Why the Boats Got Bigger as the Rich Got Richer
Evan Osnos’s Haves and Have-Yachts explores growing wealth disparity and the subtle self-delusion embraced by the ultrarich.
Illustration: Valentin Pavageau for Bloomberg
Watching sweaty 13-year-olds lose their minds to a performance by rapper Flo Rida at a bar mitzvah for the son of a finance executive in 2023, Evan Osnos felt something in America had changed.
For decades the richest teenagers have booked big talent for private performances, a splurge disturbingly documented by the MTV reality show My Super Sweet 16. But recent years have seen a proliferation in the number of people who can “blow a hundred and fifty grand on a Thursday” to have the Foo Fighters play in their backyard, drummer Charles Ruggiero tells Osnos.