Andi Schmied pretended to be a billionaire to infiltrate NYC’s most exclusive and expensive homes, which only cater to the unbelievably wealthy and privileged.
Touring homes up to $85 million, she wanted to see and photograph how the 1% of the 1% lives in one of the most iconic and expensive cities in the world.
To do so, she had to transform herself from an artist into a convincing billionaire almost overnight. But while snapping 25 penthouses she discovered a world of high-rise apartments sitting empty in a city facing a housing crisis.
00:00 Intro
01:00 Why I Wanted Access to NYC's Penthouses
04:31 Transforming Myself into a Billionaire
05:07 Touring Luxury Homes up to $85 Million
07:13 New York's Housing Crisis
08:45 The 'Soulless' High-Rise Apartments
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It is ridiculous that so many people had to give up their access to sunny views of the outdoors so some of the elite can have access to ultra luxury places that they don’t even occupy. How crazy. In Japan, it has been illegal for DECADES to put up a building that would block your neighbor’s access to sunlight. That shows where our priorities are in this nation. All about the money.
Yeah but Japan has some horrible priorities too. They have a 99% conviction rate because they’ll hold a suspect indefinitely and subject them to mentally torturous interrogation every day until they confess to a crime they didn’t even commit. There is a class of person that is more or less untouchable in the Indian cast system sense. There is a lot more racism and xenophobia in Japan, generally, although it doesn’t go to the same extremes that it does in the West quite so often, they have a six week work day and if you take any of your legally entitled holiday time you’re looked down upon and treated as a really lazy person. It isn’t all sunshine and roses over there and I know you’re not saying it is, in fact I agree it’s a positive policy to have, but Japan is pretty messed up too.
@@SweetandFitting yeah japan is a nice looking place but it has some fucked up things going on too.. every country has something like that.
These people live in NYC..there not there for sun lite..if they wanted that they would live in “southern NY” aka Florida.
@@BS.-.- or texas or any other place
It’s all
About the Benjamin’s baby
Its wild that looking at a view of buildings is considered extreme luxury
Its a metaphorical way to say that owning one of those penthouses is equivalent to being on top of society.
so claustrophic. Also devoid of nature. sad lives
Fr. I would feel so trapped lol
Seems hideous to me too. I prefer the view from my cheap apartment of my nice green street with loads of mature trees.
@@181cameron surrrrre…just like watching a nature documentary on your 40ft tall tv screen!
I love how she made it a point talking about the large shadows these buildings cast. Never thought about that. Taking away the sunlight
I always think about this especially when I’m in the city and that’s why I’m growing more and more annoyed that buildings are going up all over NYC especially where there are residential one family houses
Yup. Over on Brooklyn we managed to successfully fight off one that was going to kill the wonderful Brooklyn Botanic Garden by taking most of its light. But it took a LOT of community pushback
Huge topic in architecture and urban planning/development. NYC is one of the few western great cities that puts no limits on these things.
@@gnarbeljo8980 Right, I remember when San Diego’s small downtown was going through a building boom in the early 2000s that sunlight corridors was something that was stressed in the planning. Tall buildings that took up whole blocks had to reduce footprint progressively at certain elevations. I stayed in one for a few years on the 25th floor and there were only 7 units on our floor, and they weren’t particularly big (900-1400 sqft).
@@brandall101 wind is another huge aspect. Building tall and densely has a massive impact, creates microclimates on the ground. Beein to areas where they got it wrong and the street became a windtunnel. I love NY and have stayed high up at The Standard with spectacular views, but I wouldn’t want to live like that. Too claustrophobic fish tank like for me.
They actually trick you into thinking this is the “best view” money can buy. The best view is surrounded by nature, not concrete.
Cities and natures got their own beauty.
ths an opinion g
Imagine believing that being isolated in your millions of dollars home is the best investment and not realizing the best view is actually free. For instance, walking outside interacting with nature.
Nah, everyone loved being on the top.
Underground is cool too
@giodnfldfnnf everything more than 2 blocks away is a 30+min car drive in NYC
I always suspected these buildings sat empty. There is NO way there are that many people that can afford to live like that.
There’s so many empty houses hoarded by the rich for profit while homelessness is on the rise.
It’s not that they don’t get purchased, it’s that they are usually only used once or twice a year as a second or third home.
