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“Thank God for rich people,” said one ultra-wealthy respondent, in his attempt to sum up the reason for why he doesn’t feel guilty. He was alluding to the way wealth percolates down from rarefied heights to the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder. One respondent—a CEO from the Midwest—made thi…

“There’s definitely resentment, when they see someone building a $15 million house. But in some ways the people are making a choice, ‘I want to be a ski-bum and work for the ski area [chuckles],’ you know,” explained one ultra-wealthy respondent. Other interviewees spoke in similar terms. An invest…

First, there is a strong sense that they have scratched and clawed their way to the top, but that once they’ve arrived, there is a risk of losing the honor and dogged authenticity that motivated them on that journey to begin with. Indeed, there is honor associated with the success, but the deeper a…

The unsophisticated invocation of “science” and “balance” is also influenced by a certain economic naturalism, by which I mean an unquestioned commitment to fixed economic laws of private property rights and laissez-faire economics. One respondent, a leader of a local nonprofit who works closely wi…

I found that nature provides a special dispensation for purchases and practices that may otherwise be viewed as morally suspect, opulent, or greedy. Nature is priceless, but priceless experiences can be quite expensive. In communing with nature we experience something much deeper, honest, and True …