Dominic Saul Riverbottom

A Very Important White Man You Should Know About

These days, Dominic Saul Riverbottom is at odds with the exact people paid to protect him: his family’s legal counsel. He is seeking to unlock his $50 million trust fund by his 30th birthday to advance his life’s mission: reinventing the trailer park into an anticapitalist retreat.

“I want to build a world where the priviledged learn what it is like to suffer with dignity,” he said.

A “trasher” since college, Mr. Riverbottom views his family’s fleet of private jets and yacht club memberships as an embarrassment to his sense of identity. Trashers, as they call themselves, are a loosely organized social movement that believe fundamental truths about capitalism can be gleaned from cultural motifs typically associated with the lower end of the working class, dismissively known as white trash.

In purchasing trailer parks to run as anti-capitalistic retreats, he plans to dismantle capitalism from the inside. The ultimate goal: to end income inequality in America.

Mr. Riverbottom’s grandfather co-founded the Energy Vikings International Limited Corporation. As one of only six heirs, he expects to receive more than $100 million by his 50th birthday. He exemplifies a seeming contradiction: a trust-fund kid and a trasher, situating him in a rare and coveted position among the wealthy in the fight against economic inequality. He describes his plight as “what it means to be with the masses, when you’re born better than the masses.”

“At a young age, I learned that wealth was my birthright,” he continues. His family has contributed to some of the most respected liberal social justice groups in the country, including the National Coalition for Illiterate Toddlers, the Center for Insecure Atheists with Religious-Based Names, and the Fight for a Sunny Tomorrow (which is a national leader in the crusade to end racial inequality amongst television meteorologists.)

“My inheritance has been held in real estate holdings all of my life. All land was once shared by native tribes, which means that my family’s wealth is derived from the murder of natives. If you think about it, my parents might as well have executed the tribes themselves with a machete. Owning real estate for the sole purpose to living in it is a crime against civilization.”

So, what does it take to embody the trasher spirit? Though perceptions of the movement vary, Mr. Riverbottom has taken a path widely embraced by his peers. He purchases a trailer park, preferably one nearby an international airport, and converts some of the vacant units into what he refers to as learning pods. There is a careful balance he is still trying to strike: “You want to keep actual white trash families in the park to keep it realistic, but obviously we need space for the learning to take place.” This learning is more of an unlearning to his socially-minded peers.

Upon arriving at one of of Mr. Riverbottom’s four parks, you will likely be greeted by the local residents, a mix of ex-convicts and single mothers toting crying babies on their hip. These are your neighbors, or “guides” as the retreat literature puts it. “They have no formal training, which is what makes them so important to the learning process for the guests,” Mr. Riverbottom explains. “None of our guests have ever met people who are so uninformed. It is a breath of fresh air for many though it can sometimes prove shocking.” In many cases, this reporter found that many of the guides also lacked a general formal education.

Stays at the parks range from one night to an entire year. “It really depends on how much you need to detoxify your relationship to materialism,” explains Mr. Riverbottom. “Some people can ground themselves within a week or two. I’d say that three months is the average, but I don’t want to discount the few who have taken the whole year. Sometimes, you just really need to get in the mud and do the deep work.”

Visitors can expect to engage in activities that include classes on moonshine production, shooting old cans with rifles, and DIY home maintenance. “At the end of your stay, we expect that you discover a different side to America. You’ll be more secure with yourself as you return to your everyday life." You will certainly get your hands dirty, as this reporter did in a mud-wrestling elective. And, hopefully, you will also get your mind a bit wiser.

Stays at the parks range from $300 to $500 per night. Discounts on longer-term bookings are negotiable. Classes are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.