Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New RichIf you know that Frank is a columnist for the Wall Street Journal then you might suspect this to be a paean to the titans of capitalism as seen through their luxury goods. And in some ways you'd be right. Frank's writing is often breezy, and much of this work reads as a tour guide through the lifestyles of our new class of the super-wealthy. (For a more substantive look at this same topic see Winner-Take-All Politics by Hacker and Pierson.)
That's not to say Frank is an airhead. He's a smart writer with special access and interest in an important and influential subset of our nation. It's also satisfying to reach points where even the sympathetic Frank is stunned by the excesses he sees, perhaps the most absurd being the yacht with its own yacht.
Why this is progressive/liberal: Fighting the super-wealthy has been a progressive past-time for over a century in the United States. In fact, the platform for the 1912 Progressive Party (back when Progressives came out of the Republican Party) focuses on reigning in the excess of the uber-rich.
"To destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."
The battle continues today. Does the country belong to all of its citizens, or only the most wealthy?
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