Book of the week: Extreme wealth is a double-edged sword

Uneasy Street is a fascinating study of what it means to be wealthy at the start of the 21st century.

Dr Matthew Partridge
By
published
in Features

865-US-100

Published by Princeton University Press, £24.95

Buy at Amazon

The last two decades have been difficult for many Americans, with two major recessions and median real incomes stagnating. At the same time, the fortunes of the rich and the upper-middle class have boomed. So, you might assume those sections of the population at least to be happy. Not so. Indeed, sociologist Rachel Sherman thinks that extreme wealth can be a double-edged sword. In this book, which is based on conversations with around 100 wealthy couples, she looks at how their net worth affects their attitudes to everything from philanthropy to parenting.

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A few of her respondents were unrepentant about being rich, but most claimed to be guilty about their financial success. In some cases, as a result they took concrete measures to share some of their wealth with the community through voluntary work and donations. Others just hid their shame, paying private shoppers to recommend clothes so that they'd feel less guilty about spending $5,000 in an afternoon. Uneasy Street is a fascinating study of what it means to be wealthy at the start of the 21st century. Some of the anecdotes, such as the (second-hand) story of the boy who returned from a luxury skiing holiday with his family with the verdict that "it was great, but next time we fly private like everyone else", are genuinely amusing.

Dr Matthew Partridge
Dr Matthew Partridge
Shares editor, MoneyWeek

Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.

He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.

Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.

As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri

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