over, Christian Coalition. Richistanis are more Democratic than Republican, “fed up and not going to take it anymore,” and willing to spend millions to get progressive-oriented politicians elected.
“My name is Mike and I’m rich.” Think that money is the answer? Think again as Robert Frank explores the emotional complexities of wealth.
And, as Robert Frank reveals, there is not one Richistan but three: Lower, Middle, and Upper, each of which has its own levels and distinctions of wealth —the haves and the have-mores. The influence of Richistan and the Richistanis extends well beyond the almost ten million households that make up its population, as the nonstop quest for status and an insatiable demand for luxury goods reshapes the entire American economy.
October 3, 2009
Warning: don't read this book if you're prone to jealous tendencies. As I am.
Well, that warning is probably going over board. (If you went overboard, would you want a basic 12 foot ski-boat? Or a 100 foot yacht? If you'd "settle" for the 100-footer, you're no decent member of Richistan. Richistanis are going for the 400+ yachts, no less.)
Go ahead and read and dream about the 'what if's. And note that one way to get into the lives of the fabulously wealthy if you're not actually rich yourself is to spend $15k+ to attend a private 'school' that teaches you how to be a household manager (in otherwords: modern-day butler); those manager jobs can start to pay $80,000+ from the get-go.
The most important sentence of the book: "With so much wealth parading around, the middle class and even upper middle class suddenly feel poor by comparison and are spending beyond their means to try and keep pace."
Yup. It's one thing for billionaires to work on out-showing each other with their ridiculous yachts, it's another when we--worth less than $10,000,000, which is where it seems the line on 'rich' now lies--are trying to achieve a lifestyle that mirrors the rich (albeit from Walmart). With the possibilities skyrocketing, our expectations about what's 'normal' for us everyday folk changes. Cable, cell phones, and mani/pedis have become normal for a middle class that once would have considered them luxuries.
It's a whole new world out there. I wish I had a few milllion (okay, billion) so I could really kick up my heels. But I don't, so I'm trying not to be distracted.
Well, that warning is probably going over board. (If you went overboard, would you want a basic 12 foot ski-boat? Or a 100 foot yacht? If you'd "settle" for the 100-footer, you're no decent member of Richistan. Richistanis are going for the 400+ yachts, no less.)
Go ahead and read and dream about the 'what if's. And note that one way to get into the lives of the fabulously wealthy if you're not actually rich yourself is to spend $15k+ to attend a private 'school' that teaches you how to be a household manager (in otherwords: modern-day butler); those manager jobs can start to pay $80,000+ from the get-go.
The most important sentence of the book: "With so much wealth parading around, the middle class and even upper middle class suddenly feel poor by comparison and are spending beyond their means to try and keep pace."
Yup. It's one thing for billionaires to work on out-showing each other with their ridiculous yachts, it's another when we--worth less than $10,000,000, which is where it seems the line on 'rich' now lies--are trying to achieve a lifestyle that mirrors the rich (albeit from Walmart). With the possibilities skyrocketing, our expectations about what's 'normal' for us everyday folk changes. Cable, cell phones, and mani/pedis have become normal for a middle class that once would have considered them luxuries.
It's a whole new world out there. I wish I had a few milllion (okay, billion) so I could really kick up my heels. But I don't, so I'm trying not to be distracted.
July 4, 2017
Yes the rich are different, and they are not. Richistan is about the new rich, who are different from old money. These Richistanis are from middle families, who made their money by inventing something and selling it after they made money from it, or by investing (gambling) in the stock market. The difference is these nouveau rich retire before they are eligible for Social Security. Some have noble pursues, other just prove that, well, all the money in the world can't buy an IQ (think trailer trash with insane amounts of money). This book was published in early 2007 (before Bear Sterns and Lehman Brothers imploded), but it still is relatable to today's problem of inequality and vanishing middle class. Proof that more money doesn't make people happy (the book mentions a support group for millionaires, and summer camps for the adult children of the rich, teaching them basic investment skills and how to mention a prenup to potential mates). After reading the book, I felt better with my lower middle class lifestyle.
March 20, 2010
This was handy for what i needed it for, but it lacked teeth. Robert Frank writes for the WSJ and can't really question the dominant paradigms like the rest of us can. The best he can manage is to portray the the ultra-wealthy and their problems in a way that makes them seem kind of pathetic, or perhaps cute, like tiny exotic puppies. Which is something. There's something here, for sure, if you're wondering how the other 0.3 percent lives. The anecdotes are to die for.
But just the term "American Wealth Boom" gives me headaches. You could just as easily call it the American Poverty Boom, by looking at the exact same set of statistics. And this was published before the 2009 financial snafu, so it could use some updating. Are the rich more or less rich than they were before? We're all just dying to know.
Maybe someone has written the definitive guide to American rich people, and I just haven't found it yet. So this will have to do.
But just the term "American Wealth Boom" gives me headaches. You could just as easily call it the American Poverty Boom, by looking at the exact same set of statistics. And this was published before the 2009 financial snafu, so it could use some updating. Are the rich more or less rich than they were before? We're all just dying to know.
Maybe someone has written the definitive guide to American rich people, and I just haven't found it yet. So this will have to do.
September 2, 2009
In a time of recession, Richistan offers a morally-instructive and strangely disturbing retrospective of "the wealth boom and the lives of the new rich."
Meet yesterday's dot-com millionaires, creepy investment bankers and of course the hereditarily loaded. Languish in their enclaves, eavesdrop on their posturing and bickering, and observe their material fetishes. But make sure you flip present tense to past, for many of these mighty have by now fallen. Or at least one hopes.
