The Last Taboo

The Village Voice examines the last great New York taboo topic — Trustafarians:

Sex with strangers. Drug abuse. Mental illness. Among educated twentysomethings reared in the therapy culture, every personal scandal is fair game at the dinner table. Except for one: coming from money.

“Please don’t tell anyone about my trust fund, I really don’t want that information being passed around,” one young New Yorker e-mailed me. “Oh, so I’m the bad guy?” another heir asked warily.

It may sound strange that in the most affluent society in the world, in the richest city in the world, Richie Riches would be ashamed of their inherited fortunes. After all, President Bush repealed the estate tax just for them, the luckiest 2 percent of the population!

But America still sees itself as an egalitarian society, and wealth is still a loaded issue. Those who bear the dreaded “trustafarian” tag say they have problems with guilt, embarrassment, and most importantly, figuring out what to do with their lives.

All of which sets up the devastating conclusion: getting a job helps one “get direction” in life. Say it ain’t so!