A senior editor at Mother Jones dives into the lives of the
extremely rich, showing the fascinating, otherworldly realm they
inhabit-and the insidious ways this realm harms us all. Have you
ever fantasized about being ridiculously wealthy? Probably.
Striking it rich is among the most resilient of American fantasies,
surviving war and peace, expansions and recessions, economic
meltdowns and global pandemics. We dream of the jackpot, the big
exit, the life-altering payday, in whatever form that takes.
(Americans spent $81 billion on lottery tickets in 2019, more than
the GDPs of most nations.) We would escape "essential" day jobs and
cramped living spaces, bury our debts, buy that sweet spread, and
bail out struggling friends and relations. But rarely do we follow
the fantasy to its conclusion-to ponder the social, psychological,
and societal downsides of great affluence and the fact that so few
possess it. What is it actually like to be blessed with riches in
an era of plagues, political rancor, and near-Dickensian economic
differences? How mind-boggling are the opportunities and access,
how problematic the downsides? Does the experience differ depending
on whether the money is earned or unearned, where it comes from,
and whether you are male or female, white or black? Finally, how
does our collective lust for affluence, and our stubborn belief in
social mobility, explain how we got to the point where forty
percent of Americans have literally no wealth at all? These are all
questions that Jackpot sets out to explore. The result of deep
reporting and dozens of interviews with fortunate citizens-company
founders and executives, superstar coders, investors, inheritors,
lottery winners, lobbyists, lawmakers, academics, sports agents,
wealth and philanthropy professionals, concierges, luxury realtors,
Bentley dealers, and even a woman who trains billionaires' nannies
in physical combat, Jackpot is a compassionate, character-rich,
perversely humorous, and ultimately troubling journey into the
American wealth fantasy and where it has taken us.
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