A revealing look at the intersection of wealth, philanthropy, and conservation
Justin Farrell spent five years in Teton County, Wyoming, the richest county in the United States, and a community where income inequality is the worst in the nation.
The numbers are staggering: In 1970, $52 million in annual investments entered Teton County; in 2015, that total was $3.4 billion. (Even Kanye West, who no one would think of as fiscally or logically constrained, has chosen for his Western sojourn the thriftier town of Cody, Wyo., five hours away.) Across the state, the top 1% of earners now make half its income — the highest share in the U.S. The average annual income for the top .01% is $369 million, compared to roughly $84 million for Connecticut and $70 million for New York. This is a serious, ugly, crazy amount of wealth, and while it feels extreme, it’s important to understand as a taste of what might be in store for the rest of America.
LINK (via: The LA Times)
