A few years back I was in Washington State. As I’m not timid, I tend to visit with strangers when they wander into my realm. I met a Hawaiian native couple that had recently moved there. I asked them what could possibly entice them to leave the islands? Their answer was quick and simple, “We were priced out of paradise.”

Priced out of paradise. It’s a phrase that has become synonymous with living in Hawaii. The cost of living is causing many locals and Native Hawaiians to leave their homeland that holds the graves of their ancestors.

The tropical paradise of Hawaii has become a place of dreams for many. Beneath the surface of this idyllic landscape lies a painful truth: The local Hawaiian people are being priced out of their own land.

Last summer I was doing an art festival in Aspen, Colo. It was a good show, in a good location, and the evenings would find us at a local cantina enjoying nachos and margaritas.

Again, not being shy and reserved, I got to visiting with the overly friendly bartender, slash ski bum. I asked him what he did besides skiing. His reply, “Work! To live in Aspen you have to have three jobs or own three homes.”

I bring all these little stories together as the introduction to the commonly heard phrase that is echoing across the county. “The billionaires are moving the millionaires out of Jackson,” and they are crash-landing in Sublette County.

The millionaires living in Teton County cannot compete with the current influx of wealth that’s moving into this beloved tourist destination. Statistics for Teton County show billionaires are pushing out millionaires, as well as the middle class, at an accelerating rate.

Because of the unspoiled beauty and the wealth moving into Jackson and the Cowboy State, in general, it is not too surprising. Wyoming has long been known for having some of the friendliest income tax and trust laws in the nation. 

The new in-migrants, people moving in from another region of the same country, have deeper pockets than the existing residents. In most cases, these in-migrants have twice the income of the out-migrant.

In Wyoming, the top five counties where the in-migration of wealth is strongest are Jackson, Lincoln, Park, Sheridan and Sublette. All counties in Wyoming are showing some in-migration by those of higher means than existing residents.

One of the ripple effects of the in-migration of billionaires has been a leap in property tax rates. As the demand pushes up the purchase prices of homes property tax rates are driven up and people are pushed out of one market and into a more affordable one. 

I did a quick search for the most expensive piece of real estate in Wyoming and the surrounding states. According to the Robb Report, the most expensive piece of property in Wyoming is in Jackson, the Grand View River Ranch, for $58 million.

In Montana, situated in Three Forks, about 30 minutes outside of Bozeman, is the Grey Cliffs Ranch, at $39.5 million.

Sitting on roughly 8.4 acres, just minutes away from downtown Aspen is the extravagant Aspen Oasis, for $105 million.

Utah’s most expensive listing is the 3,400 acres of the Hobble Creek Ranch, $48 million.

Nestled near the shores of the town’s picturesque lake in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho is a five-bedroom, nine-bathroom listing, Dreamy Lake-View Property, for a cool $24.5 million.

Surrounded by soaring trees and Nebraska prairie grasses is a listing with five fireplaces scattered throughout the home on Old Cheney Road, $3.89 million.

Not to leave Sublette County out of this diatribe, the iconic Bar Cross Ranch, which was my neighbor for the first eight years that I was in Wyoming, sold. This ranch “keeps on trucking,” as it flew off the real estate market for a grateful $32 million.

Returning back to Aspen and the Roaring Fork River in Colorado, as wealth moved in, the working force had to move out. The next stop was “down valley” in Carbondale. As the billionaires moved the millionaires into Carbondale, “down valley” became Grand Junction.

Now the working force for Aspen is out of the valley completely in Rifle, 70 miles away. They are bused back to Aspen to serve the food, make the beds and clean the toilets. Now remember that Pinedale is 77 miles from Jackson and the next stop “down country” is Rock Springs, 177 miles away.

In reality, none of us have a concept of what a billion really is. It has just been in the last few years that billion-dollar deals, billion-dollar sales and even a billion-dollar concert tour have become commonplace in financial news and social media.

We, the working class minions, cannot fathom this number. It takes over 11 days to count to one million. It will take you about 32 years to count to a billion. Then when you dance with the numbers of our national debt, and try to count to a trillion, approximately 31,700 years.

What is really happening is gentrification. This is the process whereby the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, while displacing the current inhabitants in the process.

Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents, the “gentry.” There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it is used to describe a wide array of negative connotations.

As I am far from being any type of player in this billion-dollar game, my only worry is being “pushed out of my paradise,” as Sublette County tumbles into being refurbished and renovated with gentrification.

For now I’ll console myself by turning up the volume on some Grateful Dead lyrics written by John Perry Barlow, “Just like a deaf man dancin,’  Like a blind man shootin’ pool, Heaven help the fool.” - dbA

You can find more of the unfiltered insight and the Art of Dan Abernathy at www.contributechaos.com.