A wave of privatization of public lands in the high country is being driven by foreign investors. “The capital gain over a decade was roughly 37,000 per cent, none of which was realized by the taxpayer, and has ultimately put a prime piece of land into the private ownership of an America-based billionaire while the public is confined to a thin strip of land circling around it. And because capital gains from property are not generally taxed, the taxpayer sees very little of the money that accumulates like a snowball as the value of magnificent land rises and rises—land it once owned.”