IT billionaires have turned Hawaii into a tropical paradise for technoelites

A two-meter-high wall that Mark Zuckerberg began to build around his 2.84 km² site in the Hawaiian Islands to isolate himself from the locals

“Fuzzy programmers” with unrealistically high wages cause class hatred among many people in Russia and Belarus who earn ten times less — doctors, teachers, scientists, and other educated professionals. They cannot offer their services to foreign clients and earn normal money for Europe and the United States, but programmers can.

These are the costs of modern globalization.
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It got to the point that in provincial cities girls purposefully look for acquaintances with programmers: these guys have the most promising work.

The class hatred of the proletariat to successful and wealthy relatives is stronger, the greater the difference in wages. For example, in Moscow, it is not particularly felt: there are so many professionals who get decent pay, not just programmers. Worse on the periphery. And the bigger the wage difference, the more the class hatred becomes more acute. People do not understand that the root of the problems is globalization, and this does not change. A snotty boy coder will earn as much as an experienced golden-handed surgeon at the Voronezh regional hospital. It seems unfair, but this is a completely normal situation if the salary in Russia is 10 times less than in the USA. The coder boy is not to blame for this.

Envy and unkind feelings for a prosperous neighbor are also a completely natural phenomenon, this is the basis of the social hierarchy of primates. The same primate (person) feels completely different if people are poor or rich around. In the first case, he has a high social status and all associated benefits - access to the best resources, good health, long life expectancy. In the second case, the person feels humiliated, he has a low social status. Scientists suggest that because of such a change of environment, if others suddenly begin to surpass you in social status, the state of the immune system deteriorates (due to stress).

It is precisely this situation that many people in Russia, Belarus, and even Hawaiian Aboriginal people got into, around whom a large number of abnormally rich people have suddenly appeared because of globalization. Worst of all, if they still behave arrogantly.

For example, in 2014, Mark Zuckerberg bought two large plots on the Hawaiian island of Kauai with a total area of ​​280 hectares (2.8 square kilometers), stretched along the picturesque ocean coast. The guy paid $ 100 million for them and seemed to be able to count on respect for private property — he wanted to establish a secluded refuge for himself and his family. Mark does not like when his neighbors interfere with him: in 2013, they bought four neighboring houses in Palo Alto around their house so that the neighbors would not make noise with a perforator in the morning.

But it soon became clear that hundreds of Hawaiians have every right to pace their private land here and there. The fact is that Hawaii has an ancient law of 1850, according to which any direct heir has the right to visit land belonging to ancestors. On the redeemed Zuckerberg hectares of such turned out to be 14 plots, and direct heirs - a few hundred. Each of them could count on compensation from Zuckerberg for selling his share of the property.


One of the land of Mark Zuckerberg

Without thinking twice, Mark filed lawsuits against local residents , demanding them to sell their land at a free auction. But residents expressed outrage at Zuckerberg’s demands. They said that in the Hawaiian tradition - first talk to the person, and not to sue on the sly. Even more than anyone was outraged by a two-meter wall, which Zuckerberg began to build around his land in order to isolate himself from the aborigines.

A couple of weeks later, Zuckerberg surrendered and published an open letter in which he abandoned lawsuits and promised to talk with all the numerous heirs and determine compensation for everyone.



Mark Zuckerberg is not the only billionaire who bought the scenic sites in the Hawaiian Islands. Over the years, many IT billionaires have settled here, from Paul Allen to Michael Dell. Here is what their fabulous houses look like in a beautiful and (previously) intact nature reserve of tropical nature.

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, although he already owns the island, has not refused to buy a villa in Hawaii.


Photo: Steve Dykes / Getty Images

The open records of this deal have been removed, but Variety reporters learned that Paul Allen paid $ 7.5 million for a 4 hectare plot in Kilua-Kona with the house.


Photo: Steve Dykes / Getty Images

The house of 1100 m² is ready for living, next to it there are staff rooms, a private harbor and a bridge that leads to a small island.


Photo: Steve Dykes / Getty Images

Salesforce founder Mark Benioff spends about a third of his time at a Hawaii home, which he bought in 2000 for $ 12.5 million.



He has about a dozen structures on earth, and from the house there is a view of black lava and the Pacific Ocean. Unlike Zuckerberg, he did not have to build a wall: stones form a natural barrier around the site.


Photo: Bing Maps

Peter Thiel also decided to settle in Hawaii and he has where to fly in case of an apocalypse on the mainland.


Photo: Tristan Fewings / Getty Images

Co-founder PayPal spent $ 27 million for a relatively small plot of 0.7 hectares with four connected buildings.


Photo: Bing Maps

Former CEO of Yahoo, expelled from the company, Carol Bartz (Carol Bartz) can brighten up daytime diversity in the Hawaiian village of Kukio, which Forbes calls the most exclusive village in Hawaii.


Photo: Paul Sakuma / AP

The five-bedroom house is surrounded by black lava stones and a luxurious golf course.


Photo: Google Maps

Michael Dell owns the “pearl” of the Kukio settlement - Raptor Residence.


Photo: Tony Avelar / AP Images for Dell Inc.

This tropical refuge consists of three sites that rise above the largest stretch of coastline in Cuquio. The seven-bedroom house, according to unconfirmed data, was sold to Michael for $ 64 million.


Photo: Google Maps

But even the richest residents of Hawaii are nothing compared to Larry Ellison, who in 2012 bought the whole island of Lanai , the sixth largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at a price of $ 300 million to $ 600 million.


Photo: Kimberly White / Getty

To be precise, Larry did not buy the whole island, but only 98%; 3,200 people still live there. According to him, he wants to experiment with "environmentally safe life."


Photo: Four Seasons Resorts Lana'i

Together with the island, Larry owned the Four Seasons hotels, where the Oracle founder had rested for many years, and finally decided to buy them. One night in a royal apartment cost him $ 21 thousand earlier, and now it has become free. What-no, and savings.