After living in Greenwich for a little two days, Xiao Sui finally gradually adapted to the environment and laws here.

I also feel that the bare birch forest has become more pleasing to the eye, and as soon as you step on the New York State boundary just across the river, the vegetation in the community will immediately become evergreen and dense, but the houses have also changed from large estates to small two-story wooden buildings.

For people who live in Greenwich, the real meaningful greenery is the lawn and trees within 30 or 50 meters of your own building, because only these places can be seen in the building. The barren forests of dead trees tens or even hundreds of meters deep are not for themselves, but for low-key.

It is better to achieve the effect of a large hidden city, so that the poor drive by and think that it is a park inside, and set up a forbidden park.

All these environments are the product of the pattern of the three nearby states and the game of state and federal tax laws.

The tax law in the United States is divided into federal taxes and state taxes, and federal taxes are the same for everyone, and there is no room for maneuver, but the preferential measures vary greatly from state to state.

Among them, the property tax {property tax} was only a federal tax for a few decades in the early years of the founding of the United States, and it was later discovered that Americans had great supervision intentions about how the tax was used, and the federal government was tired of defending it for a long time, so it gradually retreated. Later, even the state did not collect it directly, but went down to the county, or even a lower level to operate.

Americans are very concerned about whether the land tax collected on my land (specifically refers to the land tax, and the business tax income tax is not so obvious}, whether it is used for local services and construction. If it is used across districts, it can have serious consequences, and in some cases it can even lead to the downfall of the city government.

The land tax in Greenwich is used to subsidize the local government, employing more police officers to protect the community, hiring more good teachers to teach the children of the residents of the community, and repairing the public roads and parks in the community.

The state-average police coverage is free and free of land taxes, but additional protection density comes at a cost.

Of course, rich people will not be satisfied with the basic guarantee of "someone will be dispatched 5 minutes after 911 and ensure that they will arrive at the scene within 20 minutes", and what people want is high-standard protection anytime and anywhere.

If someone dares to use the land tax of the Greenwich community to build a public school or road in Stanford, the core of the city, it will definitely cause an uproar {Greenwich is just a community similar to a town, with a population of only 20,000 or 30,000, and the above belongs to "Stanford City", and Stanford City belongs to Connecticut. This Stanford and the Stanford of Stanford University in California are not the same thing, they just have the same name. }

In other words, the Americans will be so careful in this regard that the property tax of the residents of my community can only be used to improve the property in our community.

Xiao Sui lived for two days, and when he went out for a walk every day, he could see the masterpiece of this environmental game, and there was also a park here, and the greening and decoration of the park were no worse than the courtyard of his own home.

makes Xiao Sui sometimes think that if she and her husband are slightly poorer people and want to live in Greenwich for a long time, then they must not waste money to build such a large private garden, and the public space is enough to enjoy.

The chairs in the park and on both sides of the pavement for pedestrians to rest are actually sofas and canopies. When Xiao Sui saw it for the first time, he immediately wondered if it would be cheaper for homeless people and beggars.

But by the afternoon she understood: the extra police here would make sure that the poor couldn't get into the neighborhood, not even on the public roads.

People will not violate the laws of the United States to legally interrogate homeless people, and exercise the power of "as long as you suspect that you want to step on the point, you will be detained for 24 hours of interrogation" in accordance with the law

If you understand this kind of rule in the rich community of the United States, it is not surprising to see the small town sheriff in "First Blood" who wants to forcibly send the strange force beast Rambo away because he sees him coming to the town.

Americans feel that even the chairs next to the bus stop signs in their own communities are bought by their own taxes, so why should you lie down if you are not from this community.

Therefore, those who envy the United States do not need to feel that it is too open, because openness and calculating go hand in hand.

Most of the public facilities in the United States, in the American concept, are not the people of the whole country, but the people of this place and this community, and have nothing to do with outsiders. The poorer the community, the more basic the security, because no one comes to take advantage of it, just be casual, and the richer the place, the clearer the permission.

Otherwise, it would have been wiped out by the big eaters.

Connecticut has obviously gone through years of tax law running-in games, and the purpose of the relevant provisions is to attract those super-rich people in Manhattan to buy super mansions.

Anyway, it's only 30 kilometers to drive to Manhattan, and there is a direct subway shuttle, which can be driven back to Manhattan from Fifth Avenue and Central Park in 40 minutes.

……

After a few days of acclimatization, it was another bright early spring morning.

After breakfast, Gu Biao accompanied him to drink the tea. Xiao Sui thought that her husband and sister Mina would go to Europe for their honeymoon in a few days, and she couldn't help but feel a little hesitant in her heart:

"Husband, after you and Mina left, I'm bored here. We've been here for a few days, do you know what kind of people are in the neighborhood?

I look at the left and right, na, a few hundred meters apart, there are private estates with breakwaters on the peninsula similar to ours, and they should all be super-rich, so it's good to recognize the door. ”

Although she knows that Americans don't care much about neighbors.

