This isn't exactly stop-the-presses material, but wealthy Americans are wealthier and more numerous than ever. With entrepreneurial and IPO-/stock-driven success creating tremendous amounts of "new money," the adjustment to wealth and everything that comes with it has created a range of telling sociological developments.
Enter Robert Frank, the author of The Wall Street Journal's regular "Wealth Report" column (and blog), and now author of Richistan: A Journey Through the American Wealth Boom and the Lives of the New Rich. Today's Journal excerpts a chapter on a revealing growth industry: butlering. Here's a key section:
Most of the students live in the Starkey mansion during Boot Camp, following Starkey's strict rules. Everyone has to wear the uniform of khakis, crisp white shirts, blue blazers and brown shoes. First names are banned; everyone is "Mr." or "Ms." to stress the importance of boundaries with their future employers. The students are required to rise from their seats every time a visitor enters the room. If there's a coffee cup that needs filling, a spoon that needs polishing or a visitor who needs welcoming, the Starkey students must spring into action. The Starkey students are so wired for service that when a class break is announced, they all pounce from their seats to fill each other's water glasses and coffee cups.
Most importantly, they learn never to judge their rich future employers, whom they call "principals." If a principal wants to feed her shih tzu braised beef tenderloin every night, the butler should serve it up with a smile. If a principal in Palm Beach, Fla., wants to send his jet to New York to pick up a Chateau LaTour from his Southampton cellar, the butler makes it happen, no questions asked.
Starkey students pay more than $12,000 for Boot Camp. While that may sound steep, a good Starkey graduate can start at $70,000 to $120,000 a year, not to mention free room and board. And butlering has become one of the fastest-growing occupations in the United States after more than a half-century of decline, driven by the greatest surge in American wealth in nearly a century. Over the past 10 years, the number of multimillionaire households has more than doubled. As of 2004, there were more than 1.4 million U.S. households worth at least $5 million and more than 530,000 worth more than $10 million, according to the Federal Reserve.
This is fascinating stuff, but the really interesting material concerns the ways in which those who grew up in the broad middle class adjust to the new realities of massive wealth. Here's an example that captures it all:
Bob still has moments when he wonders how his life got so complicated, with a home that's more like a company.
"The other day we saw a mouse in the house. Before, I would have just gotten a broom and gotten rid of the thing. But now it's different. I emailed the household manager. He called the vendor, a pest-control firm, and the pest-control firm caught the mouse. Then the household manager directed two other staff members to dispose of the mouse. That's five people to catch a mouse. It all seemed normal at the time. But then I thought about it, and I wondered, how did our lives get like this?"
Source
Robert Frank, "The Butler Boom: Wealth Explosion Sparks Labor Shortage; Starting Pay, $70,000," The Wall Street Journal, June 1, 2007 (subscription required)