THE HAVES AND HAVE-YACHTS

The rich are different from you and me, but the very rich are much alike in squandering money for the sake of conspicuous consumption.

It’s no wonder that at Donald Trump’s second inauguration, billionaires crowded out congressional leaders, for, as New Yorker staff writer Osnos says in this essay collection, “candidates no longer needed large pools of rich supporters; they only needed small pools of ultra rich supporters.” For those ultrarichies, having a politician in the pocket is a small investment, for that way lie tax cuts and thus more money to spend on yachts‚ superyachts, megayachts, and gigayachts. As a measure of the wealth of the 1 percent, Osnos notes, one has only to consider that “the world contains about 5,400 superyachts, and about a hundred gigayachts,” playthings that are in essence floating nation-states, seldom policed since their owners may well be pals with prime ministers and presidents. That so much money is available to so few people has to do not just with tax cuts and other favors, but also with sheer volume: As Osnos notes, “Facebook has as many adherents as Christianity.” So it is that Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and company sail the world. And it’s not just about yachts: As Osnos writes, many of the superrich are convinced that the zombie apocalypse is coming for them, prepping for it by outfitting not just ships but also underground bunkers and safe rooms. Osnos covers a lot of bases here, from (rightful) paranoia to the con games that plague the moneyed class. But those con games seem small compared to the largesse of governments when it comes to that sliver of humanity; as Osnos concludes, only one federal agency has had an indefinite hiring freeze imposed by Trump, and that’s the IRS.

A thoroughly reported and spryly narrated—and deeply maddening—tour of extreme wealth.