The New American Class System

[Island Son]

THE NEW AMERICAN CLASS SYSTEM
Giga-billionaires are climbing the ladder and pulling it up behind them. Your six-figure salary won't even get you on the bottom rung.

http://men.style.com/details/features/full?&id=content_4435

I'll post some excerpts

 

[Island Son]

A luxocrat is not merely rich, but rich in a way that you couldn’t have imagined back in college. (Otherwise you would have been nicer to the guy.) He’s rich enough to guarantee that every calorie that passes his lips has been fussed over by a master chef, rich enough to share his truffled foie gras with the treasury secretary on a Gulfstream headed for Barbados, rich enough to impulse-buy doodads from the Robb Report with a black American Express Centurion card (whose existence you weren’t even aware of), rich enough to make your proud and dutiful little 401(k) look, in comparison, like the mound of coins that an Appalachian beet farmer might stash away in a pickle jar.

 

[Island Son]

Usually when you read about the widening gap between the rich and the poor, you think of the insane chasm that yawns between, say, Bill Gates and a laborer trying to subsist on a few cents a day on the Bangladeshi floodplain. But there is a new status gap opening up in the American consciousness, one in which a young guy can earn or inherit what used to be a very respectable sum (well into the six figures, for instance) and still feel as if he’s stuck on a treadmill of perpetual proletarian worry and strain.

Meanwhile he can’t help but notice that he’s got ultra-wealthy contemporaries (hedge-funders, real-estate moguls, Google geeks, surfers who retired at 30 after hitting the Silicon Valley jackpot) whose daily activities seem to have been shorn of all that worry and strain. The end result is the emergence of a different social pecking order—one in which the new money dwarfs the old, in which the currency-market globalists and Palo Alto venture capitalists conquer the top while even the Hollywood producers and Merrill Lynch desk jockeys get shunted to the bottom.

 

[Island Son]

See, there’s a reason you haven’t bumped into that college classmate for years, and it’s not just because you’re both so darn busy. It is because the luxocrat moves within a sphere that remains pretty much invisible to the rabble. Even if you’re tony enough to fly business class, stay at the Four Seasons, and gorge yourself at what’s supposedly the best steakhouse in town—Oh boy, creamed spinach!—you will never rub elbows with the luxocrat on a trip. This is because the luxocrat navigates his itinerary by private jet, floats above the airport traffic in a helicopter, whisks up to the presidential suite in a private elevator, unwinds for a weekend on a private island in the Indian Ocean, and dines at home on a menu tailored by Daniel Boulud or in a private club with fellow members of the elite.

 

[Island Son]

In fact, all these sights and services are accessible to about 500 people who are deemed pioneering leaders in 13 industries, and who are hand-picked by a special panel, and who are happy to pay the $60,000 initiation fee—“people who are transforming our world,” as Saunders puts it. Here, she says, they can meet, bond, and “optimize time” in a club whose database is programmed to know each customer—his workout schedule, his peanut allergy, his fondness for a rare brand of tequila.

 

[Island Son]

Meanwhile, back in Schlubville, the last census found that the median net worth of an American household was $55,000—and sank down under $15,000 if you snipped out the (quite possibly inflated) value of the house itself. Between 1967 and 2003, the median income of an American household practically flatlined, not even poking out of the $30,000-to-$45,000 range in the course of 36 years. “The long-run trend has been this continuing concentration of income and wealth at the top,” says Cornell professor Robert H. Frank, the author of Luxury Fever and coauthor of The Winner-Take-All Society. “For a while, people in the middle were gaining ground—in the late nineties, a little bit. But that’s all sort of gone back to the stagnant picture again. The only gains that people in the middle get are from working longer hours.”

 

[Island Son]

You can surrender, simply stop trying to keep up with the luxocrats, but then what? “If you don’t keep up, you’re supposed to feel bad about who you are,” says Paul Stiles, 41, whose career path took him through both Wall Street and Silicon Valley before he threw in the towel and wrote Is the American Dream Killing You? “That’s the lever that the market’s using to get everybody to lead these ridiculous lives that are emptying them of all spirit. Why else would anyone do it? Even if they’re not really conscious of it, they’re afraid of feeling like shit about themselves. Even the guy who’s making half a million dollars feels like shit relative to the guys he’s in the office with.”

Because in the end, the problem is not that your college classmate has become outrageously rich. The problem is what that presidential adviser at the Core Club said about the future. The problem is that you, after all your hard work, never expected to be poor.

 

[bran987]

I know some luxocrats, ($100 million net worth and up) and what he's saying is not all true about all of them... and all of them aren't that unhappy lol.

Then again some are miserable, but no more so than regular people.

I have mixed feelings about this article, because as successful as OTHER people say I am becoming, sometimes I wonder if the American Dream is killing me personally.

What about you guys, do the super rich people you know seem happy?

 

[Island Son]

I think the last part is aimed at us regular shlubs on the 9-5 treadmill
I don't even know any upper middle class people let alone the superrich. Maybe my kids will if i ever have any.

 

[chewyxrage]

The president of the company I work for is 33 and the private company is worth 20 million after 7 years of existence, probably the richest guy I know. His wife and brother are the VP's, he has 3 kids and seems pretty damn happy to me. There was an article in "Success" magazine about their family and it said they still have dinner together 5 times a week, etc. Doesn't seem like a bad life to me.