Shelley tells of a ancient ruler's boasts, inscribed on an empty pedestal standing in a remote desert. On it is carved, "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings/Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair." The poem continues, "nothing beside remains." It's as though Shelley had read this account of post-Enron, pre-Madoff millionaires at work and play--and tracked their vanities after the fall.
Meet yesterday's dot-com millionaires, creepy investment bankers and of course the hereditarily loaded. Languish in their enclaves, eavesdrop on their posturing and bickering, and observe their material fetishes. But make sure you flip present tense to past, for many of these mighty have by now fallen. Or at least one hopes.
Shelley tells of a ancient ruler's boasts, inscribed on an empty pedestal standing in a remote desert. On it is carved, "My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings/Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair." The poem continues, "nothing beside remains." It's as though Shelley had read this account of post-Enron, pre-Madoff millionaires at work and play--and tracked their vanities after the fall.
February 24, 2009
I learned that I could've gone to butler school and walked into a six figure salary upon graduation. And it would been a third of the cost of law school! The new rich certainly inhabit a different world than I do. This was written in 2007, and some of the richest inhabitants of richistan are now more famous for running their banks into billions of dollars of debt. A follow-up on who has any assets left now would be interesting, but my husband summarized this book well by saying, "It was MTV cribs for the super-rich." Not that I've ever watched MTV cribs, of course.
June 8, 2019
Interesting yet horrifying look into the world of the uber-rich. The narrator tries to stay impartial, but I feel gets a little too close to his subjects which means that the problems that are caused by this level of wealth are glossed over, while the few positives of this phenomena are viewed through a naively optimistic lens.
March 2, 2008
The first thing I noticed about this book is that it is about a half
inch narrower in its width than typical hardcovers. The editor,
like a desperate, talentless high school student, changed the margins a bit in
order to extend the content into a more respectable book-appropriate
length. The size manipulations notwithstanding, Robert Frank’s
Richistan is another decent non-fiction book illuminating another
fascinating American subculture.
Don’t confuse it with
Absurdistan, which also could have been the title of Richistan, which
is subtitled, A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich.
It’s a journey that turns out to be a pretty absurd ordeal. Too many
times I read books on topics and wish Hunter S. Thompson was around to
give them his treatment. Drugs are the perfect metaphor for these
American Times. Like watching network television sober; you must be an
idiot or high if you think it’s funny. And only rip-roaring drunk and
hopped up on uppers with downers close at hand for when the going gets
really rough are you prepared for the outlandish pomp and perverse
entertainment that is a Presidential Election.
Why are we celebrating and worshiping these people like rock bands and
gods? They should be pandering to our whims and fancies, they work for us! They’re public servants!
Depending on your perspective, Richistan is either a really interesting
and motivating book or a very, very depressing tribulation. Or maybe both. “Rich” is
defined in Richistan as a net worth of 10 million or more, acknowledging that a mere
one million is now a relative bare pittance in the skewed, perverse
world of the New Rich, those fuckers. Richistan widely acknowledges
that the rich are getting richer at increasingly fast and lucrative
paces. The lower and middle classes are being fucked in our own
ignorant way. Richistan speaks of great inequality between the
have-most and the have-littles.
The social fabric is looking like it has been wrapped around an hour
glass. The rich are getting richer. The rest of us are getting poorer.
This is a bloody torment of a book and I resent it for being so
fascinating. Why are we obsessed with celebrities and rich people?
Frank’s examination into this particular group provides an adequate
frame with which to do some very interesting and worthwhile
observations on the state of class, wealth, happiness, and lifestyle in America. And ultimately, with all the talk of Old Money, New Money, More
Money, and thusly, No Money (that ignored drunk cousin in the corner
and on the floor), you realize there is more: sophistication, civilization, ethics, happiness, values, and more. Much more.
Richistan
is full of fascinating, absurd characters that engage you in a way that
is much like watching Britney Spears recent public field trips. You are
both horrified and captivated at the same time:
Meet Ed Bazinet, the founder of Department 56, the company that has
sold you and your family all those cute little ceramic hamlets of tiny
snow-capped cottages and innocent figurine villagers on his way to
becoming an exorbitantly wealthy multi-millionaire.
Meet the
couple who’s bed came from the archbishop of Milan’s quarters and has a
carved Jesus on one side (his) and a Mary on the other (hers). Yeah,
cause that’s what I’d do with my money. And do the creepy, incestuous undertones of that bed freak anyone else out?
It’s not a His and Hers bed!!! It’s a Father and Daughter bed! Boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meet
the billionaire who says, “It’s true what they say - the first billion
is the hardest. The second one was pretty easy.” Oh okay. Let me get
right on the first billion.
Meet the 72-year-old billionaire with the 34-year-old girlfriend.
Because that is actually what I would do if I was rich.
Meet
the billionaire who lost his fortune and now sits with his arthritic
golden retriever in the living room and stares at the twinkling lights
on his Christmas tree in May because it cheers him up. Like some
twisted sequel to Grey Gardens…
Meet the Richistani who has a solid-gold straw for drinking champagne.
With
entirely new levels of consumption in Richistan, waste and excess are
necessary to show rank and social class. Larry Ellison, chief of
Oracle, received his 454 foot yacht that cost more than $200 million
and observed, “Well, I do think it’s excessive. It is absolutely
excessive. No question about it. But it’s amazing what you can get used
to.”
Watch
out all you slackers, you 30,000aires, the Old Money of Idle Rich
are being replaced by this New Money, and this Richistani crowd are the
Workaholic Wealthy. In Richistan, there is an increased influence in Philanthropy
and Politics. But it is not a passive involvement in either arenas for
these new gladiators. The Richistani are not content to give a fish or even to
teach fishing. They must revolutionize the fishing industry.
