The Wealthy Are Very Upset That People Are Angry. Oh, Stop Your Sobbing.
By Susie Madrak Saturday Oct 17, 2009 5:00pmDoes anything illustrate the bubble some people live in better than this New York Times column?
BEATING up on the wealthy seems to be the order of day. I suspected that. But a recent Wealth Matters column touched a particularly raw nerve. It looked at how even people with sizable fortunes were concerned about money in this recession and the impact that could have on the rest of us.
Readers rejected the attempt to understand the concerns of the rich.
“That’s so stupid that you ought to be slapped for it,” one woman wrote. My favorite began: “Bowties and Reaganomics are for losers. You can cry for the rich all you want, the rest of us will be happy to see them get taxed.”
The vehemence in these e-mail messages made me wonder why so many people were furious at those who had more than they did.
Uh, because we're paying for it when we're out of work and don't have affordable health care?
And why are the rich shouldering the blame for a collective run of bad decision-making? After all, many of the rich got there through hard work. And plenty of not-so-rich people bought homes, cars and electronics they could not afford and then defaulted on the debt, contributing to the crash last year.
"Collective run of bad decision-making"? Let's back up there a minute, pal. As anyone with half a brain knows (yes, even people who write for the New York Times), the financial services industry pushed our country over the economic brink through an assortment of unethical and illegal practices. Someone maxing out their Visa is not exactly in the same category; they merely bought the crack. Wall Street marketed and sold the crack. See the difference?
But in this recession, anger flows one way. Eric Dammann, a Manhattan psychoanalyst, theorizes that a lot of people are angry that the rules of the game seem to have changed.
“There’s always been envy and hatred toward the rich, but there was also a strong undercurrent of admiration that was holding these people up as a goal,” Mr. Dammann said. “This time it’s different because it feels like it’s a closed club and the rich have an unfair advantage.”
Gee, ya think? When corporate gains are privatized and losses are socialized, you think maybe the working people have finally had enough of picking up the slack? Can you say "market manipulation"? Can you say "front running"?
What is troubling is that the anger has hardened for some into a suspicion that all wealthy people are motivated purely by self-interest, said Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist in Hawaii and a co-author of the forthcoming book, “Mind Over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders That Threaten Our Financial Health” (Random House).
“The script goes like this: Money is bad, rich people are shallow and greedy, and people become rich by taking advantage of others,” Mr. Klontz said. “But the same people who say money is bad say money is connected to their self-worth — they wished they had it and you didn’t.”
Would you like me to explain the difference, Brad? People who have earned their money through providing a service or product, people who hire others and treat them fairly - we still admire those wealthy people. We'd like to be like them.
Wall St. traders - bloodsucking scum who, as Elizabeth Warren puts it, made their money through selling "tricks and traps" - tricks and traps that destroyed our economy and sent them running to Washington with their hands out - those wealthy people can kiss our collective grits.
Go read the rest. It's all about how "good" wealthy people are suffering by association, how they do their fair share, they fund scholarships, live "modest" lives...
Let's be blunt, shall we, Mr. and Mrs. Wealthy Person? You get hefty tax write-offs for those donations. Yes, you like the feeling of helping, but you really like the tax write-offs - and your pictures in the society pages. Wealthy people haven't been paying their fair share of taxes for a really long time, but like to think they're "giving back" quite enough through supporting charities. (Oh, and it's voluntary. Unlike the banking bailout the rest of us are paying for.)
You're not giving back anywhere near what you're taking. Seen the pictures on the news of Americans lining up like cattle for free health care? That's our reality. So if you really want to help, start lobbying to change the tax laws. Support real healthcare reform.
Because for some odd reason, they don't pay much attention to us.
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as I see it.
For years the Limbaughs,et al, have been telling us the Liberal Elite are evil because of this and that.
So,if the wealthy liberals, who actually give to the poor and working class,(in some degree), are bad, why would we assume that the greedy, shallow and self-interested conservatives wouldn't be.
This is what happens when you play games with words...they're real meaning is never really lost, and they come back to bite you, HARD, in the...um...nether regions.
Not crying one drop for the wealthy in our house, and we have some fairly wealthy relatives. (a few of whom are liberal.)
