Letter (Aug. 24): More on the superrich
More on the superrich
Dear Editor:
In Wednesday’s Aspen Times, Andy Stone quoted a few lines from John Updike’s poem “Slum Lords.” Readers of The Aspen Times will, no doubt, enjoy reading the entire poem, as follows:
“The superrich make lousy neighbors —
they buy a house and tear it down
and build another, twice as big, and leave.
They’re never there; they own so many
other houses, each demands a visit.
Entire neighborhoods called fashionable,
bustling with servants and masters, such as
Louisburg Square in Boston or Bel Air in L.A.,
are districts now like Wall STreet after dark
or Tombstone once the silver boom went bust.
The essence of superrich is absence.
They like to demonstrate they can afford
to be elsewhere. Don’t let them in.
Their riches are a form of poverty.”
Jim Breasted
Carbondale