When we first moved to California, we drove out of the Sierras near Monterey and took a little side trip to Pebble Beach, a place where I had done some tidepooling years earlier during my obligatory undergraduate Grand Tour of the continent. Mme Reclus wanted to see "17 Mile Drive", which was just a label on a map to me, I had never been there before (or maybe just didn't remember it) and had no idea what it was. We paid our toll and took the tour, and I remarked to her, "My God, look at all these fancy resorts and hotels." What are these places, country clubs for just one golf course?"

"Non, mon cher", she replied, " Those are not hotels. Those are private residences. People actually live here."

I was astonished, flabbergasted. "Then what was that block of apartments we just passed back there?"

"Oh those," she laughed. "that's probably where the help stays. I suppose they have to quarter the staff somewhere"

I was outraged. "No one deserves to live like that until everyone is able to live like that."

"Don't say that." she replied, half seriously. "I wouldn't mind living that way myself, some day. We don't want to do anything that might jinx it for us."

Then suddenly it struck me. It's not really the rich that constantly works and strives and pushes for the aristocratic life style. The rich already have it, they are used to it, it's really no big deal for them. They even enjoy slumming it every now and then. They feel it is their birthright, perhaps not intellectually, but deep down, emotionally. And I think that they know its unsustainable and are even resigned to losing it.

No, it's the middle class that works and strives for the life of extreme riches and luxury, who are terrified they'll miss their chance at it. They feel they work for it so they deserve it, not those rich "elites" that inherit everything, or the poor who want everything "handed to them on a silver platter" but aren't willing to work for anything. The middle class, and not the rich, are the ones who defend it publicly and work for it, who plot and scheme for it politically, who fear that maybe they won't get their piece of the action. See how they bravely defend the right they fear they may never earn. The rich either already have inherited it, or they are working too hard to maintain it, or have resigned themselves to giving it up. They know better than to attract attention to themselves that way, they keep a low profile. They remember Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette and all that unpleasantness in 1789.

"So, what would you do with all these mansions if you were in charge, my dear?" jybed my wife, obviously trying to provoke me into one of my rants.

"I'd turn some into drug rehab centers and day care for the kids of the staff that worked there. And I'd build a Marine Institute here and turn some into labs and classrooms and student housing. And some I'd turn into hotels and resorts so everyone would have a chance to see what it was like to live like this. And I sure as hell wouldn't charge people a toll to drive through here."