There are Rich People Support Groups. There are summercamps
for 23-year-old rich kids on how to not squander their family’s fortune
and how to ask for a prenuptial agreement.
And basically, all of this was wildly entertaining to me in a
dark, paranoid way. It’s a sick, demented world but one that seems to
be excessively comfortable if you made it that way.
After Richistan, I’m ready for a heaping spoonful of William T. Vollmann’s Poor People.
inch narrower in its width than typical hardcovers. The editor,
like a desperate, talentless high school student, changed the margins a bit in
order to extend the content into a more respectable book-appropriate
length. The size manipulations notwithstanding, Robert Frank’s
Richistan is another decent non-fiction book illuminating another
fascinating American subculture.
Don’t confuse it with
Absurdistan, which also could have been the title of Richistan, which
is subtitled, A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich.
It’s a journey that turns out to be a pretty absurd ordeal. Too many
times I read books on topics and wish Hunter S. Thompson was around to
give them his treatment. Drugs are the perfect metaphor for these
American Times. Like watching network television sober; you must be an
idiot or high if you think it’s funny. And only rip-roaring drunk and
hopped up on uppers with downers close at hand for when the going gets
really rough are you prepared for the outlandish pomp and perverse
entertainment that is a Presidential Election.
Why are we celebrating and worshiping these people like rock bands and
gods? They should be pandering to our whims and fancies, they work for us! They’re public servants!
Depending on your perspective, Richistan is either a really interesting
and motivating book or a very, very depressing tribulation. Or maybe both. “Rich” is
defined in Richistan as a net worth of 10 million or more, acknowledging that a mere
one million is now a relative bare pittance in the skewed, perverse
world of the New Rich, those fuckers. Richistan widely acknowledges
that the rich are getting richer at increasingly fast and lucrative
paces. The lower and middle classes are being fucked in our own
ignorant way. Richistan speaks of great inequality between the
have-most and the have-littles.
The social fabric is looking like it has been wrapped around an hour
glass. The rich are getting richer. The rest of us are getting poorer.
This is a bloody torment of a book and I resent it for being so
fascinating. Why are we obsessed with celebrities and rich people?
Frank’s examination into this particular group provides an adequate
frame with which to do some very interesting and worthwhile
observations on the state of class, wealth, happiness, and lifestyle in America. And ultimately, with all the talk of Old Money, New Money, More
Money, and thusly, No Money (that ignored drunk cousin in the corner
and on the floor), you realize there is more: sophistication, civilization, ethics, happiness, values, and more. Much more.
Richistan
is full of fascinating, absurd characters that engage you in a way that
is much like watching Britney Spears recent public field trips. You are
both horrified and captivated at the same time:
Meet Ed Bazinet, the founder of Department 56, the company that has
sold you and your family all those cute little ceramic hamlets of tiny
snow-capped cottages and innocent figurine villagers on his way to
becoming an exorbitantly wealthy multi-millionaire.
Meet the
couple who’s bed came from the archbishop of Milan’s quarters and has a
carved Jesus on one side (his) and a Mary on the other (hers). Yeah,
cause that’s what I’d do with my money. And do the creepy, incestuous undertones of that bed freak anyone else out?
It’s not a His and Hers bed!!! It’s a Father and Daughter bed! Boo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Meet
the billionaire who says, “It’s true what they say - the first billion
is the hardest. The second one was pretty easy.” Oh okay. Let me get
right on the first billion.
Meet the 72-year-old billionaire with the 34-year-old girlfriend.
Because that is actually what I would do if I was rich.
Meet
the billionaire who lost his fortune and now sits with his arthritic
golden retriever in the living room and stares at the twinkling lights
on his Christmas tree in May because it cheers him up. Like some
twisted sequel to Grey Gardens…
Meet the Richistani who has a solid-gold straw for drinking champagne.
With
entirely new levels of consumption in Richistan, waste and excess are
necessary to show rank and social class. Larry Ellison, chief of
Oracle, received his 454 foot yacht that cost more than $200 million
and observed, “Well, I do think it’s excessive. It is absolutely
excessive. No question about it. But it’s amazing what you can get used
to.”
Watch
out all you slackers, you 30,000aires, the Old Money of Idle Rich
are being replaced by this New Money, and this Richistani crowd are the
Workaholic Wealthy. In Richistan, there is an increased influence in Philanthropy
and Politics. But it is not a passive involvement in either arenas for
these new gladiators. The Richistani are not content to give a fish or even to
teach fishing. They must revolutionize the fishing industry.
There are Rich People Support Groups. There are summercamps
for 23-year-old rich kids on how to not squander their family’s fortune
and how to ask for a prenuptial agreement.
And basically, all of this was wildly entertaining to me in a
dark, paranoid way. It’s a sick, demented world but one that seems to
be excessively comfortable if you made it that way.
After Richistan, I’m ready for a heaping spoonful of William T. Vollmann’s Poor People.
February 7, 2020
Interesting. A peak into the world of the grossly rich and some of their ‘problems’ I enjoyed the part about people who actually do good in communities and third world countries with their charity work, versus those who throw a gala and call it a day. “With great money, comes great responsibility”.
July 23, 2008
I actually finished this book a couple days ago. I wrote most of a review, then my computer froze up and I lost it. I have been putting off writing it again. This book dragged for me. I spent a long time reading it. Part of that was because I lost it for a few days on the back of downstairs toilet. I hardly ever use that bathroom.
Anyways, it's a book about the "new rich", as in, people who have made their fortunes within the last, I don't know, 20 years. It talks about their yachts, and their houses, their butlers, their ridiculous "charitable" balls. It lead me to this conclusion: whether people are super wealthy or super poor, they can be real stupid with their money.
