PALM BEACH, FLA. -- The Wall Street Journal once
referred to people whose incomes were so low that they didn't make
enough money to pay any federal income taxes as "lucky
duckies."
The really "lucky" ones even got free money in the mail, an
Earned Income Tax Credit from the federal government, if their
earnings were sufficiently low.
The Journal, of course, got it wrong. Any of its
biggest-income readers would rather make $100 million and pay $30
million in taxes and still have $70 million left than earn $25,000
and pay no federal income taxes, or earn $9,000 a year and get
$1,000 in annual assistance from the government coffers.
In any case, there are some super-lucky ducks and some real
unlucky duckies here in Palm Beach, primarily separated by their
distance from the water.
As luck would have it, the homes that have dropped the fastest
in value over the past few years -- and won't hit bottom until well
into 2009, according to a front-page analysis in the local
newspaper here last week -- are the properties that are farthest
from the water, i.e., the least-expensive houses and condos to
start with.
The real lucky ducks, in contrast, the people still watching
their real estate millions grow, are those with the top properties
in the best locations.
Not far up the beach from our hotel, for instance, Donald
Trump's 7-acre private residence with 500 feet of ocean frontage, a
premier property (naturally), is for sale for $125 million. In
addition to the 61,000-square-foot primary house with seven bedroom
suites, a media room, a grand ballroom and staff quarters, the
property includes a two-bedroom poolside house, a four-bedroom
coach house, and a two-bedroom guesthouse. Trump reportedly paid
$41 million for the property in 2005.
A bit in the other direction from our hotel, Trump purchased
Mar-a-Lago (means "sea to lake," i.e., the property runs from the
ocean to the bay), the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post
(cereal) and E.F. Hutton (money).
"Mar-a-Lago is a 55,000-square-foot estate on 18 oceanfront
acres -- 115 rooms, 33 bathrooms, 58 bedrooms, three bomb
shelters," explained a local real estate broker. "Ms. Post's
daughter gave the property to Palm Beach. The upkeep was $3 million
a year. The town sold it to Trump for $11 million, and that
included $3 million in art in the house. It's a priceless property.
In 1995, Trump developed it into an exclusive club, a
$1,000-per-night boutique hotel."
Nearby neighbors to Mar-a-Lago are singer Rod Stewart and
Netscape founder Jim Clark. Right on the ocean, Stewart's
light-yellow stucco home with two large cement lions standing guard
at the gated entrance is in the $30 million range. Across the
street, on the bay, is Clark's $100 million-plus estate, reportedly
with a landscaping bill of $130,000 a year.
In political news here that sounds not unlike the midnight
pay-grabbing of Pennsylvania's politicians, The Palm Beach
Post reported that the "Riviera Beach City Council members
voted themselves raises later in the meeting after most of the
people attending had gone."
The preferred form of ground transportation for the top crowd
here appears to be anything that's foreign and over $150,000. In
the air, it's private jets. The fastest -- four hours from JFK to
Paris -- is the new supersonic private jet from Nevada-based Aerion
Corp. The top speed is Mach 1.6 (it's illegal to go faster than
Mach 1.1 over the continental United States).
The first two Aerion deliveries, at $80 million a pop, were to
Sheikh Rashid Bin Humaid Al Nuaimi and Tarek bin Laden, Osama's
half brother. With turbans flying around at Mach 1.6, Bush II
better keep the pedal to the floor in old Air Force One on the way
back.
Regarding religion, they're still fighting here about evolution
and creationism. The current Florida curriculum requires science
teachers in state schools to teach students that forms of life
change over time.
In Palm Beach, several school board members want intelligent
design, i.e., creationism, to also be a required part of the
curriculum. No way, they say, is there a direct link between
monkeys and Mercedes owners.
I don't understand the fight. Why is it an either-or matter,
i.e., either evolution or intelligent design? Why can't it be both?
If things evolved, why does that rule out a belief in God? Why
couldn't evolution just be a tool of an all-powerful Creator, an
intelligent designer?
Finally, the authorities here sent 20 sheriff's deputies, two
K-9 units and a helicopter to a local mall because some kid's pants
were hanging too low.
topics:
Taxes, Transportation, Religion
