Two Americas

“Two Americas”, that’s the phrase that the Drudge Report used to describe the link to this article about the house that Presidential candidate John Edwards is building. The house is 28,000 plus square feet. Right below that link was this one, describing a house in Montana that a guy is trying to sell for $155,000,000.

Drudge is not opposed to promoting a little class envy to stir the pot. It is conducive to web traffic to promote an “us against them” attitude. It isn’t a new tactic.

Be that as it may, I do not doubt the factuality of either article.

It goes along with what I have witnessed locally. I know a lot of building contractors, framers, painters, plumbers, roofers, electricians, etc. Salt of the earth guys. Each time I run into one I ask what they are working on. For the last couple of years I don’t recall any of these guys having down time. Also, they invariably tell me that they are building some enormous house. More often than not, these homes are second homes or vacation getaways. We are talking about 8-12,000 square foot places. Every year when the leaves fall you can see these big houses all over that weren’t there the year before.

The main industry in this area is tourism. It has been a growth area for quite a while. Off and on there has been a shortage of available housing especially for families that are moving to the area for work. This happens in a lot of tourist areas.

One thing that I have noticed around here is that it’s hard to find a good contractor to do a small job. All the good ones are busy building castles.

It isn’t my intention to promote class envy. I don’t begrudge a person for building or selling a huge house. Although, I can not fathom $155,000,000 or 28,000 square feet. I don’t know why either would ever be necessary.

I think there has always been “two Americas”. There will always be the haves and have nots. The “haves” seem to be growing in numbers, around here at least. I don’t know these folks but the trees are bare and I see their castles.