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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2012)
» • » May 23, 2012 tEljt Çortlanh (Obstruer Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. W? welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Page 9 New Prices Effective May i , 2010 Martin Cleaning Service Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Residential & Commercial Services Minimum Service CHG $45.00 A small distance/travel charge may be applied CARPET CLEANING 2 Cleaning Areas or more $30.00 Each Area Pre-Spray Traffic Areas (Includes: 1 sm all H allway) 1 Cleaning Area (only) $40.00 Includes Pre-Spray Traffic Area (Hallway Extra) Stairs (12-16 stairs - With O ther Services): $25.00 Disconnected into a Stateless Class No country for the super rich by S am P izzigati Back in 1863, a short story took the American public by storm . E dw ard Everett Hale's The M an w ith o u t a Country told the tale of a poor trea- sonous soul sentenced to spend the rest of his life endlessly sailing the world in perpetual exile, as a prisoner aboard Navy warships. Today's awesomely affluent are just as transient — by choice. T ake F aceb o o k c o -fo u n d e r Eduardo Saverin. This billionaire renounced his U.S. citizenship in 2011, a move perfectly timed to po- tentially save him hundreds of mil- lions in taxes when Facebook goes public. Saverin has plenty of company, The number of Americans who for- mally renounced their U.S. citizen- ship soared to 1,780 last year from 235 in 2008. The spark for this surge? U.S. tax officials have been clamping down on overseas tax evasion. This bit of unpleasantness has some wealthy Americans, such as the Brazilian- bom Saverin, cutting their ties to dear old Uncle Sam. They simply pay a $450 paperwork fee and an "exit tax" on unrealized capital gains, if they hold assets worth over $2 millionorhavepaidover$ 151,000 to the IRS in any recent year. But the affluent who have formally renounced theircitizen- ship comprise just a tiny share of what the Financial Times has labeled the "stateless super rich." These uber-wealthy folks shy from the notoriety of citizenship spumed, They just live their lives as if they have no nation to call their own. The most famous member of this stateless-by-choice com m unity may be Nicolas Berggruen, a 52 year- old "homeless billionaire" worth over $2.3 billion who has spent the last decade hopping the world from one five-star hotel to another, But few of the stateless super rich settle for hotel suites. Most of the vagabonding wealthy own per- sonal residences. Lots of them, Typically, the Financial Times re ported last month, a stateless su- per-rich household will have one or two properties in their "country of principal residence," another in London, New York, or some other "global city," a "holiday home" in a warm climate, and maybe another pad somewhere snowy. Among the super rich, this per petual-motion existence has become almost de rigueur, notes Jeremy Davidson, a London realtor who handles properties that run at least £10 million, the equivalent of over $16 million. "The more money you have," explains Davidson, "the more root less you become because every thing is possible." That rootlessness is keeping the price of luxury real estate soaring. So far this year, in Manhattan alone, four luxury co-op apartments have sold for over $30 million each, notes Crain's New York Business. Just how many potential state less super rich are currently roam ing the world? Late last year, the Singapore-based Wealth-X consult ing firm put the overall global num ber of people worth at least $500 million at about 4,650. These super rich together hold an estimated $6.25 trillion in assets. That's more than enough, note urban planners, to create havoc in the hotspots where the stateless super rich most often gather. Their gentrification on steroids supersizes prices for local products and ser vices — and prices out local resi dents in the process. The massive mansions and apart ments belonging to these homeless billionaires can also exacerbate lo cal housing shortages and consti tute an assault on any healthy sense of urban community. The super rich, as they flit about, leave their prop erties unoccupied most of the year. The resulting emptiness, notes Co lumbia Uni versity sociologist Saskia Sassen, sucks the neighborhood vitality out of great urban centers. The super rich don't notice. Or care. They have no interest in put ting down roots. During their brief seasonal sojourns, they live in iso lation from the greater community around them. They venture out into local public life only long enough to corrupt it with trinkets for local pols who promise to keep tax rates tooth less. The stateless protagonist in the classic short story Edward Everett Hale penned nearly 150 years ago desperately yearns to rejoin the society he so treasonously spumed. Today's stateless super rich don't figure to display any similar yearn ing. They're having too grand a time. At our expense. Sam Pizzigati edits Too Much, the online weekly on excess and inequality published by the Insti tute for Policy Studies. 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