It feels like the worst parts of Las Vegas and "Big Box Retail." Everything is being parted out to private equity, and it's not for us people (or even U.S people) anymore.

I use Vegas as an example because all of the fun family-ish attractions and locals' incentives have all but been eradicated, replaced with celebrity-DJ'd highrise night/day clubs and luxury shopping that seem to pander to the most egregious ends of wealthy foreign money. (Probably where a lot of shady deals go down, too.)

The other end is conventions, of course. If you wanna woo a guy who knows a guy to give you your boss's boss's boss a government contract for kill-drones, it probably happens here.

The majority of residents' place in this new structure is as servants, hawking luxury goods and experiences they themselves couldn't possibly hope to attain because they're actively shut out.

A little tangent here, but my point was: Feels like the entire country is following this ruinous pattern.

The rich are their own country, and if they have it their way, we are but their footstools across the globe.