# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/41 "2011-02-28T17:56:11Z")
I already spend easily 90% of my time within a 2 mile radius of where I live. 99% is within a 5-mile radius. I like the idea of world travel but frankly the older I get the more I like the idea than the prospect. Give me decent shelter within range of a Home Depot and I’ll be happier than a pig in muck. ---
**Author:** ![limegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/82dd89/32.png) [@limegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/limegreen)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/42 "2011-02-28T21:15:54Z")
I would probably say, about 10 acres. If someone would give me access to Amazon and a few crafty websites, plus ebay, I’m be happy inside my house 90% of the time. In fact, I’ve been struggling with the desire to just hermitize myself on days I don’t have to go to work. Not agoraphobia, just no desire to see anyone or go anywhere but my workroom. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/43 "2011-02-28T21:32:35Z")
The first thing I would do if I came into a huge amount of money would be travel. I’d rather work on making enough money myself to go where I want to rather than be trapped somewhere. Even saying “oh, the northern hemisphere” doesn’t work because I’d be able to visit most of the places I want to, but wouldn’t be able to come back to Australia? And god knows I wouldn’t want to be stuck in the southern hemisphere forever. I think I thought about this too much. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/44 "2011-02-28T23:03:05Z")
> [@Foggy](#): > > San Francisco. I haven’t been out of the city in just over 3 years (Bus trip to Reno). I don’t like to travel anyways. I’m right there with you, **Foggy**. I leave the city twice a year to visit family (they’d have to come to me), and I do enjoy the _idea_ of travel, but the truth is that I don’t leave San Francisco enough to make being confined here a problem, particularly if I have enough money to have my dream house. Besides, I can’t imagine a more beautifully gilded cage. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/45 "2011-03-01T11:13:56Z")
I’ll take “the area to which a Spaniard can travel without a previously-acquired Visa”. Why, yes, that’s a pretty big chunk of the world 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tastes_of_chocolate/32/3232_2.png) [@Tastes\_of\_Chocolate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tastes_of_Chocolate)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/46 "2011-03-01T22:14:24Z")
I could be fairly happy with just North America, but I would always feel like I was missing things, and well, I would be. But if the level of wealthy ran to “stupid money” (as my SO and I like to call it), and I was allowed to use it to make sure my friends and family were taken care of, at least to a comfortable level, than I’d do it. ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/47 "2011-03-01T22:30:30Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > 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. This. I mean if I had to I could do the Hawaiian Islands but that would take a lot of the joy out of being wealthy. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2011, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/48 "2011-03-01T23:52:45Z")
If I can build UP as much as I want, couldn’t I make like a 500 floor skyscraper and live in that? heheh One skyscraper would suffice. A floor for different restaurants that can cook any food I would ever want on demand. An entire floor for each visitor I invite over (like a series of upward penthouses!). I’d definitely opt for a nice climate and a strip of land including a stretch of warm oceanfront beach. But really I don’t need to go outside much to be happy. ---
**Author:** ![Agnostic\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c4cdca/32.png) [@Agnostic\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agnostic_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2011, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769/49 "2011-03-02T08:12:40Z")
The smallest area I would agree to? Give me a good size villa in Tuscany with a couple acres for an orchard of olive trees and a very large kitchen garden, I would be happy. (Just don’t look in the secret underground bunker with various labs and workshops. And testing range.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-big-is-your-gilded-cage/572769.md?page=2)