In Palm Beach, Old Money Isn't Having a Ball - Essay Example

The Red Cross Ball in Palm Beach has, for nearly half a century, brought together the island’s upper-crust families to drink, dance, donate money and is easily the most prestigious party for old Palm Beach society. Top socialites, foreign ambassadors, entertainment superstars and occasional royalty from Europe mingle with Palm Beach’s newcomers and hundreds of out-of-town friends that can shell out money to give out and donate as well as pay for their designer tuxedos’ and gowns, flashy jewelries and cars.

This has led to a somewhat tolerable “battle” between old and new money and is holding true to all traditional blue-blood communities in the country. Arguably, new money has surged in the Unite States and has overtaken the older elite in terms of statistics. This is evidenced by the journal documenting that “the number of the super wealthy in the U.S. has surged with 430,000 households now worth more than $10 million. That’s up from 65,000, adjusted for inflation in 1989. In 2001, the top 1% of Americans ranked by net worth controlled 33% of all personal assets.

” (Frank 2005) Increasingly, these clashes between the desire of the nouveaux rich being accepted into high society by buying their way into exclusive clubs and into the stream of the old wealthy and the actual acceptance they receive hasn’t significantly changed. The old rich safely guard and selectively choose which clubs can be joined in. For the nation’s richest, this rapid shift in the composition of the wealthiest Americans is striking. Inherited money is being taken over by entrepreneurial endeavors of businessmen.

Case in point is Bill Gates’ $48 billion net worth is more than twice the Rockefeller family’s current fortune. (Frank 2005) This striking difference is never been more evidently felt than in the Palm Beach area where the influx of new money has ignited off disputes over realty values as the status symbols. As