I'm sure it was a bitch when the company started though.

It was actually this issue they have on their main page right now:

http://www.successmagazine.com/

 

[manny78]

I know some luxocrats, ($100 million net worth and up) and what he's saying is not all true about all of them... and all of them aren't that unhappy lol.

Then again some are miserable, but no more so than regular people.

I have mixed feelings about this article, because as successful as OTHER people say I am becoming, sometimes I wonder if the American Dream is killing me personally.

What about you guys, do the super rich people you know seem happy?

One of my good friend is rich. 32yr old, his company is worth around 8M (no debt). He's about to sell it, invest the money and retire. He was happy doing what he did but he reached a point where his knowledge just couldnt keep up with the growth. He studied in politics and now has an IT firm. I guess he has too much stress and since he can retire and spend the rest of his life playing golf and travelling, I must assume he's not happy the way he is now.

I live with many upper middle class, rich and even some "luxocrat". We dont look at each other saying "OMG he's got more than I so my life is screwed". Most of these luxocrat dont even show their wealth. They have a regular life go at the supermarket like all the others.

 

[heavyweightchamp]

So basically what youre saying is: you only live once, you cannot take your wealth with you when youre gone, and you should live life being happy, not stressed out of your mind because of work... Or atleast thats what im getting out of it. And I agree, so what if you dont make millions every year, my fiances grandfather was my initial backer for fighting, his company brings in 18.4 million yearly and all he does is complain. He told me if he dould retire he wouldve years ago but family is running the business down so he may sell. He explained to me just like Sean Combs did to Christopher Wallace, the more money you make the more problems you get. Also he said the less time you actually have to spend it. He said he hates carbide and told me to continue to fight because I love it and he regrets 40 years of his life!

Also an older lady probably in her 90's put it into perspective for me the other day at Subway she asked what I did, so I told her and then she asked do you like what you do? I said yeah I love it but im not making big money yet but hopefully soon.

She then said, honey dont worry about money for my sake. I said what? She said I lost a Son in his 30's stressed out so bad after losing his job and supporting his family he committed suicide and left a note that he could not make it in this world. 2 months later her dead Sons best friend died of a heart attack from the same layoff... I dont care about material things or greed I only care about happiness and enough money to live!

 

[rsnoble-im-back]

This thread makes me feel like a worthless fuck. As much shit as I have I still realize I am small fry. My idea of wealth is keeping my job and making an extra 5k per month in the stock market. Sure I could aim higher, but that doesn't mean ill get there any faster unless my brain wakes up. Happy or not ill take the $ anyday. I don't know, if I get another barn built and fill it with toys also, get the house paid off, have a few grand in the bank cash, bring in several k a year in the markets.........that's all I really want. Considering no more than im worth I already have more shit than I can keep track of and sometimes even forget about what I have. 10 vehicles, 2 barns full of shit, 2 houses(1 is a rental on my property), 2 dogs, 8 cats, some blond that claims to be my wife(where the hell I picked that up I can't recall), countless other crap......exactly how much does one need?

 

[Creepusmaximus]

A luxocrat is not merely rich, but rich in a way that you couldn’t have imagined back in college. (Otherwise you would have been nicer to the guy.) He’s rich enough to guarantee that every calorie that passes his lips has been fussed over by a master chef, rich enough to share his truffled foie gras with the treasury secretary on a Gulfstream headed for Barbados, rich enough to impulse-buy doodads from the Robb Report with a black American Express Centurion card (whose existence you weren’t even aware of), rich enough to make your proud and dutiful little 401(k) look, in comparison, like the mound of coins that an Appalachian beet farmer might stash away in a pickle jar.

I've been seeing black cards for years, oh no I may be one of the rich bastards your talking about. LOL. I'm not BTW.

 

[Creepusmaximus]

What about you guys, do the super rich people you know seem happy?

From the ones I know it's different group by group. People who inherit money are always weird and usually have had a shelter life. It's hard to talk to them about anything either they know nothing about normal things or their people take care of everything. That crowd seems unhappy to me.

The opposite is the over the top CEO who is always running at full speed. Problem with those guys is their always running around in a fenzy. Happy? Yep I think so. To busy to be depressed anyways.

Then there's the real estate, stocks, business owners etc. Their usually the best balanced and the most entertianing to be around. Also they tend to be the most free with their money. Their the ones that buy expensive toys just because. LOL. Happy? Yes the ones I run into are all happy.

 

[T-Matt]

From the ones I know it's different group by group. People who inherit money are always weird and usually have had a shelter life. It's hard to talk to them about anything either they know nothing about normal things or their people take care of everything. That crowd seems unhappy to me.

The opposite is the over the top CEO who is always running at full speed. Problem with those guys is their always running around in a fenzy. Happy? Yep I think so. To busy to be depressed anyways.

Then there's the real estate, stocks, business owners etc. Their usually the best balanced and the most entertianing to be around. Also they tend to be the most free with their money. Their the ones that buy expensive toys just because. LOL. Happy? Yes the ones I run into are all happy.

Everyone in my company is extremely happy...... Why?

Just because compound interest is on OUR side now...

That's why..

That's it..

Money works for us now, not for banks or credit card companies......

That simple...

Oh,we're also happy b/c our company is worht $400 billion in net assets.. From $8 billion in 1992 to $400 billion in 06 to $1 trillion by 2010............