My husband is in the military, and I got a packet of info from our annual summer party last week. One section talks about what to do in a financial emergency. See, the army has some charitable organization that helps out military families (particularly during deployments) with financial crises, such as no money for rent, or a broken down car. Here is why I refuse to donate:
The packet entitled "Resources for a Financial Emergency" includes a bullet point on the front page, giving advice for families before coming to the military for aid: "Cut Expenses... Consider reducing or eliminating your cable television service, for example."
WHAT? So, they call for help paying their rent, and the person on the phone asks, "Well, Ma'am, have you considered reducing your cable television service yet?" The military spouse says, "Yep. I considered it a bit." Phone person says, "All right. Just checking. Now I'll send you free money." .
Anyways, people at one level are convinced they need cable television to survive. On another level, wealthier people are convinced they need 5 star hotels, room service and yachts. No matter what, you are rich in America. Just like I look at the people in this book and wonder how they can blow through as much money as they do and still want more, I am sure people from the world over would look at me and wonder they same. (Like, "You mean, you could afford a college degree that you never even USED?!")
One other point of interest is the wealthy's "charitable giving". It's more for show than anything. They never seem to give away enough to make it hurt. They use it as a way to gain respect from others, and climb some social ladder. For example, he interviewed one particularly annoying man who spoke repeatedly of his donations to charity. He said, "Oh, I just give and give and give. I just love helping other people. I just do it because I care so much, dang it." Then he added, "By the way, here is a list of all my recent charitable givings. You can publish them in your book. Actually, let me get you a spreadsheet of them so you get them all correct."
I had a professor at BYU I really liked. His name was Richard Johnson and he wrote a piece called "Wealth and Poverty". (Feel free to google it yourself, when I tried last time, it froze my computer and I lost this review.) It was very controversial. It boiled down to this: charity is not so much defined by how much you give away, but by how much you keep for yourself. You know, the widow's mite, like in the BIBLE. But people were seriously pissed off. Wealthy donors to BYU said they would not continue to contribute funds unless he was fired. Crazy stuff like that.
I agree with him. Giving a $10 million endowment to something, but keeping $2 billion leftover for yourself is not that impressive. And for your $10 million token, you get a building named in your honor, banquets for you, and news stories all over the community declaring you as awesome. Wouldn't you or I donate $100 for something like that? It's the equivalent for them. (According to some social theorists (I was a sociology major), the only true gift is an anonymous one. If you give it to someone and get the thanks and praise, you got something in return. The only way to really give a gift is to secretly do it and not get the credit. Kind of like parents wrap gifts for their kids and say Santa brought them, perhaps. Oh, wait. I guess they do get recognized, it's just delayed until the kids learn that their parents were Santa. Never mind!)
I realize how completely filled with blame I am. I am exactly like the richies in the book. I pay tithing and fast offerings. I donate to the Perpetual Education Fund and the church's Humanitarian Fund. But do I give enough to make it really hurt? Do I starve because of it? Couldn't the leftover food I toss out each year feed hundreds of people in another country? Hey, I didn't even give my kid anything for Christmas and pretend it was from Santa. (He was only a year old, anyways.) I did, however, find some toys he already had that I didn't think my mother in law had seen, and wrapped them up. I made sure he unwrapped them in front of her so that she wouldn't think I didn't get my kid anything for Christmas. She would've been mortified.
We are all too rich. We are all to greedy and dumb with our money. How depressing! Maybe I'll go rescue a cat from the shelter to feel better. Dale's out of town with the scouts, so he can't stop me. Ha ha!!!!!
Anyways, it's a book about the "new rich", as in, people who have made their fortunes within the last, I don't know, 20 years. It talks about their yachts, and their houses, their butlers, their ridiculous "charitable" balls. It lead me to this conclusion: whether people are super wealthy or super poor, they can be real stupid with their money.
My husband is in the military, and I got a packet of info from our annual summer party last week. One section talks about what to do in a financial emergency. See, the army has some charitable organization that helps out military families (particularly during deployments) with financial crises, such as no money for rent, or a broken down car. Here is why I refuse to donate:
The packet entitled "Resources for a Financial Emergency" includes a bullet point on the front page, giving advice for families before coming to the military for aid: "Cut Expenses... Consider reducing or eliminating your cable television service, for example."
WHAT? So, they call for help paying their rent, and the person on the phone asks, "Well, Ma'am, have you considered reducing your cable television service yet?" The military spouse says, "Yep. I considered it a bit." Phone person says, "All right. Just checking. Now I'll send you free money." .
Anyways, people at one level are convinced they need cable television to survive. On another level, wealthier people are convinced they need 5 star hotels, room service and yachts. No matter what, you are rich in America. Just like I look at the people in this book and wonder how they can blow through as much money as they do and still want more, I am sure people from the world over would look at me and wonder they same. (Like, "You mean, you could afford a college degree that you never even USED?!")
One other point of interest is the wealthy's "charitable giving". It's more for show than anything. They never seem to give away enough to make it hurt. They use it as a way to gain respect from others, and climb some social ladder. For example, he interviewed one particularly annoying man who spoke repeatedly of his donations to charity. He said, "Oh, I just give and give and give. I just love helping other people. I just do it because I care so much, dang it." Then he added, "By the way, here is a list of all my recent charitable givings. You can publish them in your book. Actually, let me get you a spreadsheet of them so you get them all correct."
