A recent skirmish over the 1 percent’s feces is currently being worked out by the Florida state legislature.
One of the places that Jeff Bezos lives is a man-made island off the coast of Florida called Indian Creek Village. The island is predominantly populated by other billionaires and is colloquially known as the “Billionaire Bunker.” In fact, if you’re not a billionaire, it’s quite difficult to get in. The bridge from the mainland to the island is closed to the public and protected by armed guards and a sophisticated security system.
However, if the island is almost entirely cut off from the rest of humanity, the island’s inhabitants still seem intent on sharing one thing with members of the outside world: their piss and shit.
Indian Creek doesn’t have the underground infrastructure to deal with its own poop, so the solution it came up with was to funnel it through Surfside into a wider regional sewage system. Unfortunately, Surfside didn’t want the poop unless Indian Creek was willing to contribute $10 million to the community for future sewer system improvements. Indian Creek has referred to this request as “extortion.”
When I was a child, I wanted everything. But by the time I had become an adult, I had realized along the way that having lots of things actually means having lots of burdens and the only way to have lots of stuff without it actually making you unhappy is if you find a way to make your problems everybody else’s problems too, and get them to take care of it for you. This is why I think that we need to cultivate a new social norm where anybody who is perceived as being interested in acquiring great wealth is seen as nothing more than a baby-minded individual that wants to turn the entire world into their mommy because they can’t even wipe their own ass