A hedge-fund billionaire has just bought a $238 million (U.S.) penthouse in New York’s Central Park South, making it the most expensive home in the U.S. This week, that is. The world is full of these men shifting money back and forth to no productive end. Most hedge funds die. This man’s didn’t.

The needle-like tower and its hyper-tall glassy companions cast long shadows over a third of Central Park, and the kitty-corner rich complain. But they’re thin shadows, the architect says defensively, and everyone knows that thin shadows move faster than regular ones. I did not know that, sir.

The shadow of the ultra-rich darkens everyone’s sky at some point now, especially since they recovered from the 2008 crash as we did not. It is a sign of damage to democracy. It sends an icy blast to the poor, out buying lentils, while the middle class suddenly realize that compared to the rich, they live in favelas.

Non-rich voters make comparisons with their own lives, their own commute, their worries about the furnace. Hammered by messages from the right — online, in social media and in false news TV channels — they vote for so-called populist governments, which then cut social spending and kick them hard in the belly, while shouting “Make America Great Again,” Take Back Control,” and “For the People.”

It’s a hard-right magic trick to lure confused and resentful people into voting for their own suffering and then claiming to enjoy it. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying to ward off populism by bolstering the middle class and preaching tolerance and national unity. Premier Doug Ford is currently making Trudeau’s case for him with matchless enterprise.

Back to the shadow. The four-floor New York apartment was bought by Ken Griffin, a nondescript far-right Republican hedge-funder who also owns a $59-million Chicago condo, a $60-million Miami condo, a $122-million London mansion and $250 million in land for a Palm Beach compound. He buys status art for boasting purposes and his donations coat buildings with his name. (P.S. It’s not philanthropy if your name goes on the building, it’s insecurity buying signage.)

As for the ultra-rich and their opulent homes, British politician Boris Johnson calls them “safety deposit boxes in the sky.” They’re bought as investments, tax havens, lures for Eurotrash spouses, boltholes should things get dicey in Russia or China, and, most important of all, as display.

Competitive real estate is why the rich swoosh from Paris mansion to Patagonian ranch to Knightsbridge penthouse to Cotswolds castle. If Griffin has six homes, Oprah Winfrey has six and then Jeff Bezos has seven, all casting covetous glances at each other. I’ll give Bezos a break. His Washington mansion has 11 bedrooms and 25 bathrooms, so clearly there’s a medical issue.

House-collecting ruins cities. You can only live in one palace at a time, which is why entire buildings and neighbourhoods in New York, London, Paris and elsewhere have grown dark and silent, like dogs waiting for their billionaires to visit.

Working-class people in the recently shutdown U.S. and austerity-choked Europe must rage at the wealth surrounding them. Britain is an extreme case, with city financiers pocketing and exuding extraordinary profits while the Conservatives’ austerity policy crushes the poor into a semi-Dickensian state. Austerity and stolen data led Britons to vote for Brexit. Will Greece follow? The EU?

All Western citizens have wealth blasted at them all day, every day, online, on social media, on TV and on the street. The Kardashians, Fox News hosts, Donald Trump’s cabinet, CNN talking heads, brash Wall Streeters and their luxe wives and children, all of them are, by any standard, lumpy with money.

How the peasants love to watch dubious awards shows like the Oscars just to see the rich parading past in garments of tremendous cost. Imagine being them. Imagine the lustrous feel of Clooney’s tanned skin, Rihanna’s 25-kg yellow cape wrapped around her like a weighted blanket, tiny comestibles, rehearsed crystal laughter.

Capitalism’s winners “are the product of much ingenuity and toil,” F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in Tender is the Night. For them, “girls canned tomatoes quickly in August or worked rudely at the Five-and-Tens on Christmas Eve … Indians toiled on Brazilian coffee plantations and dreamers were muscled out of patent rights in new tractors,” all part of an immense system of divvying out global wealth.

Ever wonder why there are so few business and first-class airline passengers? The rich haven’t flown commercial for decades. They fly on private planes so they don’t have to see your sweaty struggles with your carry-on and your dinner of spam wrap.

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Americans are trained to kid themselves that if they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps, they’ll become rich. Imagine the rage when it doesn’t happen. Maybe they voted for Trump out of self-hate.

Unlike Americans, Canadians are not raised to feel ashamed of failing to become ludicrously rich, hugely housed, and abrasive as all hell. We’re realistic. I do hope this doesn’t change.