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Welcome to Sparks From Culture
Weekly personal essays on wealth, status, and family from someone with generational wealth, writing with transparency.
Aug 11, 2023
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David Roberts
99
17
7
Raise My Taxes Not From Spite But From Prudence
My taxes should go up but not because wealth is immoral and not because most wealthy people are greedy grifters. I want taxes to go up because when I…
Aug 8
69
95
10
Going Broke Earning Five Million Dollars A Year
My 89-year-old father has been in the hospital all week so that’s where my attention has been.
Aug 1
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David Roberts
100
44
8
The Dangerous Complacency of the Wealthy
The rhetoric against the wealthy has grown more harsh, more bitter, more belligerent. Understandably.
Jul 25
82
119
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Novels We Loved In The First Half Of 2026
While I appreciate a good movie or show, few things make life better than falling in love with the world of a novel, the sort of book that while you’re…
Jul 18
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David Roberts
82
51
7
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High Flying Adored
The marriage of Taylor Swift poses a question of whether it’s possible to remain at the peak of any endeavor and still have a balanced life.
Jul 11
106
85
13
Self-Evident Truths Get Smacked Down By Reality
Pretending that we are all created equal leads the privileged to narcissism and the non-privileged to despair. It divides us into winners and losers, as…
Jul 4
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David Roberts
138
115
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Parents: You Can't Live Without Them
In 1987, Debbie and I, ages 24 and 25, purchased a completely inappropriate Upper West Side apartment in anticipation of having our first child.
Jun 27
101
62
8
I Was Saved From Humiliation By My Father When I Was Sixteen
A summer night in 1978 on the Jersey Shore.
Jun 20
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David Roberts
92
51
4
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