What signs of the rich getting super-richer are you seeing in your area?

[callous taoboy]

I reside in a rural community located in a county that happens to have the distinction of being second highest in the nation for interest-earned income. It is a really beautiful place, geographically. Our town doesn't appear wealthy, and most of the people here are not wealthy. I do, after all, teach in a school with 50% of the student body living at or below the poverty line. Hey, at least the Republican Women of ___________ County group donates dictionaries to the elementary kids each year, but the dictionaries have a label stating that they were donated by the Republican Women of _________ County group for a little shameless promotion. They also get a photo op. in the local rag each year for this effort. We do appreciate the dictionaries, though, and the kids love them. But I digress.

My casual observation: I live near the small airport and have noticed a substantial increase over the last few years of lear jet traffic. It seems to me that the wealthy, who used to drive or be chauffeured out here, can now afford to jet out here to visit their country places.

[ananda]

1. Yeah...

... I recently read an article about how the rich people in Maine or somewhere
in New England were using planes to transport their kids to and from summer
camp. There is something wrong with this picture all right.

[sammytko]

4. it was in the NYTimes

tried to find the article. they said it was cheaper in the long run. Round trip flight for 8 was 3500 vs cost plane tickets, and they could take off and come back on their own schedule.

[SpiralHawk]

Luxury Items are flying off the shelves of elite stores

The Times has an article on that theme today...How perfectly lovely for the RepubliCon PuppetMaster class..

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/business/sales-of-luxury-goods-are-recovering-strongly.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23

"Even with the economy in a funk and many Americans pulling back on spending, the rich are again buying designer clothing, luxury cars and about anything that catches their fancy..."

[Pholus]

2. LOTS more lifestyle bits in the news about really expensive crap like $8 mil IPad covers.

Hell, I'd be hard pressed to even come up with the money to buy what goes INSIDE.

[FSogol]

3. A woman near my office now has two shopping carts to hold her belongings.

:shrug:

[RC]

5. Clawing her way back up, I see.

[FSogol]

8. All about the bootstraps. n/t

[Ineeda]

6. I live in a previously modest mid-century neighborhood

in a coastal city, lots of retirees and small winter(second)homes. My neighborhood, and the whole area, has been going much more upscale. I have a friend who's a contractor and he can't keep up with the demand for his services: $50+K bathroom renovations, $60+K kitchen renovations, $100++K room additions. Other homes, small 2 bedroom, 2 bath ranches, are being torn down to build mini-McMansions. The lot sizes and setback restrictions prevent even bigger structures, thankfully. We don't have the most uber-rich here, but they're doing just fine. We also have a glut of homes for sale, many that were caught in the "flip this house" bubble. On the other hand, the Lear jet traffic at our little airport, which has been a problem in the past with the noise, etc., seems to have diminished considerably. 'Course that could be attributed to the fact that it's summer in Florida. The richie-riches are traveling elsewhere.

[liberal N proud]

7. The cars I see are unbelievable

I live near a high end golf community, homes selling for 1 million or more, which is very high for this area.

I don't just see BMW, Audi and Mercedes. Its Porche, Lamborghini, Masariti, Bentley and the like, not just one here and there, I could sit in my front lawn and every other car is an expensive vehicle.

And home building in these neighborhoods has never stopped, slowed for a few months but now right back up to pre-recession levels.

[Myrina]

9. Payton Manning just signed a 5 year, $90 MILLION contract ...

... other guys on the team are taking salary cuts. Kids have to PAY to ride the school bus, other schools are being closed, we're being told NOT to water our lawns because it's stressing the 120 year old infrastructure too much ... but the city just tossed $150M at a corporate-condo-complex (Eli Lilly) near downtown.


Up is down.

[rusty fender]

10. I work next to a car storage place

where collectable cars, mostly, are stored, or where people who have neighborhood covenants that prohibit any cars parked in the driveways keep their extra cars. Most of the cars that are stored there are luxury cars, but it blows me away when the guy who drives the $500,000 Porsche switches it out for for his spanking new Rolls Royce. :wow:

[doc03]

11. Anyone that owns some acreage around here is

getting a windfall for gas drilling rights. Gas companies paid out $40-$50 million in the month of June in my county alone. Unfortunately I only have about an acre and 5 acres is their minimum purchase I hear. I expect to be seeing a lot of new Escapades, CTS's, Mega trucks and more McMansions.

[Kurmudgeon]

12. There's somebody building a huge compound in the next county.

It's many acres wide, huge fences, lots and lots of landscaped yard.
It's right along Rt 33 just east of Glenville WV.
Then you'll go about a mile either direction and see the more typical WV rural small homes and trailers.
I suspect the cheap land is going to attract these folks in so they don't have to pay property prices in DC, Baltimore, etc etc...

[callous taoboy]

13. Our school district had to fight tooth-and-nail recently

to get a bond passed for things like renovating the basement of the high school to stop the flooding when it rains, new A.C. etc. We were up against the really wealthy land owners who were going to see their prop taxes increase a few cents more per acre / on the dollar. The district did a media blitz, the superintendent did an op-ed and called them out on it. It did pass but it was a squeaker given that the opponents were smearing us badly and distorting facts. I think I hate me some uber-richies, man, and really want to see them get behind a plow some day.

[Johonny]

14. The third Shelby cobra that I saw in the neighborhood

[Horse with no Name]

15. I live in one of the poorest counties in Texas

We've been in a depression for awhile.

I don't know when the last time I saw someone in town driving a BRAND new car.

I don't remember when the last time there was actually a "job" listed under "help wanted" in the local newspaper.

I don't remember when the last time I didn't see someone counting out change to pay for their food at the grocery store.

I don't remember the last time that I was at the gas station that people didn't look worried.