I had a professor at BYU I really liked. His name was Richard Johnson and he wrote a piece called "Wealth and Poverty". (Feel free to google it yourself, when I tried last time, it froze my computer and I lost this review.) It was very controversial. It boiled down to this: charity is not so much defined by how much you give away, but by how much you keep for yourself. You know, the widow's mite, like in the BIBLE. But people were seriously pissed off. Wealthy donors to BYU said they would not continue to contribute funds unless he was fired. Crazy stuff like that.
I agree with him. Giving a $10 million endowment to something, but keeping $2 billion leftover for yourself is not that impressive. And for your $10 million token, you get a building named in your honor, banquets for you, and news stories all over the community declaring you as awesome. Wouldn't you or I donate $100 for something like that? It's the equivalent for them. (According to some social theorists (I was a sociology major), the only true gift is an anonymous one. If you give it to someone and get the thanks and praise, you got something in return. The only way to really give a gift is to secretly do it and not get the credit. Kind of like parents wrap gifts for their kids and say Santa brought them, perhaps. Oh, wait. I guess they do get recognized, it's just delayed until the kids learn that their parents were Santa. Never mind!)
I realize how completely filled with blame I am. I am exactly like the richies in the book. I pay tithing and fast offerings. I donate to the Perpetual Education Fund and the church's Humanitarian Fund. But do I give enough to make it really hurt? Do I starve because of it? Couldn't the leftover food I toss out each year feed hundreds of people in another country? Hey, I didn't even give my kid anything for Christmas and pretend it was from Santa. (He was only a year old, anyways.) I did, however, find some toys he already had that I didn't think my mother in law had seen, and wrapped them up. I made sure he unwrapped them in front of her so that she wouldn't think I didn't get my kid anything for Christmas. She would've been mortified.
We are all too rich. We are all to greedy and dumb with our money. How depressing! Maybe I'll go rescue a cat from the shelter to feel better. Dale's out of town with the scouts, so he can't stop me. Ha ha!!!!!
October 18, 2019
I read it because my gal Mary Starkey is the subject of the first chapter. Super interesting anecdotes for sure. The ending wasn’t as strong as I would have liked.
April 12, 2009
A book about the Noveau Riche in the USA. The past decade has seen a meteoric rise in the number of American millionaires. Driven by the financial markets and leveraged investments, America has seen the creation of 3 levels of high wealth.
1) Lower Rich:1 million in assets (7.5 million households)
2) Middle Rich: 10 million- 100 million (2 million households)
3) Upper Rich: 100 million -1 billion (in the thousands)
A good time to read this, as undoubtedly these numbers have been drastically effected by the turn in Global Economy, American Financial Markets and wide based investment corruption over that last few years (enter AIG and Bernie Madoff for starters.)
The book underscores what I found to be true as a broker for 7 years.... That fear and greed drive the markets. That enough is never enough, and that the middle class is being quickly eliminated by two decades of overspending and debt accumulation.
Living in Europe for the past 19 months has only strengthened my belief that accumulation of "things" and "luxury items" can be more damaging than helpful and that the happiest people seem to be those who make investments in RELATIONSHIPS... not OBJECTS. Perhaps the people who figure this out are really the RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
Author: Robert Frank
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Copyright: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
Pages: 263
Date Read- 4/1/09 to 4/11/09
Notes
_________
p. 41
The two words that private bankers like to hear most are "liquidity event." A liquidity event is the magic moment when an entrepreneur or corporate executive sells his or her stake in a company for truckloads of cash.
p.155
In short both the things we feel we need and the things available for us to buy depend largely-beyond some point, almost entirely-on the things that others choose to buy.
AS a result, the nation's nonrich are wasting their time and money trying to keep up with the wealthy. They are also, ruining their environment and community in the process. The race to make more money to keep up with the rich , is the reason Americans are spending less time with children and less time sleeping. It's also the reason Americans feel less happy, since happiness is partly determined by how well we are doing compared to those around us. The race will only get more destructive as the rich get richer and more numerous.
p.203
According to a 2005 study, less than half of today's Richistanis agreed with the statement that "wealth has made me happier." Even more surprising was the discovery that 10 percent of millionaires (and 16 percent of female millionaires) felt that their wealth actually created more problems than it solved.
p.242
By any measure, America is becoming a more unequal society. The richest 1 percent of Americans control more than 33 percent of the total wealth.
1) Lower Rich:1 million in assets (7.5 million households)
2) Middle Rich: 10 million- 100 million (2 million households)
3) Upper Rich: 100 million -1 billion (in the thousands)
A good time to read this, as undoubtedly these numbers have been drastically effected by the turn in Global Economy, American Financial Markets and wide based investment corruption over that last few years (enter AIG and Bernie Madoff for starters.)
The book underscores what I found to be true as a broker for 7 years.... That fear and greed drive the markets. That enough is never enough, and that the middle class is being quickly eliminated by two decades of overspending and debt accumulation.
Living in Europe for the past 19 months has only strengthened my belief that accumulation of "things" and "luxury items" can be more damaging than helpful and that the happiest people seem to be those who make investments in RELATIONSHIPS... not OBJECTS. Perhaps the people who figure this out are really the RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
Author: Robert Frank
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Copyright: 2007
Genre: Business & Economics
Pages: 263
Date Read- 4/1/09 to 4/11/09
Notes
_________
p. 41
The two words that private bankers like to hear most are "liquidity event." A liquidity event is the magic moment when an entrepreneur or corporate executive sells his or her stake in a company for truckloads of cash.
p.155
In short both the things we feel we need and the things available for us to buy depend largely-beyond some point, almost entirely-on the things that others choose to buy.