Look at 10:16 They are owned but no one lived in them. Usually, they work as “wealth preservation” because real estate doesn’t lose value like stocks or other traded assets do.
@@IRLSuperb Fed printing money for stimmy checks causes capitol to flood into assets, eg real estate. Why are we blaming people for doing the right thing, while ignoring why they are forced to do so?
@@VoluntaristSociety Stacy didn’t blame anyone tho. She corrected that guy above her.
Most people are taught that “you only need a good job to become rich”. These billionaires are operating on a whole other playbook that many don’t even know exists.
No one is stopping you from having brilliant ideas and starting a company
@@eliotbrown5977 most billionaires have family that are extremely wealthy and their children, who have done nothing to earn that money apart from being born. Essentially they are hording wealth and their not being taxed appropriately.
It’s extremely unlikely you’ll become a billionaire from a good idea this is evident in the population of billionaires in comparison to normal people. The American dream isn’t real and it never was.
@@robmicheal2597 yeah just that I can’t get a millionaire loan from my dad like Jeff bezos, or my family can’t afford to pay harvard like Bill Gates family
@James Rico Yeah! I agree with you sir.If you want to be successful have the mindset of the rich, spend less and invest More. Don’t give up your dreams.
@@sashabondarev7357 Most People intend to chase money more than knowledge and that will damage your progress, trust me. Chase knowledge first and I promise! The money will follow you just like it’s following some of us now.
My cousin is an architect in NYC. He told me there is no practical way to build the garbage shoots in those buildings that have a single unit on each floor without the garbage going into free fall (120 mph) so the other residents hear garbage flying past their $50,000,000 apartments and exploding into a dumpster on the bottom.
I’m in the construction industry and your cousin is 100% correct!
that is actually hilarious – thank you for that insight 😀
Seems like something that could be mitigated, either by the building or resident with some sound proofing material
what garbage ? you need people live there to have that
@@patrickarsenault5201 touche’ 😊. You are 100% correct. Problem solved.
There’s something dystopian about mostly empty luxury buildings surrounded by rats and squalor. Love her work!
Very dystopian, so crazy how it’s happening in our most productive, wealthy cities – New York, Los Angeles.
You do know most of those empty ones are owned and used to dodge taxes by these people.
It’s obscene. My appartment barely has a floor and I fear the balcony might collapse because of how unkempt the building is. And I’m actually lucky just to have an appartement I can * usually * afford cause finding a place to stay period is a challenge in itself rn. And that’s in Canada where we’re supposed to be more protected by our government
@@Carmen4ever your sentence is exactly whats wrong
the cities are so PRODUCTIVE how could anyone think that something like this could happen :OOOO bro come on
@@_ee75 these cities make BILLIONS of dollars, you can argue whatever you want bruh but Los Angeles, New York, honey look at the numbers they make us the most money, so I’m not sure what the problem is with my comment lmaoo did it bug ya that I have so many likes?
The most telling thing is that the more outlandish her behavior, the more the agents believed that she was ultra rich. Its because those people are completely detached from reality and insulated from consequence.
so true
Yep. They don’t follow the rules or “standard” behaviours – those are for peasants like us. Rich people make their own rules
Not just that, it says that they don’t care what other people think of them…poorer people are more conscious of other folks opinions…a part of being successful at time sis going against the grain and doing your own thing even if it doesn’t make sense to others…It’s not just about consequence there’s consequence to everything, science provides that as ultimate law…but these folks are operating completely differently. I would have loved to know ALL of what she did that made her seem richer…that part is something study and is quite fascinating. But that man and his narration about daughter speaking hungarian…lolz….I would be CRACKING UP and rolling on the floor laughing.
@@beautybonvoyage8624 such a great observation.
And most likely mentally ill at some level without much of a conscience.
Her mention at the end about shadows cast by buildings where the rich don’t even live impacting everyday people for me was the most profound thing in this video.
the rich work and are responsible.the poor love being lazy and have kids they can´t feed, much less offer a good future.so to eat these will become criminals.
😢💯💯💯
Aahh Shade !! So scary 😑😒
@@RenaldMusic it’s a metaphor 😒
@@RenaldMusicyes in the winter. Ice won’t melt.
