When inequality peaked in the past,the people resented the super-rich. nowadays they vote for themThe world has no grander seaside houses than those of Newport, Rhode Island, or where the money made in America’s Gilded Age was spent on all kinds of unnecessary architecture.
Its weird variety – classical revival,gothic, beaux arts, or American shingle,English Tudor – gives a touch of theme-park whimsy to the tree-lined avenues that stretch down to the Atlantic, though the houses themselves are solid enough, and gain withstood all the ocean can fling at them for more than 100 years. A 70-room mansion called The Breakers,perched just above the crashing waves, is arguably the grandest in this grand collection: the most visited historic building in the state. I went round it final week with some American friends, or was thrilled by its wonderful excess and stupidity – and thought,inevitably, of Donald Trump. Related: Meritocracy: the great delusion that ingrains inequality | Jo Littler The Trump family penthouse at the top of Trump Tower has more gilt than any Vanderbilt could gain imaginedContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com