fferent to the plight of the lower classes. And he fears such an occurrence could have serious consequences for society as a whole.
Kotkin cites Bob Metcalfe as an example of the new breed of wealth. He argues that Metcalfe helped invent the intricate interconnectivity that underpins this newly itinerant life of the technological elite while working at Xerox in Palo Alto, California. Currently, from his farmhouse in Maine, "armed with his Apple PowerBook with a DSL modem running at 320 kilobits per second," Metcalfe uses this technology to stay in touch with the world's dataflows. However, although Kotkin notes that Metcalfe has remained close to his roots as the product of working-class family, the new world Metcalfe inhabits is not noted for its diversity.
Specifically, demographer William Frey notes that the places being inhabited by this new breed of the technological elite are "the most white-dominated parts of the country." For example, he points out that 90 percent of the residents of Utah are Anglos, compared to 74 percent of the country and barely 60 percent of California. "There are no black people living here," observes Metcalfe of his Camden, Maine home. "You see one, you literally do a double take." Nonetheless, class more than race determines the hierarchy within the new wealth.
As predicted in The Time Machine, Frey notes that as the upper-classes move more and more to the scenic places, the lower classes are forced into the less appealing places. Kotkin argues that the new "itinerant rich" represents a break from the traditional notions that have governed the elite classes from the beginning of recorded history. He states that, in a way unimaginable before, the new elite can operate without sharing space with the masses. Thus, they create an increasingly self-created, "protected preindustrial paradise with the full benefits of postindustrial technology."
Kotkin believes this new technological elite ...