But Rush's audience understands "liberal elite" to mean "intellectual elite" and "Hollyweird." A liberal rich guy is, to them, a rare and shameful aberration.
It's understandable that many people look up to the wealthy and powerful. It's in their genes.
Most of us are descended from peasants who, if they didn't revere the Lord of the Land enough to work hard for his enrichment, got kicked off the land. Since humans can't fly, it was important to have a piece of earth to stand on.
Those who lacked enough hierarchy instinct to know their place didn't survive to become our ancestors.
I had hopes that the world had changed enough to allow us to evolve past the 'grateful peasant-boot licking' stage, but I guess it won't as long as sucking up is still the only way to survive.
The ONLY people who create true wealth are the WORKERS--not the rich. The rich are sociopathic parasites who exploit the workers and and steal their wealth.
It is time to end the rape of the workers and their families by the rich. Hopefully we can do it with ballots rather than bullets--but either way, we WILL do it.
They justify that they have worked hard and earned it because they are smarter..etc..
Some of them are definitely NOT smarter, only craftier and more willing to hurt people for self promotion.
This is not survival of the fittest, but survival of the most deceptive. The fittest are doing the day to day labor that makes the lives of the wealthy comfortable.
Sound a bit like communism? Maybe, but the truth of human nature is that the cunning and deceptive rise to the top, and the hard working work. Just because this is so, does not make it RIGHT. People who work hard SHOULD be rewarded, even if their jobs are menial and tiresome.
If the wealthy WON'T do it, then the society has to do it, or wealth is meaningless, because the workers can never progress and the wealthy never know what real work is.
Worked how? The rich these days get their money from playing with other people's money. That's not work, that's blood-sucking.
I implied that any of them worked. They think they work...doesn't mean they know what that word means.
I didn't mean you had said that. I was responding to your saying THEY thought that.
You don't think those insurance corporation CEO's have it hard having to call the Rates department and scream "Raise the rates!! Raise the rates!!"? And THEN having to call the claims department and scream "Deny the claims!! Deny the claims!!"? And THEN having to spend the afternoon playing golf with Senators and explaining to them why they MUST force all those without insurance to buy from them? Hell sometimes it's sooooo rough on them they have to take a month off on their yacht to sail down to the Caymans to count the money they're hiding from the IRS before they feel up to going back to the office for a day.
I've had the pleasure of working for a man who almost anyone here would call a capitalist pig. His politics are the opposite of anything espoused here. But he told me something that I think other wealthy people should believe. He said "Peter, never complain about paying taxes, because the more taxes you pay the more money you're making".
Supposedly the IRS's tax shelter amnesty program ended last thurs. it'll be nice if the shirkers pay up and continue to pay their share.
by family and freinds who most would consider the same. Not all people with wealth are scum..even when they are Republicans.
I think that this is why we should go at the ones who truly are greedy self serving bastards with the anti-American meme. Making money is not anti-American in any way. Not wanting to pay your taxes is.
Paying your taxes pays for all of the things that make it possible for them to make huge money in this country, like infrastructure upkeep, coastline protections, interstate commerce rules and police protection. I just wish that more politicians would frame it in that way, instead of the "cutting taxes is good" meme
we got along rather well without the income tax. When it was first implemented a paltry 1% of the country had to pay it. And now, someone who meets the definition of being in poverty, has to pay income tax.
The income tax is the same thing as feudalism, but wrapped in a "democracy" and "patriotic" phyllo dough. It's still feudalism, which is that your labor is ultimately owned in part by the lords. You are obligated to work, for nothing, now from January 1 well into May, in order to "earn your keep" in this country. Well, that's ridiculous.
We should have a national sales tax to pay for all of the things you're mentioned. Rather than an income tax. Food would be taxed lower or not at all. Restaurants would be taxed higher (it's a luxury). Boats, cars, houses, could be taxed progressively at higher rates based on their price.
Somehow, I find it pretty incredibly offensive that someone at or below the poverty line is paying even a dime of taxes. Talk about having a peasant class.
For all of time smart people have been rewarded and stupid people have not been. You're welcome to voluntarily assist morons and the weak who are so easily deceived into being made into consumer whores. That is the real deception, this idea that the American worker is so hard working compared to the Mexican, Indonesian, or Chinese, who will work harder for less.
