Whereas regular, middle-class People wrestle to buy starter homes and even simply afford rent, American billionaires are busy shopping for up enormous tracts of land everywhere in the world for nebulous causes. Living proof: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who’s estimated to be worth over $10 billion, is alleged to be shopping for up enormous chunks of land in Hawaii. Why? No one is aware of and Benioff gained’t say why.
NPR was the first to report that the billionaire had just lately purchased “not less than 38 parcels of land” utilizing six nameless “restricted legal responsibility firms, or LLCs, and one nonprofit.” That land, a lot of which is situated on the Large Island and encompasses giant parts of town of Waimea, quantities to almost 600 acres and is estimated to be value nearly $100 million.
A few of the land, about 223 acres, was donated to an inexpensive housing non-profit final 12 months. Nevertheless, the opposite land acquisitions stay a thriller. The journalist behind the NPR story, Dara Kerr, was capable of safe an interview with Benioff at one in every of his residences on the island. Benioff spent most of their chat speaking about his philanthropic efforts however dodging direct questions on what the land he’d bought was for. Kerr writes:
Benioff deflects the vast majority of my questions to speak about his philanthropy…How he has donated hundreds of thousands to the fireplace division — his beachside residence has practically burned down. How his philosophy is to provide unconditionally with out anticipating something in return. How he has donated round $100 million in Hawaii and has been capable of stay nameless till now.
…After I ask Benioff in regards to the properties within the nameless LLCs, issues appear to take a flip. He begins talking extra rapidly and fidgets with a bit of paper in his hand. He’s reluctant to undergo the holdings, and his adviser on the Zoom name jumps in to say we are able to talk about later.
Kerr additionally notes that Benioff knew a creepy quantity about her—together with the neighborhood she was staying in when she visited for the interview, in addition to “private particulars” about her and her household. Kerr says she left the interview feeling “disconcerted” and unclear in regards to the objective of Benioff’s land procurements. Later, after the interview, Kerr and a photographer had been confronted by one in every of Benioff’s workers whereas trying to take photos of among the properties pertaining to the story. Benioff then texted Kerr to inform her that his worker had caught her “snooping,” and the billionaire proceeded to contact Kerr’s boss in regards to the incident. Kerr writes:
The next day, I drive round with a photographer to take photos of the city and Benioff’s initiatives. We go to the property he described as a neighborhood middle and are confronted by one in every of his workers. The photographer explains we’re there to take pictures of the surface of the constructing. Shortly afterward, I get a textual content from Benioff. His worker appeared to suppose we had been “snooping,” and he says he’s escalating the incident to NPR CEO John Lansing. Lansing confirmed he spoke with Benioff, with out going into element — the NPR newsroom operates independently, and the CEO is just not concerned in editorial decision-making. Benioff didn’t reply to my query in regards to the objective of this name.
Benioff isn’t the one rich American collaborating in obscene land grabs. Shopping for land for dumb causes could be very in vogue with the wealthy as of late. No higher instance of this exists than California Endlessly, the quixotic real estate project backed by Silicon Valley billionaires which have hoovered up a whole lot of acres of Bay Space land for the aim of turning it into a brand new metropolis.
A gaggle of different nabobs have comparable ambitions. There’s Dryden Brown, a rich 27-year-old who claims he wants to build a new “crypto city” with different individuals’s cash. There’s Marc Lore, a former Walmart government and the co-founder of Diapers.com, who says he needs to build a “sustainable” city in Appalachia. And there’s Kanye West, who needs to construct a brand new metropolis within the Center East; the rapper says his metropolis will be referred to as DROAM and can span not less than 100,000 acres.
Whereas it’s tempting to examine what sort of Fyre-fest-on-steroids DROAM is likely to be, I current an alternate plan of motion: Have the federal authorities tax the wealthiest Americans at 90 percent and use the proceeds to subsidize inexpensive housing. I feel that’d be an entire lot more practical than ready for the world’s richest idiots to determine how city planning works.
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