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Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich | 
 enlarge | Author: Robert Frank
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $4.97
You Save: $19.98 (80%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  58 reviews
Sales Rank: 39221
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 277
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 5.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 0307339262
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.52340973
EAN: 9780307339263
ASIN: 0307339262
Publication Date: June 5, 2007
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Condition: ** Possible marking on cover. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases.
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Product Description
The rich have always been different from you and me, but this revealing and funny journey through “Richistan” entertainingly shows that they are more different than ever. Richistanis have 400-foot-yachts, 30,000-square-foot homes, house staffs of more than 100, and their own “arborists.” They’re also different from Old Money, and have torn down blue-blood institutions to build their own shining empire.
Richistan is like the best travel writing, full of colorful and interesting stories providing insights into exotic locales. Robert Frank has been loitering on the docks of yacht marinas, pestering his way into charity balls, and schmoozing with real estate agents selling mega-houses to capture the story of the twenty-first century’s nouveau riche:
House-training the rich. People with new wealth have to be taught how to act like, well, proper rich people. Just in the nick of time, there’s been a boom in the number of newly trained butlers—“household managers”—who will serve just the right cabernet when a Richistani’s new buddies from Palm Beach stop by.
“My boat is bigger than your boat.” Only in Richistan would a 100-foot-boat be considered a dinghy. Personal pleasure craft have started to rival navy destroyers in size and speed. Richistan is also a place where friends make fun of those misers who buy the new girlfriend a mere Mercedes SLK.
“You want my money? Prove that you’re helping the needy!” Richistanis are not only consuming like crazy, they’re also shaking up the establishment’s bureaucratic, slow-moving charity network, making lean, results-oriented philanthropy an important new driving force.
Move over, Christian Coalition. Richistanis are more Democratic than Republican, “fed up and not going to take it anymore,” and willing to spend millions to get progressive-oriented politicians elected.
“My name is Mike and I’m rich.” Think that money is the answer? Think again as Robert Frank explores the emotional complexities of wealth.
And, as Robert Frank reveals, there is not one Richistan but three: Lower, Middle, and Upper, each of which has its own levels and distinctions of wealth —the haves and the have-mores. The influence of Richistan and the Richistanis extends well beyond the almost ten million households that make up its population, as the nonstop quest for status and an insatiable demand for luxury goods reshapes the entire American economy.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 53 more reviews...
 Sad Political Slant July 21, 2008
The book had a promissing start, but quickly deteriated into Republican bashing and lefty egalitarian slant. Reads like a bad New York Times article.
An entertaining look at the lives of the Super-Rich July 19, 2008
This book was well written, easy to read, entertaining, and funny.
The author hung around places where really rich folks hang out for a year or two, then wrote a book based upon his findings. I can think of a lot worse ways to do research for a book!
The author says the very wealthy are so insulated from the rest of society that they make up their own country within a country.....aka Richistan.
The author divides the millionaire crowd into 3 wealth segments:
Lower Richistan.......$1-10M
Middle Richistan......$10-100M
Upper Richistan.......$100M to $1B
The author reports that as of 2004...the number of millionaire+ households was:
$1M.........9,050,000
$5M.........1,440,000
$10M.........530,000
$25M.........110,000
If we assume there were about (320M population divided by 2) 160M households in the U.S. back in 2004......that means about 6% of U.S. households had millionaire status (9.05M/160M).
The author reported a new rule-of-thumb which I had not heard of before.......that regardless of your wealth level.....you think you need 2X your current wealth level to feel "really wealthy".
I found the section on butler boot camp to be funny. There are so many millionaires needing butlers (or household managers) to take care of their 3 or 4 houses and yachts that demand exceeds supply of butlers. For a mere $12K, you can attend butler boot camp for 8 weeks, and get an average starting pay of $75K.......with a top end pay of $120K. The down side is you have to put up with prima Dona chefs and manage many vendors with an annual operating budget in the $2M range.
I found the section on "performance based philanthropy" interesting. Some entrepreneurs make their fortune then decide to be philanthropists. When they investigate the large, traditional philanthropic organizations.......they find that less than $0.50 of every dollar donated actually does real work for the beneficiaries. Some organizations have tremendous over-head which reduces their efficiency. A few philanthropists decide they can run a more efficient organization......and then up super efficient organizations which then compete against the large traditional organizations.
The section on rich kids points out the age-old difficulty of preventing large family fortunes being spent within 3 generations.
The "who can buy the biggest yacht" section was also entertaining. It seems that to display your super rich status, you need at least a 400 foot long yacht. Of course, the bad news is the regular marinas can't handle a boat that big......so you have to park your trophy yacht out by the rusty ocean going vessels!
The final conclusion of the author is that the U.S. is at risk for another minor social revolution because of the disparity of wealth.....with the top 1% now controlling 33% of the total wealth. He points out the 2 previous social revolutions in the U.S. where in the early 1900's Teddy Roosevelt broke up the large business trusts and the 1930's with FDR and his many New Deal proposals.
Of course, the fact there are disparities in the wealth distribution is not new news. Wilfred Pareto found that in several European countries in the late 1800's and early 1900's.....20% of the population controlled 80% of the wealth. If you check the latest figures for the U.S., you will find Pareto's 80:20 Rule still applies today.
Over-all, this book is easy to read and gives an entertaining view of the world of the citizens of Richistan.
Other books which may help you gain citizenship to Richistan are shown below:
Index Mutual Funds: How to Simplify Your Financial Life and Beat the Pro's
The Richest Man in Babylon
Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing
 Low Cal Snack July 16, 2008
From someone with an economics and finance background, I found the early chapters most interesting. The author compares and contrasts the recent wealth boom (last 10-20 years) to the American wealth booms of the industrial age and the 1920s. However, it is only covered to the level of detail required of poolside reading.
The stories recounted through the remainder of the book were sufficiently interesting to hold my attention against the backdrop of a busy airport. Overall I would rate this book as an enjoyable, low calorie snack.
Lifestyles of the rich; not necessarily famous June 17, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
In a word FLUFF! I was hoping for some in-depth analysis of the new rich, but I didn't get it. What you get are mostly individual bios of mostly super-rich Richistanis, describing their spending on enormous houses, yachts, cars, hired help, watches, etc. My impression is that the author had these articles about these few people and thought he could throw together a quick book and make a few bucks. The book is interesting, but you could read this book in a weekend and then mostly forget it. There is one exception; the article on philantrophy details the organization "A Glimmer of Hope" and is excellent.
 Excellent May 15, 2008
My wife grabbed this book for me from the local library on the chance that I might want to read it. Her instincts were right -- after just a few pages, I was hooked!
Though I can't verify it first hand, my sense is that the author has provided an accurate window into the world of the wealthy (over $10 million net worth), giving us a fascinating peek into who these people are, how they became wealthy, how they spend their time and money, and the general upsides and downsides of being wealthy.
I would love to see a book like this written by a good cultural anthropologist -- to explore the culture of the wealthy even more deeply -- but this book still offers plenty of insight, and certainly far more than the shallow sensationalist reporting offered by the regular media.
The book is also very well written and engrossing, and hence a breeze to finish quickly.
Highly recommended for anyone curious about the world of the wealthy.
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