Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West

by Justin Farrell

The incredible day-to-day stress of living in poverty, being overworked, fearing eviction, experiencing ethnic discrimination, and seeing the cost of living continually skyrocket might tend to make some people jealous or resentful of neighbors who have more money than they’ll ever be able to spend, and plenty of free time to go along with it. Surely, it must be difficult for people like Carmita or Miguel or others in this chapter, waking up every morning on the floor of a shared trailer or motel room, to drive to work for a family at their sprawling $20 million property, and then only to head home in the evening to your children, and then leave again for your second minimum wage shift at the gas station or grocery story. It is reasonable to assume that for any of us, negative feelings might fester—that the mind might wander toward thoughts of envy. On paper, at least, we might assume that the enormity of the gap between these two types of families might breed resentment or jealousy, if not directed at the individual wealthy people themselves, at least at the hand you’ve been dealt or the systems in society that enable it. Yet, this is not the reality on the ground, and the interviews with people like Carmita, Miguel, Carlota, Lolita, and the many others, tell a much different story—one that tends to be more positive because they do not have time to attend informative civic events, participate in regular in-depth discussions over these issues, or have the privilege of forma...