Mina was also sitting on the side and drinking tea with her, but she was fine, so she drank milk tea, the kind made of fresh milk first. Hearing this, she was also curious: "Husband, who live next to me?" I have gone out for a few walks, but I have never seen anyone, I should be citizens of the world like you, there are houses everywhere in the world. ”

Gu Biao smiled when he heard this, and then pointed to the peninsula forest hundreds of meters away from the window: "Guess right, the piece on our right hand belongs to Mr. Thomas Watson, he is usually in Silicon Valley, so it's normal that no one lives." ”

"Thomas Watson? Who is that?" Xiao Sui didn't know much about the industry.

"It's the boss of IBM, Thomas Watson Jr., to be exact. Mina, who is relatively knowledgeable, directly helped explain.

Xiao Sui: "It turned out to be a rich second generation. ”

Mina: "No, people are in their seventies, and they have been in charge of IBM for more than 30 years. All of IBM's achievements in the field of electronic computers were created by his generation.

When his father founded IBM, he only developed IBM into a giant in the field of perforated paper tape calculators and other business office equipment, not to mention electronic computers. ”

Of course, this is not that the old Watson is incapable, but the limitations of the times. Watson Sr. was at the helm of IBM mainly before World War II, when there were no electronic computers.

Xiao Sui didn't seem to understand, and didn't dare to express his opinions anymore, but he felt that the neighbors here were so awesome.

Gu Biao also interjected with emotion: "Watson, this person, is also the psychological pillar that Wang An insisted on passing on the throne to his son back then, Wang An has fought with IBM for a lifetime, and he has fought with little Watson for a lifetime."

He looked at his biggest opponent, a rich second generation who inherited his father's business and carried it forward, so he had an illusion that his son could do the same.

Fortunately, I saved him, so that he could recognize that his son was not good when the loss was not too great. The inheritance of the Watson family is just a special case of legend and cannot be copied. ”

Listening to her husband's far-sighted words, Xiao Sui couldn't help but touch her stomach.

"How can you say that! Who said that it must not be copied. ”

Mina also felt the same way, after all, it was her DNA. So she didn't want to continue this sad topic, so she hurriedly tilted the building: "Don't say anything about Watson, husband, then talk about the neighbor on the right, do you know who it is? If you don't know, I'll inquire." ”

Gu Biao: "Of course, I inquired about the house on the right before buying the house, which belongs to His Excellency the Vice President." ”

Mina was shocked: "George Bush? That's not just a matter of vice-chances, Li Gen has been in office for eight years and is going to retire, this year is an election year, Bush has already passed the internal primaries for nuclear power, if he goes well, he will go further......

Husband, you don't want to befriend your neighbors when you buy a house, do you?"

Mina said as she spoke, unable to help but be suspicious.

"How is it possible, I just pick the right and best conditions to buy. Whether it's Watson or Buxu, I can't afford to stammer. You should understand that this is the number one rich area in New England, and the best location here is only these houses, so it is normal to meet the richest man in the United States or a wealthy president next to it. Gu Biao clarified solemnly.

It's not a lie, he doesn't have to lie to his wife, he really thinks so.

And he really didn't have any hangings in it.

Whether it is the Watson family, the Buxu family, or the female CEO of Hewlett-Packard who claimed to be the first beautiful president of the United States, or a bunch of other hedge fund bosses, the historical facts are all living in a big mansion with a sea view here in Greenwich.

Two-thirds of Manhattan's hedge fund owners have homes here. This is a community where 10,000 households can subscribe to 10,000 copies of the Wall Street Journal.

That is, the number of Wall Street Journal subscriptions in a community is equivalent to 5% of the total Wall Street Journal subscriptions on the whole planet.

Since Gu Biao wants to put on a posture of letting his children enjoy the best basic education resources in the United States, it is normal to meet anyone. Looking at Beverly in media culture and Greenwich in politics, business and finance, this is the general knowledge of the American upper class.

The mansion of the Buxu family is now worth forty or fifty million dollars, while the mansion of the Watson family on the other side is valued at more than sixty million.

The peninsula where Gu Biao lives was originally divided by the bosses of four hedge funds in Manhattan, each worth about 20 million on average. So after the stock market crash last year, Gu Biao took 80 million US dollars to buy the houses of the four families, and took the island to become the king.

When Watson and other families came to Greenwich to buy real estate, they also considered Gu Biao here, but they felt that the family had a small population and could not afford to eat such a large land, and the funds were not blown by the wind, so they kept a low profile and lived within their means. And Gu Biao's behavior of buying a house this time is somewhat introverted by the nouveau riche.

It is very reasonable and logical to spend $80 million to put together a mansion with two presidents or the richest neighbors. The 80 million US dollars in 1988 is a very huge amount, and Gu Biao's Gu Garden in Baijia Road, Xiangjiang, all the before and after that year were added up, and it was barely more than half of the money here. 6