The golden pond The lure of the lifestyle

We stopped at one particularly imposing custom-home still under construction, wondering about the future occupants. Where did this wealth come from? Although we love our home in a fairly nice neighborhood in San Diego, my wife and I sometimes like to "looky-loo" at new homes—it's a kind of weekend pastime and, who knows, we might find something really special which will tempt us into moving. A couple of years ago, in one particularly expensive neighborhood, we saw homes that were bigger than we could believe: 15,000 square feet and more. This was right next to a golf club where memberships ran $75,000 a year. We were informed that everyone joined, because everyone joined. What if you didn't play golf? Well, you joined anyway, to socialize with the neighbors. That was simply part of the lifestyle. We stopped at one particularly imposing custom-home still under construction, wondering about the future occupants. Where did this wealth come from? How many children did these people have, 20? Or, perhaps their extended family—sisters and cousins and aunts—would be living there too? Our brief tour disclosed wings and lobbies and sitting rooms for the usual number of bedrooms (why do the children need lobbies?) plus game rooms and media centers and anterooms galore. The more sensible 3,000 square feet-sized house at the end of the garden turned out to be the "butler's quarters." Then we bumped into the owners. Gosh, they looked about 25! I just had to ask; it turned out they were 30-ish. They happily disclosed that their current home, not far away, was only 5,000 square feet. Too small, they insisted. How many kids did they have? Two. So, just what did they do for a living? One word explained it all: dot-com. We left, shaking our heads.