IF DONALD TRUMP could build a city from scratch, it would have a casino and a golf course and all the cheeseburgers you could eat. The city’s residents would be old, with money to spend and nothing but free time. The workers would be poor, foreign, and always on the clock. They would literally live beneath you. There would be doctors, but not very many, and there would be cops, sort of, but who exactly they were there to protect and serve would remain ambiguous. There would be no proper government to speak of. The city and its services would be run by a corporation, and you would sign away your rights to a billionaire in his 70s with a tan and bad hair, in exchange for a promise of a good time—art auctions, live music, waterfalls of champagne. The city would pay no taxes but avail itself of the services funded by those who do.
It would look, in other words, a lot like the Carnival Corporation’s 18story, 952-foot-long Diamond Princess as it entered Yokohama Bay in early February after a voyage through Southeast Asia for the Chinese New Year. Some people would find this city tacky. But it would be an altogether pleasant place for many people, much of the time. However, you would not want to be there during a pandemic.
This story is from the July/August 2020 edition of Mother Jones.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the July/August 2020 edition of Mother Jones.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
HOG WILD
The scandalous reason meat prices have skyrocketed
ALL WALKS
Limiting cars in cities can help disabled people, too.
REMIGRATION
How Trumpism is following the far right in Europe toward mass expulsion of immigrants
SETTLING THE SCORE
A pop psychology book is considered the definitive trauma text. But what if it's leading survivors down the wrong path?
Positive Spin
People with e-bikes drive less, pollute less, parkinglots-and that's only part of why cities and states are embracing them with gusto.
Cradle and All
The devastating cost of Utah's thriving adoption industry
THE BILLIONAIRE WHO NEARLY BROKE NEWPORT
TRUMP MEGADONOR STEPHEN SCHWARZMAN'S EXTREME MANSION MAKEOVER IS DRIVING HIS NEIGHBORS NUTS.
THE SECRET PLAN TO STRIKE DOWN US GUN LAWS
AND THE COP-TURNED-PASTOR AT THE CENTER OF IT ALL
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
Election Day inside a bustling broadcast newsroom that no longer exists
MASTER OF DISASTER
Trump won’t confront the climate crisis. He’ll feast off it.