Pity the Rich

Too often we find ourselves overwhelmed with concern for the most vulnerable people in this world, be it the child in inner-city Chicago who goes without health care, or the Indian farmer eking out a living on his 10 acre plot. We sometimes forget, distracted by our empathy for the poor, that the rich too can suffer terribly. We can thank the New York Times for reminding us of their plight with their recent story, "The Tyranny of the 2nd Home." It lays out, in terrible detail, the agony of living with a weekend home. Dear readers, I must caution you that after reading this story I felt an unbearable anguish. If you are weak of heart, you may wish to confine yourself to the following excerpts rather than reading the entire, heart-wrenching work:

These second, but never secondary, houses can be exhausting, their owners admit, a litany of bills and guilt and traffic — and meals to cook for guests who arrive with only one wish: to be entertained.

Second home owners can experience an unbearable level of anxiety, knowing their scenic view might disappear at any moment:

Expecting a bucolic retreat, the Sevastopoulos soon found themselves in a pitched battle over a threatened power plant across the river in Athens. As first proposed, the water-cooled plant would have had tall stacks that would have destroyed the view from their 1930s white Colonial Revival weekend abode.

Though a lucky few of these homeowners have access to private air travel, many are forced to use antiquated and dismally slow public (!) rail transportation to get to their second homes:

But despite the tyranny of the train, another nightmare for weekend commuters who don’t have a private jet, Mr. Bricker finds his house “idyllic, bliss,” with only one thing lacking. “If only I had the kind of job where I could leave Thursday night or Friday morning. ...”

In the desperate world of weekend homes, a fierce competition for scare resources can develop:

Yet building something — anything — in the Hamptons is “a nail biter,” he said. “Especially right now, before the season begins, because someone is always willing to throw money around to get their own project finished, and then you lose your contractor.”

Though many of us find ourselves giving to food pantries during the Christmas season, we forget that having too much food can be a terrible burden too:

“The vegetable garden — the production of too many vegetables, and the guilt of not eating them,” said Susan E. Bell, a paleontologist from New York City, who with her husband, Byron, an architect, owns a house he designed in Woodstock, N.Y. “And then, of course, all the effort it takes to persuade the house guests to take the vegetables with them.“

Bravo, Times, for having the decency and sense of social responsibility to bring the often-forgotten plight of the rich into the light.