I just watched the Barrett-Jackson Car Auction from Scottsdale. They sold almost $100M in rolling stock over the span of 40 hours. I saw 1960's car that originally sold for $2-3000 new go for $60-150,000. When they showed the people bidding on them they looked like ordinary guys my age, sitting with their wives of the same age, kids all grown up, reliving their wasted youth. Somebody is making money in the country and they aren't all evil, Republican, corporate executives
Pick up a copy of Pinnacle Living Magazine sometime and look at all the gated communities they are building in the mountains of the southeast these days. The starting price for a 1/2 to 1 acre lot runs $60-100,000.
I am not naive enough to believe that there are not poor people struggling in this country. In my 34 adult years I have been young, newly married and poor, middle class, divorced and poor again, and now remarried and very well off. That's life in America. I don't know Paul Krugman, but I have to believe that some of these people spending this money are pretty ordinary people just like me.
Absolutely insane and immoral. Not only are some of these "developments" very tacky, the majority of owners don't plan to live in them year round. Some sit high on ridges so they are visible for 20 miles, cluttering up the landscape for everyone to see.
I am all for the Horatio Alger story repeated 1,000,000 times in America, but I just wish the noveaux rich would learn a little class and respect for their neighbors.