Paris Hilton has got me thinking about plutocrats.

After watching her most recent Internet video, I could not help but think that there is not really much difference between her and me. At another time, in another place, perhaps we could be friends.

F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote, ≥The rich are different from you and I.≤ To which, Hemingway (or Gertrude Stein) responded, ≥Yes, they have more money.≤

I suspect that the truth lies sandwiched between Hemingway and Fitzgerald. Paris Hilton, like me, is human and subject to all of the passions and predations that humans are. Her money does not insulate her from age or sickness. However, it does protect her from paranoid, arrogant supervisors, hunger, and dinnertime calls from the American Express people.

Out here, the rich are not very different from you and I. Hemingway would be happy. Since the seventies, our economic model has been millionaires mowing the lawns (or making sandwiches) for billionaires. I would suggest that, if net worth included everything we have and own, this Yahoo list would be the richest one on the Internet. We are no more moral or immoral than they are. Paris Hilton could be surfing at Cisco all day, and the Box all night.

However, the gap between the sandwich makers and the sandwich eaters is growing wider and wider. Nationwide, this is true. According to Forbes and the IRS in the year 2000, the richest 1% of the country had 2.2% of all the family wealth in the country, where as the bottom 53.2% also had 2.2% of the family wealth. During the nineties, the income of the Forbes 400 jumped 15 times faster than the income of the ≥bottom≤ 90% of the country. Since a good number of the top 1% come out here for the beaches, golf courses, and the fireworks, I assume that the national income spread repeats itself out here. I do not think the Presidency of Turkey Carver has narrowed that spread.

On Nantucket, this is great news, while it is lousy news for Fitchburg. More millionaires mean more compounds in Shimmo, more private putting greens, and more Roast Beef with Herb and Garlic subs. However, it does mean that our market is changing. We no longer attract the ≥Cheaper by the Dozen≤ families or the ≥One Crazy Summer≤ college kids, but get the ≥Billionaire Boyπs Club≤ group. We have to change with them. Out with Coffinπs Gifts and in with Ralph Lauren. The Lake Minnechaug Chamber of Commerce would love our problems.

However, Fitzgerald was right in two very important ways. First, because the rich are so much richer (Plutocrats), they get what they want. We are riding the backs of elephants; they will go wherever they want to go and we have little to say about it. If Ralph Lauren wants to buy the Looms, he can do it. If Hulbert Avenue (or Surfside Beach) residents want to seal off the roads, they can do that. If golfers want professional caddies, they can import them. Paris Hilton can make that lovely video and still pay for the groceries.

We have been lucky and smart to align most of the islandπs wishes to what they Plutocrats want. However, we are coming to a time when the wishes of the extremely rich and islandπs diverge. The Plutocrats often race to have the biggest, fanciest, and fastest. Pete Musser had $100,000 garage doors for a reason. Not only does that race may make for an entertaining ≥Nantucket Bucket≤, but also for a very loud ≥Gulfstream Derby≤ near the airport. I suspect the GHYC is a good example of that. The interest of the island community differs from the interest of the plutocrats. At the same time, the N.H.A., the Hospital, the M.S.P.C.A., the Land Council, and others fit in with the sentiments of the island.

Second, I believe many of the plutocrats believe that they have earned their wealth with more than luck and hard work. God has blessed them with it. They also believe that they are morally entitled to it. A recent poll of golf professionals estimates that CEOπs cheat four times as much as other golfers. Koslowski, Musser, Pilgrim, Baxter, Welch and others have all found themselves dancing with the law because they confused their stockholderπs with their beer money. As a result, we get Geotube islands, Army Corps of Engineer seawalls, and landscaped bluffs. We could fill this list with stories of the crazy rich and obnoxious, illegal behavior. We could even use the name ≥Kennedy.≤

The Plutocrats are here. We want them to keep returning. Because they have so much money, they have changed the island, both for better and for worse. We cannot trust them to make decisions that benefit us with their money. Nor can we can we pray to them as great gods of Capitalism.

Instead, as a municipality and as a community, we need to keep taking steps that make this island attractive to the day-trippers, year-rounders, and plutocrats. First, we need to stop reacting. The 19 million article is a knee jerk reaction that will not pass and will not get us what we want. Instead, we need to plan (evenäa Comprehensive Plan) to keep the old girl spruced up and attractive for the next fifty years. Waiting for the hurricane isnπt going to do it.

Second, we need to get some serious perspective. Alcoholics in AA uses Niebuhrπs serenity prayer: ≥God, give us grace to accept with serenity to accept the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.≤ We could take a page from the black book. We probably cannot stop the yacht club, but, if we have courage, we can get what something out of the bargain. The wisdom comes in deciding what to negotiate for.

I think one of the worst aspects of the GHYC will be the management by Greenbrier. Greenbrier is a large corporation that manages clubs and resorts all around the country and the Bahamas. None of my research shows them to be bad neighbors or horrid polluters. However, unlike the Nantucket Yacht Club or Sankaty Head Golf, they will come in with their own management and staff. Paychecks and salaries earned on Nantucket will leave Nantucket.

I fear that our ≥millionaires mowing the lawns of billionaires≤ economic plan is falling apart. The billionaires are getting richer and richer, but their behavior is not changing all that much. Rather, the millionaire landscapers are getting fewer and fewer. They are being replaced with off-island day labor, corporate temps, and dormitory illegals. I do not think attracting plutocrat money to Nantucket is going to be difficult. I think putting it into the pockets of my friends, neighbors, and children will be.

P.S.

Plutocrat is commonly used for the extremely rich. By extremely rich, I mean the Forbes 400. Many publications use the word with that implied meaning.

P.P.S.

So, who wrote this?

≥But if growth rates and patterns of development continue as they have over the past thirty years, we will lose what we value so highly: our historic buildings and narrow streets, much of our open landscape, and the special small-town island feeling that sets us apart from the rest of America. Nantucket faces a clear choice: to act decisively now to protect what makes us special, or to let real estate trends and market forces devour us, which they surely could do. We are different and wish to remain that way. ≥