Pity the newly rich, who are struggling with where to put their millions. According to a recent analysis cited by The New York Times, about 7,000 millionaires will emerge from the latest round of Silicon Valley initial public offerings, which includes companies like Airbnb, Snowflake, and Palantir, and they’re not sure how to spend it in these straitened times. While some moguls fled San Francisco for Austin, Denver, or Miami, others are plunking down for Teslas, historic homes, private at-home schooling, Bitcoin, and bizarre digital collectibles. As the Times noted, putting it mildly, “The new wealth is part of a widening gap between the tech industry and the rest of the economy.”
The last year has been good to the tech industry and, more broadly, the country’s elite, who have been cosseted by home delivery, personal servants, broad real estate portfolios, and the convenience of watching your money make money. While the rest of the economy was in tatters, with millions out of work and struggling for food and other basic necessities, millionaires and billionaires pulled down dividends from a booming stock market and found novel classes of assets in which to invest. For America’s one percent, in many respects, this was a good year. The only problem seemed to be how to spend their capital gains.
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