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The Luxe Life of a...
America's super-rich on living large, and the path leading to extreme wealth
Hello, I’m Bob Brown, welcome to 20-20 in touch. You may be living paycheck to paycheck, but the number of billionaires in America keeps going up. So on Friday, 20-20 is all about winning. Who are the winners? How did they get into that elite club? And what’s it like to have the best that money can buy? Here is Chris Connelly.
To get there, you could go over the river on a yacht, through the wood on a polo pony, or just hop on your private jet and soar to the swankiest neighborhoods where a different kind of wildly well-to-do. Nine million of them are living in a new world.
Never before in American history have so many Americans become so wealthy, so quickly. Robert Frank is the Columbus of this new world. He calls it Richistan. Old money it’s not. Most are workaholic winners who savor their spoils.
This 700-year-old French chateau, 45 minutes outside of Paris, now belongs to this man, 57-year-old American billionaire Tim Blixseth. He made more than a billion dollars in timber and real estate, but flinches when anyone calls him rich.
Don’t call me those names, so that’s what I would say.
Don’t call you , why not, why?
Rich is a, it's a connotation to me like snooty, arrogant, nose in the air. Oh, they are rich.
When they grew up, rich people were the jerks; rich people were the folks you made fun of.
I don’t like rude rich people that doesn’t treat the working class, that you know, the busboys, waitresses, the parking attendants with respect.
How many residences do you have now?
I think maybe, I don’t know, 7 to 10, some like.
Something like that private island in the Caribbean, that ski and golf spot in Montana, that place in the sun in Mexico and so much more.
What dose it feel like to be a winner?
It feels good. It feels really good.
We just announced that we are formally engaged.
Romance of Richistan carries its own set of rules and ways to seal the deal.
Ex-nurse Tiffany Spadafora of Palm Beach, Florida says she was unaware of George Cludy's 70 million dollar net worth until he asked her out.
We went to a restaurant and he mentioned something about his jet, and I was just like oh no.
What did you think when you heard the words my jet?
Trouble? Because I feared there were a stream of jet groupies following somewhere.
We hope you watch 20-20 on the air every Friday night at 10/9 central time and check in online for our daily webcasts and upcoming stories at abcnews.com. I’m Bob Brown, for all of us at 20-20, we are in touch, so you’ll be in touch.
