# How big is your gilded cage? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 27, 2011, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769 "2011-02-27T02:53:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/21 "2011-02-27T16:22:00Z")
I wouldn’t do it. I don’t manage my time well when I’m not working, so being idle has no appeal to me. I have minimal interest in luxury- as long as I have blue skies and enough money for a good burrito now and then, I’m happy. Added to that is that travel is my passion. To lose that would be to lose everything. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/22 "2011-02-27T17:21:11Z")
New Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/23 "2011-02-27T18:03:38Z")
I’d probably be cool with the state of Hawaii. I might be persuadable down to Oahu. That said, I’m surprisingly okay with not moving around much. I think it might be from so much time at sea, where your world is confined to the area between the bow and the stern. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/24 "2011-02-27T18:09:09Z")
I’m one of those people who is perfectly content to be at home for long stretches, but then if something happens where I can’t leave–say the car breaks down or there’s a terrible snowstorm–suddenly the most important thing in the world is to GET OUT. Essentially, there is no way even the loosest restriction wouldn’t make me crazy. Um. Crazier. ---
**Author:** ![Waxwinged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c2a13f/32.png) [@Waxwinged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waxwinged)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/25 "2011-02-27T18:44:10Z")
About 100 acres of wilderness, bordering 1 large body of water. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/26 "2011-02-27T19:03:10Z")
The city of Chicago and its immediate suburbs. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/27 "2011-02-27T19:08:51Z")
Someone else summed it up perfectly for me: > [@Stephen Sondheim](#): > > I like the island Manhattan. > Smoke on your pipe and put that in! ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/28 "2011-02-27T20:33:09Z")
One of the whitewater paddling meccas, maybe Costa Rica. Eastern Tennessee, Rockies, Pacific northwest, West Virginia. Any one would be fine. CR has the warmest climate so probably there. ---
**Author:** ![Crackrat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Crackrat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crackrat)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/29 "2011-02-27T21:04:58Z")
Around 10 square miles, small college town or suburb. I could probably handle smaller if I had enough cool people (my close friends) near enough to visit regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/30 "2011-02-27T21:07:12Z")
I’d have to turn him down. I make enough that I can live comfortably as long as I stay employed (whereas taking the option would guarantee it, I guess). To me, added “luxury” would be about material goods or paying people to come do work for me, and I can’t see that I’d trade that at all in order to be trapped in a meaningful confined space. But as long as we’re talking about entire continents, I guess I could manage with North America. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/31 "2011-02-27T22:32:40Z")
Wouldn’t do it. Traveling is one of my primary pleasures in life, and there’s no amount of luxury that would be so alluring as to make me give that up. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/32 "2011-02-27T23:21:26Z")
Anywhere by a lake with good bass fishing and a house walking distance of that lake with a good internet connection and a top of the line computer. I’d also need UPS to ship shit to me. Maybe not shit but stuff… ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2011, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/33 "2011-02-27T23:30:05Z")
49 states. I’ll skip Alaska. ---
**Author:** ![Sami41](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c57346/32.png) [@Sami41](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sami41)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/34 "2011-02-28T06:22:04Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > New Mexico. Seconded. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/35 "2011-02-28T06:32:30Z")
I could probably be happy with a single city, provided it was somewhere warm and beachy. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/36 "2011-02-28T14:44:04Z")
Nothing smaller than eastern MA. It’s got pretty much everything I need except relatives, and I’m rich enough to fly them in. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/37 "2011-02-28T15:57:42Z")
If I were fabulously rich I would want to fly and hunt all the time. I’d probably be pretty happy with Idaho, Alaska, Wyoming, and Montana but what if I wanted to go pig hunting or go back to Lake Powell? I’m tempted to say I’d confine myself to the United States but then I’d never see New Zealand and I’d never get to visit Canada again. My gilded cage is way too large to be competitive. ---
**Author:** ![Wargamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Wargamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wargamer)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/38 "2011-02-28T16:20:08Z")
Florida-Georgia-North&South Carolina-Virgina-Maryland-Pennsylvania-The Non-Existent State of Delaware. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/39 "2011-02-28T17:00:46Z")
I think I could go as small as New Zealand. (I’d just have to hope that Auckland becomes a little more cosmopolitan over time) ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/40 "2011-02-28T17:38:42Z")
Isn’t the whole point of luxurious wealth to be able to jetset off wherever you want? If someone were to tell me I could live in opulence forever, and then added, “But you have to stay in Denver,” that would put a damper on the whole thing. It might be tempting considering I don’t spend that much time out of the country anyway, but knowing that I couldn’t ever leave wouldn’t please me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769.md?page=3)