Enter Geraldo Rivera.

boy did i grow up in the wrong area. i woulda had a blast in miami in the 80s lol

I grew up in Boca Raton in the 80's (about 50 miles north of Miami but the influence was there).

While I drove a Chevy Cavalier to high school there was a kid one year ahead of me that drove a Ferrari Testarossa (before Don Johnson had one on Miami Vice). His first car was an 85 Corvette Convertible, you might say that "hey they didn't make a Corvette Convertible in 1985"......he had a Greenwood custom and it was a convertible. His dad had a Gemballa 930 Turbo (Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer had the same car). Another kid took his girlfriend to Greece on his dad's 171 ft yacht and spent weekends on a Hawk power 38 TG. Keep in mind these are high school kids.....

How many of them are in jail now... or worse?

Actually the kid with the Testarossa is running a pawn shop in Lake Worth......coincidentally he is my neighbor's cousin. So he had a better life in HS than presently (mob money dried up).

Kid with the yacht.......he is doing very well. He is a major shareholder of the largest used auto parts distributor in the world (8 billion dollar market cap). His dad was one of the principals of Waste Management AND Blockbuster Video. Kid was taught the game by a master.

The Swiss people I worked for that had 2 houses on the beach in captiva next door to each other originally bought them for 600 thousand each back in the 80s.

During the property bom back in 2003 their values were at 4million each and the taxes went through the roof .

I asked what the taxes would be in Switzerland. , they said unmentionable , like few thousand..

So many homes here that are non homesteaded , baffles me how they spend all the property tax money here in a little town like naples when half the houses here are over 1.5 million.

I read an article on the city of Palm Beach Gardens also a wealthy area like Naples. They wanted to expand a fire station (add 2 or 3 more employees per shift for faster response/added capabilities). A citizen group killed the idea, they showed the future costs of those 2-3 employees over the next 30 years and it was staggering (like 10 million or something). They also mentioned the current pension is underfunded by tens of millions......why? They figured like a 9% return on investments, they got like 1/3 of that. Unions say, the city needs more tax revenue as they are owed the benefits the city agreed to (which is fair) but the city is heading towards a major jam.

Here in Austin homestead taxes can go up by 10% a year and non-homesteaded properties have NO limiyt on how much they can go up a year.Have some of the highest school taxes in the country. In last few months average sale prices actually surpassed Miami..
Its how rich people get rid of poorer people in their area,,make taxes go up until only they can afford to live there..

I grew up in Ft. Liquordale and graduated from St Thomas Aquinas in 1985, I went to school with Michael Irvin, yes THE Michael Irvin, and partied at Chris Everts parents house.

Yea good luck with that, I have a friend that his wife just retired as a teacher, and their contract guarantee's her a return on her 401K money of 8%! Nice huh.

Plus a pension of 50% of her wage. Think of that, she "retired" at 58, if she lives to 85 that is 1.215 mil not counting built in COL.

Makes it a LOT easier on the retirement planning.