There is no entitlement. For anyone. There is no magic sky goddess who is going to ensure those who work hard are rewarded. That simply isn't out it works, and it's laughable to say that's how it should work when it clearly doesn't work that way, never has worked that way, and would be the last jacked up incentive if things were to work that way.
Fact is, true wealth has never been made without innovation. It's not merely about labor, or merely about innovation. But without innovation, the largest working class on the planet still lives in abject poverty compared to Americans.
I prefer to call it what is really is...slavery. I heard a great analogy on one the Sunday Chats shows today. The U.S. economy can be described as follows: People are paid with 1968 Dollars that are being spent in a market place that's being run likes it's 1982 in a 21st century world. Thought that was quite clever. The shit will really hit the fan when the Bush Tax Cuts expire, which will be very soon I think. That's when the tears and anger will really start. I read somewhere awhile back that our economy has reached if not surpassed the magic 70% mark. Which is to say that the gap between the most wealthy and the most poor has reached 70%. Apparently that has only happened in the 'civilized' world, since people started keeping records, as many times as you can count on one hand. When that happens one or both of two things occur. Total economic melt down and mass revolt. I would prefer ballots and not bullets.
"Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this, this is working very well for them,"
It has always been a fight between the haves and the have nots- pick your targets well!
Babs...Queen of the Bushes..
Look up "tone-dear" in the dictionary, and you'll see that jackass's face next to the definition.
What a pile of self-serving horseshit.
You know, during World War II, the tax rates for the top rich in this country was between 88 and 94 percent. And they whine about their situation now? The rich have NEVER had it so good as they have it now. I say we should jack their taxes up to above 80%. Nobody needs ten houses and fifteen limousines and five yachts.
FUCK 'EM.
When there tax rate were that high the the tax system worked before the bullshit that is trickle down and government is the problem. 1980 it was 70%.
buy into the tax cuts (for the already-rich, not you, dumbfucks!) professed by their "heroes."
St. Ronnie sure put paid to THAT, didn't he?
I swear, if I had a time travel machine and a nice big vial of arsenic, what fun I'd have...
We need 94% marginal tax rates again; plus a wealth tax!
Tax the rich bastards until they soil themselves! They didn't have any problem STEALING 26% of all wealth in this country since the psychotic republicans took over! Obama should start every policy announcement with "we could tax the rich."
They have been selling this tax cut bullshit for decades. I get a couple of bucks, and the Bush family crime syndicate gets a $100,000,000 in tax cuts. Great tax system.
If you haven't heard of Brooksley Born, do yourself a favor and catch FRONTLINE on PBS Tuesday night.
Who is Brooksley Born?
She's the woman who warned Wall Street of the catastrophe we're experiencing now ten years ago! She just received the John F. Kennedy Profiles In Courage award because she went toe-to-toe with the most powerful financial forces in this country in her effort to rein in the excesses of the rich.
She deserves our thanks and she's a shining example of why we must finally make real change in this country.
Find the writer and bludgen them with a gold brick "you like wealth so much here here here". Where would I get a gold brick I have no idea and I wouldn't really do such a thing.
Seriosuly this is the idea that's the problem that rich people suffer when they lose 20% or less of there wealth the truth is they don't. Boo hoo the top 5% lost a lost of there fake only on paper wealth.
*As the inimitable Ian Welsh put it, the class war has already been lost. Any analysis of the economy since 1980 illustrates that we're all working harder, making a bit less, and all the wealth we produce is being hoarded by the uber-rich.
There is one inevitable outcome to this situation, and the rich can try to distract us with shiny wars and race-baiting, but in the end this wealth WILL redistribute itself. The question is only a matter of how that balance is achieved, and if the uber-rich have ANY sense of history, they won't want to be on the wrong side of that equation when the final sum is calculated.
But then these are the people who only a couple of years ago were telling us that the business cycle was over, and the era of endless prosperity had arrived, so clearly their capacity for self-deception is quite profound.
Thank for the link. The article is good, the facts are bad for us.
I would like to see other things charted out.