AS a result, the nation's nonrich are wasting their time and money trying to keep up with the wealthy. They are also, ruining their environment and community in the process. The race to make more money to keep up with the rich , is the reason Americans are spending less time with children and less time sleeping. It's also the reason Americans feel less happy, since happiness is partly determined by how well we are doing compared to those around us. The race will only get more destructive as the rich get richer and more numerous.
p.203
According to a 2005 study, less than half of today's Richistanis agreed with the statement that "wealth has made me happier." Even more surprising was the discovery that 10 percent of millionaires (and 16 percent of female millionaires) felt that their wealth actually created more problems than it solved.
p.242
By any measure, America is becoming a more unequal society. The richest 1 percent of Americans control more than 33 percent of the total wealth.
December 28, 2023
this was a great book, very entertaining and insightful. Its an amazing reminder in so many aspects of life aswell as building a business. This should remind anyone especially if you are an entrepreneur of the sheer abundance of money there is out there flowing through even at the most difficult times. Money examples being shown from the most obscure niches and backgrounds is inspiring ...so that was a great part for me in my journey to build my own long lasting streams of income
... also some important life lessons of how eerily the problems of the rich are not too far from the 'common middle class' or even poor - this can save you a lifetime of wrong doing by learning from others mistakes and taking note of whats really important in life no matter you have,
an amazing insight into the lives, social life and wants and desires of the ultra-rich giving many a pre-cursor aswell as important warnings and pitfalls to watch out for - so you dont waste your own money, life, values and blessings in the pursuit of something that may not bear any fruit
so much i can say more, its crazy, from the examples of how one can more money than sense and yet feeling empty to how the bars of riches have risen dramatically one wouldn't believe - its astonishing how many are there it puts ones life into perspective (well for me anyway as an inspiring successful entrepreneur at the time of writing this review) - its recommended so read it
To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
www.Waseem.tv/Blog
👆🏼 P.S -
If you found this review helpful - I’d like to invite you to discover more on our blog. Where the community share some of our most important insights to level up each others knowledge 💡- from experience in studying books like this, training programs, podcasts and much more - visit the blog link above to find out more.
P.P.S 😅 - You probably noticed from my profile that I’ve reviewed a LOT of books over the years now - if you love seeking knowledge like me I’d love to connect with you further as a like minded person (send me a friend invite! 😀) - Also if you are curious - here is my preferred and recommended resource for seeking timeless wisdom - Check it out via the website invite link below 👇🏼 (You’ll be able to claim some awesome books for free 📚)
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... also some important life lessons of how eerily the problems of the rich are not too far from the 'common middle class' or even poor - this can save you a lifetime of wrong doing by learning from others mistakes and taking note of whats really important in life no matter you have,
an amazing insight into the lives, social life and wants and desires of the ultra-rich giving many a pre-cursor aswell as important warnings and pitfalls to watch out for - so you dont waste your own money, life, values and blessings in the pursuit of something that may not bear any fruit
so much i can say more, its crazy, from the examples of how one can more money than sense and yet feeling empty to how the bars of riches have risen dramatically one wouldn't believe - its astonishing how many are there it puts ones life into perspective (well for me anyway as an inspiring successful entrepreneur at the time of writing this review) - its recommended so read it
To Our Continued Success!
Seemy
www.Waseem.tv/Blog
👆🏼 P.S -
If you found this review helpful - I’d like to invite you to discover more on our blog. Where the community share some of our most important insights to level up each others knowledge 💡- from experience in studying books like this, training programs, podcasts and much more - visit the blog link above to find out more.
P.P.S 😅 - You probably noticed from my profile that I’ve reviewed a LOT of books over the years now - if you love seeking knowledge like me I’d love to connect with you further as a like minded person (send me a friend invite! 😀) - Also if you are curious - here is my preferred and recommended resource for seeking timeless wisdom - Check it out via the website invite link below 👇🏼 (You’ll be able to claim some awesome books for free 📚)
https://Waseem.tv/GoodReadsBookInvite
January 3, 2009
An interesting but ultimately depressing book.
"Richistan" observes that America has been generating wealth and wealthy people at an amazing rate over the past 20 years and that this prodigious growth in both the numbers of the wealthy as well as the scale of their wealth has led to their becoming "a whole other country." It seems kind of funny to be reading it in the wake of the 2008 stock crash and the likely destruction of a large part of that wealth (a number of names in the book are recognizable for their falls from grace in 2008), but a valid point is that many of the members of this community have so much money that they basically can't ever stop being rich.
Like most journalist books, "Richistan" some facts sprinkled amidst a lot of anecdotes, so it's hard to say how "real" or accurate a portrait this is, but I found this book fundamentally sort of sad, proof that we really are just East African Plains Apes. There is the continuous one-upmanship amongst the wealthy to have the biggest house, the biggest yacht, the most art, etc. (i.e. the most conspicuous and wasteful spending). There is the obligatory "poor rich kids" chapter relating a story of how clueless the offspring are about wealth. There is the "aren't we lucky?" chapter of how the new rich are 'reinventing charity' and a chapter on how various wealthy folks have decided to inject their wealth into the political process. Finally, there are the far-too-infrequent mentions of what it takes to get this much money: lots and lots of hard work and lots and lots of luck -- but as always, the spoils of that work and that luck are much more interesting than what it took to reach that point.
The book ends hopefully, suggesting that maybe the wealthy will deign to share their considerable fortunes with us in their pet projects, but I find it hard to be quite so sanguine.
"Richistan" observes that America has been generating wealth and wealthy people at an amazing rate over the past 20 years and that this prodigious growth in both the numbers of the wealthy as well as the scale of their wealth has led to their becoming "a whole other country." It seems kind of funny to be reading it in the wake of the 2008 stock crash and the likely destruction of a large part of that wealth (a number of names in the book are recognizable for their falls from grace in 2008), but a valid point is that many of the members of this community have so much money that they basically can't ever stop being rich.