¿Quieres ver el video en español? Haz clic en el botón de configuración para cambiar la pista de audio.
Want to watch this in Spanish? Head over to the settings button to change the audio track.
This is the first time I come across a youtube video with different audio tracks/dubbing. I’m impressed that it’d never ocurred to me this option could even exist.
It’s a relatively new option (I think) and obviously most people probably don’t have the time/budget to create multiple audio tracks. @@gmenezesdea
@@gmenezesdeaMaybe they dubbed it before but for vice español
Just a question to the great video: Is it really necessary that you have a music carpet in the background? I think this is annoying.
El doblaje en español está horrendo, mejor me hubieras dicho que estaba en inglés.
that real estate agent voiceover sounds like an ad n a dystopian movie 😂
Haha yes!
Was it VO or Off-Camera Voice/Dialogue. A voice over is someone not in the scene and edited in during post-production. This sounded diegetic.
@@NoeticTogue That definitely sounded off camera and not a voiceover lol
To say that this whole situation has an ominous dystopian feeling is underselling it… I visited NYC back in the summer of 2015 and in every corner, every alley, basically everywhere, there were homeless people. Some were holding signs that say “They wouldn’t give me a job” or “I’m trying to find a job, please” but there was this one sign b a homeless woman that caught my eye at the time. And it never left my memory. The sign said “America has failed me, dare to hear me?”. I saw that sign and sat down with the woman, offered her some of my soup as we talked about her difficulties. She said she was in the army, served in Iraq as a medic. She had to come back home due to her injuries in hopes that the government would take care of her. But they didn’t. Her leg had to be cut with an operation and government still asked for money. She then said that she reached out to VA’s, but they didn’t help her at all saying that her injuries and her debt had nothing to do with her time in service. So, with both government and VA turned their backs to her, she paid her bills with the money she saved for her child when she has one, in the future. Then she begun to look for a job but most of the establishments would frown when they heard she was in the military. With nothing else and no hope in sight, she said she turned to VA again, for job. But she still got refused and rejected. It’s heartbreaking to say the least, to see and hear all these people when the U.S. government keeps putting hundreds of millions of dollars into defense contracts and fights in “wars” that has nothing to do with them… But hey, American Dream right? What a joke!
Very interesting story … we never know what is the reason that people live in the strees some are because of drugs, some others because of the economy ..maybe one led to the other… we have to be more empathetic
nobody refuses to give you a job just because you were a medic in the military. you were lied to sorry.
Hmmm. This sounds very fishy. She doesn’t seem like a veteran. They would have put her on disability. Also the VA would have offered voc rehab. Moreover, TAPS/GPS is a congressionally mandated course to attend; she would have learn of her education, employment and medical options. I’m sorry, as a veteran, I can sense stolen valor a mile away. That homeless woman wasn’t a veteran
this country truly is a joke.
@@waverider6133yeah I agree. The VA actually does help, they have to. Either she lied or didn’t call the correct number and gave up right away.
There’s something unsettling about how the realator was talking to her. Just creepy. I’m getting major dystopian vibes. I know probably not everybody shares the same opinion about this, but I feel like there’s something messed up about paying billions to live at the top of a souless empty building suffocated in the middle of an overcrowded city blocking out the sun. Is it just me?
Like she said, they don’t actually live in it, most of the time. But the creepy realtor was acting as if she would. Her kids would be running around (in the apartment? in the streets hundreds of meters below?) speaking Hungarian.
@@msfundioits crazy that they dont live in it. I am from the caribbean, i once wanted to live in America like that, but i visited new york and realized, nope, i prefer to visit these places and come back to trees, animals, birds, the sun, my yard, farms, streams, fresh air, quiet, islands etc. I have developed an appreciation for my home. People run away from the caribbean for a “better life” and its sad because there is nothing better than peace and nature. Even tho we have poverty, we dont have to. People just want to be rich, they can live in nature and live minimal out here, they just dont want to.
@@shamrockwhiterighty said. People just want to be rich, all their life they chase meaningless things
No. Not just you. It is unsettling.
I agree, very creepy. Just so unnatural and yes, major dystopian vibes. Why is this even a thing
I lived in the wealthy Annapolis MD for many years. One day we took a water taxi tour of all the rich homes and I will Never forget the guide saying “the larger the home, the less it is used”…. That one sentence changed my life outlook forever.