The lower tiers, who saw wage stagnation since '82 made up for it with debt, credit card debt.
Since '95 there has an illusory wealth effect from the bubble in housing prices which now have come crashing back to earth.
The quibble I have with Ian Welsh is the credit he gives Reagan for taming inflation in the '80s. That was Paul Volcker who was Carter's pick. He did what he had to do which was immediately ramp interest rates to 20%. That eventually did tame inflation because it induced a recession. Reagan is often blamed for the recession, he shouldn't be. Neither should he get any credit for taming inflation, or anything else, IMHO.
After Volcker tamed inflation Reagan thanked him by replacing him with the Libertarian bubble master Alan Greenspan who is the single leading candidate for blame of our problems today.
The question today, for me is not one of wealth, per se, but crimes committed in getting that wealth.
More than a few of the Bankers engaged in fraudulent activity and instead of investigating and prosecuting them, we hand over trillions of our future tax dollars.
Very little of this will be returned, but it will be payed for.
This is a financial coup d'etat.
Paulson the Plunderer, before the election, was on the phone more to Obama and Geithner than to Bush and McCain.
All three concurred with the bailouts but they belong to Obama now.
...bubble master Alan Greenspan who is the single leading candidate for blame of our problems today.
Indeed. Yet his opinion is still sought by the Sunday morning 'heads. Mofu belongs in jail, not in front of a camera.
Try a LOT less. My pay rates have plummeted. That is, when I get to work at all. And I know a lot of people who have lost their jobs. Their pay rates...well, you get the idea.
The descent backwards into serfdom is complete.
We see serfs, calling themselves teabaggers, happy to defend the aristocracy.
Perhaps there are still a few crumbs that might trickle down from the sumptuous feast above if they get down on their knees and perform their under the table duties well.
Suck up, teabaggers. The party is just about over.
as American corporations started to export labor. What happened is, the American worker lost their virtual oligopoly status (a limited number of sellers of labor).
This was a good deal for the corporation and its shareholders, as they were able to sell at domestic prices but pay foreign cheaper labor. And the fact is, Democrats really didn't put up much of a fuss over this, so you guys can't blame this all on Republicans and corporations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8EZW7-NSNI
Motorhead-- "Eat the Rich"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h45WnW0ASFY&fe...
Omar and the Howlers-- "Hard Times in the Land of Plenty"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd9YpIm6zdY
At least we get the original lineup complete with James Honeyman Scott and Pete Farndon.
Envy of the rich is understandable and obvious, but its always been mitigated by that one strong American offering: Opportunity.
But after the events of the last 2 years with the economy, the causes, the government response and the consequences, the great masses who contented themselves with the hope of opportunity are now understanding that the game is rigged.
Millions of homeowners are at risk of losing their homes. That loss threatens the great financial underpinnings of society. What does the govt do? Giant no-strings-attached cash giveaways to industry... and people still lose their homes.
What's to wonder?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIZIBm2QGaM&fe...
How about the fact that a very high percentage of the rich voted for and cheerleaded for George W. Bush for the 8 years he ran this country into the ditch. They cheerleaded for the 2 wars Bush started yet refused to pay anything to help out the war effort. In fact instead of paying their fair share they got huge tax cuts while the rest of us middle class slobs picked up the slack left by their lack of participation. So yes, tax the hell out of them! It's time to pay the check.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn4daYJzyls
I'll provide the wooden pikes, which you buy from me.
You provide the heads.
I won't overcharge you because I won't want my head on the sharp end of my own product.
All kidding aside, if I have to read one more article about 'the now slightly less rich,' and how they can't afford the upkeep on their 5th estate, and have to let the hired help go, I'll come to the NY Times with a pike for that editors head.
Hey editors, just 'cause your reporter's a fucking idiot, doesn't mean you have to print it. Remember, moron's, YOU EDIT. That doesn't mean just telling them to put a comma in there somewhere. I means asking your reporter WTF are you thinking by writing that?
I got booted from a $60,000 job a year ago, and, after eating what was left of my entire 401k plan, I just got a monotonous telemarketing job for $10 an hour, which, with my leg, I'm lucky to get. No health care, of course...
So, you'll pardon me if I don't exactly cry me a fucking river over these VULTURE CAPITALISTS!