Like most journalist books, "Richistan" some facts sprinkled amidst a lot of anecdotes, so it's hard to say how "real" or accurate a portrait this is, but I found this book fundamentally sort of sad, proof that we really are just East African Plains Apes. There is the continuous one-upmanship amongst the wealthy to have the biggest house, the biggest yacht, the most art, etc. (i.e. the most conspicuous and wasteful spending). There is the obligatory "poor rich kids" chapter relating a story of how clueless the offspring are about wealth. There is the "aren't we lucky?" chapter of how the new rich are 'reinventing charity' and a chapter on how various wealthy folks have decided to inject their wealth into the political process. Finally, there are the far-too-infrequent mentions of what it takes to get this much money: lots and lots of hard work and lots and lots of luck -- but as always, the spoils of that work and that luck are much more interesting than what it took to reach that point.
The book ends hopefully, suggesting that maybe the wealthy will deign to share their considerable fortunes with us in their pet projects, but I find it hard to be quite so sanguine.
Read
July 16, 2010It’s no secret that the rich have been getting richer. There are about 3 million millionaires in the US, about one percent of the population. Wall Street Journal columnist Robert Frank‘s conceit here, tho he doesn’t push it too far, is to examine the lives of the rich as if they lived in another country. They do form a separate society, with their own gated communities, clubs, stores, summer camps, and self-help groups. Richistan, moreover, has class divisions of its own. Upper class Richistan, people with more than $100 million, don’t associate with lower class Richistanis, those with only $10 million or so, who often can’t even get into super-premium investment opportunities. Don’t even ask old money to mix with new.
Nor are their lives necessarily easier than ours. Managing wealth on this scale becomes a job in itself, and life with multiple homes can become impossibly complicated, to the point where professional help is often required. (Take a hint kids–butlers can start their careers pulling down six figures). Worse, the inflation rate in lower Richistan is twice that for the rest of us, four times higher among the richest. Maintenance on a yacht runs about ten percent of the purchase price every year, and new models keep getting bigger (as do houses), so that your giant boat from a few years ago may soon be dwarfed by those of your neighbors, defeating the whole purpose of owning one in the first place. And what of the effect of this money on your kids? Worst case scenario?
Thorstein Veblen explained much of this over a century ago, but Franks offers a fascinating look at a world most of us can barely imagine. --John
From ICPL Staff Picks Blog
Nor are their lives necessarily easier than ours. Managing wealth on this scale becomes a job in itself, and life with multiple homes can become impossibly complicated, to the point where professional help is often required. (Take a hint kids–butlers can start their careers pulling down six figures). Worse, the inflation rate in lower Richistan is twice that for the rest of us, four times higher among the richest. Maintenance on a yacht runs about ten percent of the purchase price every year, and new models keep getting bigger (as do houses), so that your giant boat from a few years ago may soon be dwarfed by those of your neighbors, defeating the whole purpose of owning one in the first place. And what of the effect of this money on your kids? Worst case scenario?
Thorstein Veblen explained much of this over a century ago, but Franks offers a fascinating look at a world most of us can barely imagine. --John
From ICPL Staff Picks Blog
August 4, 2009
The title of the book comes from the notion that really rich people in the U.S. live such different lives from the rest of us that, in a way, they are really living in a different country since they often aren't affected by many of the events and pressures that influence the lives of average Americans. The author profiles a sampling of the "new rich" & provides us outsiders with some insight into their lives. And their lives really are different from ours. One example that really stuck with me was a comment made to the author by a wealthy individual with a large yacht. The author asked about the effect of higher gas prices, and the rich guy said something about how his boat costs 2.5 million dollars to maintain annually during the best of times, so even if gas goes up a dollar a gallon for a year, the extra 20k or whatever it ends up costing him to fuel it is just a drop in the bucket. Basically, when you're that rich you don't have to worry about things like gas prices & health insurance (unless you have too much of your money tied up in the stock market – he also interviews the obligatory “lost it all” guy) & you tend to enter into a lifestyle that’s very different, even if you aren’t the type to live extravagantly.
The author is careful to present his findings without showing any bias one way or another, taking care to illustrate the both the unique benefits and unique problems that come with being really, really wealthy. He overuses the "richistan" term a bit in my opinion (almost like he's trying to start a catchphrase) and it does get annoying after awhile, but other than that this is a fascinating read.
The author is careful to present his findings without showing any bias one way or another, taking care to illustrate the both the unique benefits and unique problems that come with being really, really wealthy. He overuses the "richistan" term a bit in my opinion (almost like he's trying to start a catchphrase) and it does get annoying after awhile, but other than that this is a fascinating read.
July 15, 2008
The author is the "wealth writer" for the Wall Street Journal and is the only writer exclusively covering the New Wealth in America. He started covering this topic a couple of years ago and wrote articles in the WSJ that later evolved into the subject of the book. The basic instigator of the book, revealed in the opening, was a statistic on the number of millionaires doubling in the 1990s.
The book examines a new country - Richistani - populated by the new rich. There are three classes in Richistani - Lower ($1-10 Million), Middle ($10-25 Million) and High ($25M-$2B+). The book begins with a summary of each of the classes, their reported spending budgets and some unique quirks and oddities. The other statistic that stuck out to me was that when asked how much money they would need to feel comfortable, all Richistanis (no matter the class) would always double their current income. If they had $1M, they needed $2.5M; $10M, then $22.5M; $1B, $2B.
The author does a great job of keeping the subject matter light and funny and not too depressing for us normal wage earners. The book presents the info. in an un-biased manner and allows the reader to determine the possible pros and cons of such wealth. Hopefully, anthropoligists would nod with approval.
