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Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West by Justin Farrell
niniane's review
4.5
The author is a Yale professor and grew up as a Wyoming rancher. He used this to interview many wealthy people and their servants in Teton County.
I was surprised by the methods that wealthy people use to assuage their guilt. One is using a strawman of painting all lower-income people as Caucasian ski bums who chose to prioritize skiing over work. They say thus anyone who lacks money "chose" that life.
Apparently the wealthy people in Tetons carefully wear jeans and shirts to look like the working class. They also refer to their fishing guide, butcher, etc as their friends. But those people do not at all think it is a friendship. It is a one-sided work relationship.
The wealthy people feel like they gave up so much authenticity to make their billions. Now they really want to get back authenticity by wearing jeans and thinking their servants are "friends". But they would never go visit their friends (who live in a tiny place 1.5 hours away). It is usually hiring their "friend" to work for them.
I was surprised by the methods that wealthy people use to assuage their guilt. One is using a strawman of painting all lower-income people as Caucasian ski bums who chose to prioritize skiing over work. They say thus anyone who lacks money "chose" that life.
Apparently the wealthy people in Tetons carefully wear jeans and shirts to look like the working class. They also refer to their fishing guide, butcher, etc as their friends. But those people do not at all think it is a friendship. It is a one-sided work relationship.
The wealthy people feel like they gave up so much authenticity to make their billions. Now they really want to get back authenticity by wearing jeans and thinking their servants are "friends". But they would never go visit their friends (who live in a tiny place 1.5 hours away). It is usually hiring their "friend" to work for them.
dakotious's review against another edition
challenging
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Fantastic book. Don't read if you don't want to get angry.
annamsnrch's review
3.0
Interesting read but got a little repetitive. Gives a different perspective on wealth and wealth inequality