Fuck them!!!
I won't kill 'em.
But I wouldn't piss on them even if they were on fire right there in front of me.
I recommend having them medium-rare, with a fine Chianti, and some Faaaava beans...
And, as for "Lady's Fingers," wouldn't you the real thing? I know I would... YUUMMMMM!!!
If you've worked for what you got, FINE! Good on ya!
If however you've gotten what you've gotten specifically at the expense of others, or if you've inherited your wealth AND you act like you deserve it or that you've earned it, then no sympathy for you, and you should suffer at the very least the hardships you've helped create with your, 'devil take the hindmost' attitude.
one uses to grow wealthy or more comfortable is fine and of course, the easiest way to amass a fortune is to have it bestowed on you by your mommy or daddy; just don't confuse your good luck with brilliance.
So where, exactly, is the anger Susie Madrak must have for Obama and Geithner? Because they have done jack squat to reform the financial services industry. Regulation only plugs holes already formed, it doesn't plug new holes that are innovated. Finance is one of the most highly regulated industries and still all of this happened, and could still happen yet again
Madrak throws out the baby with the bathwater. There were very specific financial instruments that were the source of our economic problems, and a minority of Wall St traders were involved in such esoteric assets, and speculation on them.
If the no-so-rich people who defaulted on debt are crack addicts, as Madrak asserts, then an intervention is needed to send them to rehab, every bit as much as we need to break up the drug cartel.
You missed the point: They went in debt because with stagnant and reduced wages over 30 years, it was the only way the American worker could keep up with the cost of living.
The rich and their CEO's took all of the money we produced, and let us go into debt at 30% interest to them, so that we could still have the "illusion" that we were doing fine.
But that wasn't enough. After stacking the deck against us peons, they sent our jobs oversea's, making it impossible for us to feed their ponzi scheme any longer. So, the politician's stepped up to the plate for the rich, and made us unemployed peons bail them out - just so they could continue to stay rich at our expense.
Maybe the republicrat's can sell our children into slavery? They might as well sacrifice them to the rich, they have sacrificed everything else WE once had.
The American worker you speak of isn't the one who went into such deep debt they couldn't get out of it. Isn't the sort of person the original article was even talking about. Let's try to stay on topic. The person being talked about is the one who had a nice cushy job, bought a WAY WAY bigger house than they should have gotten, paid WAY more money than they should have because they bought at the top of an obvious bubble market, and were roped into ARM loans to get that big fat house they NEVER would have qualified for 20 years ago.
So the drug dealers got more aggressive. But the drug addicts came out of the wood work. I do not have sympathy of either of them. They deserve each other. As a society, our job is not to take care of the marginally competent at either end, but to maintain a functional society for most people. Most people are hard working, honest, and don't spend what they can't afford. The solution is to tax the wealthiest connivers and cut off the defaulters. Let them declare bankruptcy, that's the system. No bailouts at EITHER end.
Although there are plenty of the people that YOU describe above, there are also plenty who did get into debt because we couldn't afford to life the same lifestyle we had...as working class people.
My husband and I live in our means as much as we can. We have never bought above our means, but in 2005 we needed a new car that was serviceable and dependable. This was after 16 years of marriage and never having a new car, only beaters that would be stop gap until the next car was needed.
We got a good deal on a slightly used fleet car, and took out a loan.
Then we had 4 deaths in the family that meant we had to travel for the funerals. We put those travels on credit cards, because we didn't have the cash.
In 2007(the second summer of $4 a gallon gas.) my husband and 2 youngest kids were in a car accident that was not my husband's fault. Hit from behind while sitting at a red light. Driver was helping his elderly wife re-attatch an oxygen hose, and didn't see the red light. Our primary doctor would not see any of them after the accident because of secondary insurance being involved. (we have found a new doctor.) Our primary insurance would not pay for any of the doctor's visits we were able to obtain after, because of the nature of the accident.
We have never lived beyond our means, but we have a blended family of 7 kids. We both have jobs. We are what used to be middle class. We haven't just had a run of bad luck or indiscriminate spending. We have been nickeled and dimed to death by power structure in this country, and we simply can not live on what used to support us fairly well. We are not the only ones out there with this problem, and we aren't anywhere near the worst affected, because we currently have jobs.