At the end of the book, I began wondering if I was investing enough for my future; then I relaxed. I was happy with my normal life and took a nap with my husband.
The book examines a new country - Richistani - populated by the new rich. There are three classes in Richistani - Lower ($1-10 Million), Middle ($10-25 Million) and High ($25M-$2B+). The book begins with a summary of each of the classes, their reported spending budgets and some unique quirks and oddities. The other statistic that stuck out to me was that when asked how much money they would need to feel comfortable, all Richistanis (no matter the class) would always double their current income. If they had $1M, they needed $2.5M; $10M, then $22.5M; $1B, $2B.
The author does a great job of keeping the subject matter light and funny and not too depressing for us normal wage earners. The book presents the info. in an un-biased manner and allows the reader to determine the possible pros and cons of such wealth. Hopefully, anthropoligists would nod with approval.
At the end of the book, I began wondering if I was investing enough for my future; then I relaxed. I was happy with my normal life and took a nap with my husband.
November 26, 2012
An interesting sociological study of a segment of our society that gets too much and not enough attention all at once. The rich steer our public policy and government and economy in huge ways, yet we mostly see them on reality TV bragging about their $25,000 sunglasses and gift wrapping rooms. (And shadow yachts and "guest yachts".) The Occupy Movement put more of a spotlight on our defacto plutocracy, but the fact is, those of us non-Richistan citizens are overwhelmingly preoccupied with juggling our own student loans, mortgages, credit card payments and other bills to care. (The bit about aspirational buying on the part of the 99% was especially spot-on.)
This was actually pretty fascinating *in hindsight* as it was published in 2007 - and the author appeared to have finished the actual writing in 2006. It's a snapshot of the wealthy just before the crash of 2008 - and the wealth imbalance he describes here has only gotten much, much worse.
It seemed that Frank wrote this book in such a way so as to not alienate his Richistan sources, which is smart for him, but a disservice to his readers. For example, he touches on the fact that the rich have purchased the U.S. government and most NGOs, but ultimately glosses over what that really means for the rest of us. He acknowledges that "some" rich people buy government to install a favorable tax environment but gives us no details...but then goes on for an entire chapter about 4 rich individuals who don't do that.
This was actually pretty fascinating *in hindsight* as it was published in 2007 - and the author appeared to have finished the actual writing in 2006. It's a snapshot of the wealthy just before the crash of 2008 - and the wealth imbalance he describes here has only gotten much, much worse.
It seemed that Frank wrote this book in such a way so as to not alienate his Richistan sources, which is smart for him, but a disservice to his readers. For example, he touches on the fact that the rich have purchased the U.S. government and most NGOs, but ultimately glosses over what that really means for the rest of us. He acknowledges that "some" rich people buy government to install a favorable tax environment but gives us no details...but then goes on for an entire chapter about 4 rich individuals who don't do that.
October 25, 2019
This was delicious reading for me, getting to know how the richest of the rich live (those who have net worths ranging from ten million to billions of dollars). It's sociological reading. I got to know who resides in this country of "Rich-istan". Their numbers grew dramatically in the last few years, fed by a "global river of money" seeking worthwhile investments that swelled exponentially in the last two decades with the emergence of new financing mechanisms. It's not the old moneyed, nor the film stars and football players, that populate this new land of millionaires and billionaires. Instead it's the new rich of instant entrepreneurs who sold their successful businesses, including the many who cashed in on IPOs and stock options in the last couple of decades. And many of them are liberals, not industrial conservatives. Their sudden lives of multiple sprawling estates with full complements of "household management" staffs, Rolls-Royces and Bentleys, hundred-thousand dollar watches, 400+ foot yachts, private jets, tens of thousand dollars worth of massages a year, thousands of dollars worth of gowns and tuxedos for charity balls never worn twice, and flowing philantrophy from excessive moneys, informed me well of what I'll do without in this lifetime, and also (comfortingly) of the "problems" that come along with the dough.
September 30, 2008
Terrifying and illuminating-- the new philanthropy and the rise of a household manager industry were particularly interesting aspects of this travelogue.
Truly startling was the fact that most inhabiting Richistan report that they'd only feel secure at TWICE their current value (whether worth was 1 million or 50 million).
The rise of a super group where wealth moves on an international scale and finances are planned for 100 years was particularly chilling given all the Heinlein I read growing up.
Read this with Free Lunch and Shock Doctrine.
Truly startling was the fact that most inhabiting Richistan report that they'd only feel secure at TWICE their current value (whether worth was 1 million or 50 million).
The rise of a super group where wealth moves on an international scale and finances are planned for 100 years was particularly chilling given all the Heinlein I read growing up.
Read this with Free Lunch and Shock Doctrine.
March 14, 2015
A thoroughly depressing book, in part because the author attempts to stand on �unbiased� ground while exploring the lives of those whose net worth is over $10 million. Inherently raises the question of whether it�s possible to consume at that level and still honestly say you�re giving proper attention to the poor and downtrodden. The chapter on performance philanthropy is worth noting�much more so than the chapter on relieving the cramped space of the super-yacht by paring them with mini-yacht companion ships.
February 12, 2017
Fascinating, but written prior to the 2008 crash and our current economic troubles. It would be interesting to get some updated info. One thing that wouldn't change is the knowledge I gained about why I'll never be rich. I wasn't born into it, nor do I have that Type A ambition and drive that the nouveau riche (or Richistanis) seem to have. Regrettably, it's that lack of ambition that would make many middle-class people like me quite content to have that kind of wealth, whereas the Richistanis never seem to reach the point where their fortunes bring them serenity. Go figure.
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