Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Bill Gates all own Wyoming homes – how did the American West become a Billionaire Wilderness, and the most unequal area of America?
The northwest of Wyoming – and other parts of the West – attracts ultra wealthy who want to look environmentally concerned but whose riches contribute to huge inequality
Justin Farrell calls Teton County, Wyoming, the Billionaire Wilderness. In his new book of that name, the Yale professor and author explores this corner of cowboy country, which has quietly morphed into the richest region of America.
There's a draw in terms of masculinity and violence, but when you dress up, it allows you to hide the fact that this is such an economically unequal area – it camouflages that moral loophole
Nearly eight of every 10 dollars in income earned in Teton County in 2015 came from interest and dividends instead of conventional wages. No wonder, given that the estates there are owned by the likes of Dick Cheney, Harrison Ford and Walmart heiress Christy Walton; the money here is mostly earned from investment, rather than nine-to-fiving.
But there's a darker side to this story: Teton County also earned the distinction of being the county with the worst wealth inequality in America. The top one per cent of its earners log half its income, while the folks who work for them earn minimum wages; mostly Mexican immigrants today, several families often live cramped together in the same trailer, a few miles from billionaires' vast estates.
Farrell is well-placed to explore and unpack this phenomenon. He's a sociologist by training and a native of Wyoming who grew up among the original blue collar locals, tagging along as his mother cleaned houses each summer. In a recent conversation, he explained how and why Teton County turned into a billionaire wilderness, and what that means – not just for Wyoming, but for the whole of America.
Teton County is like a real-life Westworld
The lure of Wyoming is its throwback feel that evokes both childhood games of cowboys and America's early European history.
“There's always been this idea about coming to the west and finding the soul of America – this magnetic, raw pull,” Farrell explains of the region, which has even inspired a full-size replica in a resort community just north of Beijing.
Wyoming allows one-percenters to role-play what might seem a simpler life like a real-life Westworld, albeit without the android brothels. Think of them as would-be Connor Roys: back-to-the-land billionaires like the eldest son in Succession, who shuns his family's ritzy New York life in favour of a faux-rustic rich man's existence on a ranch.