The Wealthy Are Poised For the End of the World. What Does That Tell Us About Their Interest in the Present?

In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand envisioned a world where the wealthy and talented depart America one by one, absconding to a hidden Utopia, leaving the mediocre behind to perish in our mediocre world. I read it in high school and haven’t given it much thought in the intervening years, but Rand’s book keeps popping into my mind lately as I browse, of all things, real estate listings in the town where I live. That’s because I live in Greenwich, Connecticut. Located just north of the New York State border, home to a population of about 61,000 people, Greenwich is a haven for hedge funders like Ray Dalio, Paul Tudor Jones, Clifford Asness, and Steve Cohen, along with an assortment of well-compensated CEOs, celebrities, tech investors, and assorted other varietals of one-percenter. It’s also a town where a fair number of middle-income people live, and that’s where I come in.

Featured Work

SMART 2025 Highlights the Potential of E...

This summer at Yale, over the course of two days in August, the Center for Materials Innovation (CMI) convened a multidisciplinary conference to explore recent and emerging innovations in engineered wood. The fourth in a series of SMART (Su...

Ladies' Mechs

I first encountered Léoc Lin on the Engineer’s Road, near the black arch, at the edge of the wood that lies between the provinces and the capital. It’s a notorious spot; everyone breaks down there. The white-chalk soil gives way to b...

Want to work with me?

Hire me for ghostwriting, copy, marketing and content. Reach out with a story I should be pitching to editors. Commission an illustration or a T-shirt design. Just say hi. Contact me!

Contact Me