About this title: Full of captivating profiles and expert insights into the lives and lifestyles of the nouveau riche, "Richistan" looks behind the glitz to find the real story behind new money and its impact on the richest nation in the world.
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Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown
Date Published: 2007-06-05
ISBN-13:9780307339263ISBN:0307339262
Description: Like New. May be shiny, in some instances dust jackets are not included, no missing pages, no damage to binding, may have a remainder mark. read more
Description: Good. 0307339262 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Description: Good. 0307339262 Former library item may have library binding and show stamps, stickers or other marks. Items not meeting quality expectations may be returned. Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780307341457ISBN:0307341453
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Fine. 0307339262 Excellent Condition First Edition Hard cover book with paper dust jacket cover! Clean pages, Dust jacket has no tears, mild shelf rubs, this book is Near NEW! Shop & Save With US. read more
Description: Good. 2007-Hardcover---may contain minor shelf-wear-Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown
Date Published: 2007-06-05
ISBN-13:9780307339263ISBN:0307339262
Description: Good. Every heavytail order includes with a sweet! We carefully hand clean and reinspect each and every item we ship. Our quality control process ensures items to be in the condition described or better. Heavytail is determined to earn your repeat business through old fashioned customer service. We love international orders. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown Publishers
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780307339263ISBN:0307339262
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Glued binding. Paper over boards. With dust jacket. 277 p. Audience: General/trade. Excellent condition. No marks. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown
Date Published: 2007-06-05
ISBN-13:9780307339263ISBN:0307339262
Description: New in Very Good jacket. New hardback book. Has publisher's inventory dot on bottom edges and small, 1" tear on dust jacket. We ship 6 days a week, generally within 24 hours; single CDs and DVDs upgraded to 1st class! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Date Published: 2008-06-24
ISBN-13:9780307341457ISBN:0307341453
Description: Very Good. Great title in good condition. Pages are clean, crisp, and tight. Covers show some light shelf wear. Satisfaction guaranteed. If item not as described, return for refund of purchase price. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown
Date Published: 2007-06-05
ISBN-13:9780307339263ISBN:0307339262
Description: New. FIRST EDITION STATED. Hardback w/ DJ. Enjoyable reading copy for your personal pleasure. You are buying a Book in NEW condition with very light shelf wear to include very light edge and corner wear. Buy it Now! ! ! As always, thank you for buying this book from International Book Source, YOUR ONE source FOR ALL your BOOK related NEEDS. Please remember to CHOOSE carefully how QUICKLY you would like to RECEIVE this material FAST, or standard (on next page). Thanks again! ! ! ! read more
Description: New. Orders placed after Dec. 7 cannot be guaranteed delivery before Christmas. GREAT BUY. Brand New From US Distributor. WE ARE A 5 STAR SELLER with OVER 3, 500, 000 BOOKS SOLD. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Crown
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780307339263ISBN:0307339262
Description: Fine-Used in Fine jacket. / 9780307339263. Would be new except for one folded over page. Book is clean and tight. Ships with confirming email. 100% money back guarantee. read more
"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."
"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."
"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 reside 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 wealth."
"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."
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