What does it mean?
@@Vancouver-rh4fx wealthy people are usually traveling so they’re never home to enjoy it. Actors, Musicians, Politicians, Businessmen… all require a life of constant travel so they’re rarely, if ever, home. This is true of all their properties (vacation homes, ski villas, beach/lake front homes, etc.)
What Did you learn? Do you still live there?
what shocks me most about this video is that so many of those places sit vacant!! 😯
Well made for the 1%
The Chinese bought them up because their monetary system is so corrupt. I image they are trying to dump them now that our money is becoming worthless.
Vacant: The best word I’d use to describe New York. I lived there 7.5 years and would never return. Those characterless, lifeless buildings with the views reminds me of all that I hated about that place. Nope. I’d never live in one of those units, and I’d never return to that awful city. Life is much, much better nearly everywhere else.
I live in a suburb with lots of vacant mansions. Real estate is used by rich Chinese to park their money where their government can’t get at it.
@@lillyvgutierrez9685 It stopped being exclusive as soon as it was desecrated
I live on a mountain in the southern Appalachians near the Smokies.
In a 600sq’ glorified shack I built myself for less than 25k
I share a property line with the Nantahala national forest.
My view is incredible. Nothing but mountains layered to the horizon.
That’s the good life brother
yeah my parents house in wytheville va had a ridiculously better view than that metropolitan view. And their house ran 100k when built in beginning of 80’s. Worth like 230k (heavy renovated) today.
What a dream
That is what actually should worth 80 Million not that stinky cold OBELISK concrete!!!
@@outlawedTV88no it shouldn’t, let’s keep nature free and d open 😅
The part about the skyscrapers stealing sunlight from everyone else felt like the perfect metaphor for the relationship between billionaires and the rest of us.
Meanwhile MAGA vote for Trump who has only cut taxes for the rich. Jeff Bezos paid less in taxes than the average middle class family.
The Simpsons called that one.
Yes that is what they literally do, in every single sense.
But they dont steal from you, thats the diference
@@sarahwedel4681 Capitalism is just socialism for the already wealthy. They’re stealing from you and they’ve always been stealing from you.
I live in SF and I believe that we just passed a law that taxes the empty buildings as an incentive to rent out the totally empty buildings.
That is a GREAT idea! Either rent it or list it! It would force people to lower rent to competitive rates instead of letting it stand empty!
This is just as ridiculous as most of the tax laws in California.
1. Who cares what people do with their property so long as they pay their taxes?
My home. I’ll do with it as I please. Why would I rent it if I wanted a second home to be available anytime I wanted to use it?
2. (As with most things in the government) Why is it any of their business what a private individual does with their private residents that they paid for and pay taxes on?
This is a great example as to why people are leaving California and leaving New York.
Dumbest tax laws ever.
@@rhess10 nah to be honest its a good idea. take your money elsewhere people are literally homeless on the street
They will still pay the taxes and let it sit pretty coz they have that much money and would rather not deal with silly tenants
As a former high-end carpenter, I often marveled at how people with money invariably build fantastically expensive, utterly cold and desolate spaces. You look at one of their kitchens and think, “Where are the glasses?” There’s no way to tell. It’s an inscrutable mystery. You look at the living room and, think “where do I sit?” And the truth is that there’s nowhere to sit. You dare not fart in one of those homes, or stink up the bathroom, or so much as give your kid a box of crayons, much less allow a bout of stomach flu to run its course. They aren’t homes. They’re mausoleums. Beautiful, ornate, cold and lifeless. They are places for the bodies whose souls died (or were sold) long ago. There is nothing there worth desiring.
Beautiful comment.
Very well said.
“High end carpenter”. What the hell does that mean? You either can do the job or you can’t.
@@robinabernathy2829 So, you’re saying every carpenter has the exact same skill level? LOL. There are different levels of carpenters, starting with newly trained carpenters through master carpenters, who have many years of experience and skill. Only an ignorant person would think in black and white terms of “you either can do the job or you can’t” What a stupid comment.
@@robinabernathy2829 It’s means he’s not a mom and pop shop bro in overalls that builds simple tables and shelves. He’s a skilled artisan that can build complex, cold, beautiful works of art for the super rich.