50 years ago, let alone 1000 years ago, we never would have spent the kinds of resources on the DEAD as we do today. And here you're exemplifying what an insane burden it is financially, to actually go into debt, to see some dead person put into the ground (or whatever).
It's clearly a function of how we have this biological sentimentality for our family members (who are alive, who cares about the dead person), and yet in a modern world where it's possible for that family to live very far apart. And because we have the seemingly simple ability to all get together, we do so, even though it's a funeral, rather than a family reunion when people could plan for it better. Instead of expensive last minute travel with insanely high "bereavement" fares.
I have a simple solution. Carrion. Feed the body to the birds. Or heck throw it out in the desert if you might want to keep it for a while. To each his own. But I have a very strict policy. One funeral every two years. If someone else dies, tough shit. I'm not going to their funeral, unless they're close.
Two were siblings..one a parent...
We drove.
You seem to know a lot about....nothing.
Wish we could all be a smart and unemotional as you are...then the world would be perfect.
but 300 years ago, it would have taken 3 weeks to learn they had even died. no funeral to even go to.
we go to funerals today because a.) we can, and b.) because it's become culturally obligatory. If you don't participate, you're obviously just a smart unemotional person who doesn't care about anyone but themselves.
What we spend on the dead, dying, and death in this country is appalling, but totally in line with all of the other resources we waste compared to other countries.
It sounds like you have a black hole where your heart should be, pal.
Kinda hard to stop your sobbing when:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLQ3i_XQXsw
I've always wondered what that third album would have been like with Jimmy Scott's involvement.
the wealthy are twice as smart as the sheep
look at history they always have been and will continue to be
few americans understand there is always a class warfare occuring
roosevelt knew this obama does not
reagan knew this and brought us reagan economics and the middle class lined up to vote for him
reagan told them what they wanted to hear
now they whine
capitalism: the rich get richer and the middle class gets down graded to lower class and two low paying service jobs
aint reagan great so glad we voted him into office
I tried to tell americans what would occur but they were too busy cheering the downfall of communism
but we still have an enemy always will have an enemy to fight.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
and guess who fights these wars for profits for the rich??????????
the lower and middle class
Good post researcher , exactly . The war on the middle and lower class is blatant and out in the open now , people in this country are so dumb these days that there is no need to be slick and clever about it any more , just tell em some lies and keep repeating the lies , they'll believe and follow like sheep as you rob them blind .
Reagan was elected the first time. I remember a respected teacher trying to explain to us what was happening to the school because we were losing funding for low income lunches, and for arts programs, etc.
Our teachers had just been on strike for an extended period the year before, and I had made up for some of the classes we missed by going to summer school.
In 1981, I decided to skip my senior year and join Job Corps, where I could get my GED and go to College before I would have finished my junior year. I started college in August, and at the end of September the Reagan administration cut the Job Corps college program, siting a need for more of Job Corps money to be put into training for "jobs that under-priveleged kids can realistically obtain." (I still have the letter.)
For the record, my major was Journalism. The three kids who had to leave school with me were trying for a degree in Business. We all went back to Job Corps, and joined the BRAC program, a program in conjunction with the railroads, that trained smart kids for high paying railroad jobs.
The year I was supposed to finish my time at BRAC, Reagan deregulated the railroads, and the Frisco, Katy and Santa Fe railroads,(our benefactors) would be bought out within a year. They saw the writing on the wall and abandoned the BRAC program, because they needed the money to stave off hostile takeovers from bigger rail roads.
The writing has been on the wall all along, there have been those who have chosen to ignore it. I can not tell you the things I was told by family and friends when I used to assail the "intelligence" of St. Ronnie.
I was young, and they were old and knew better. I railed at the things I saw being done to education and training in this country, and was told that I just didn't understand because of my youth, and personal loses. I have, in the past 5 years or so, had some of those who used to pooh pooh me, come around and say, "You were right". I have to tell you that I get NO sense of satisfaction from that. In fact, there are times when it only feels like salt in the old wounds.
roosevelt knew the mind set of the wealthy
obama does not
roosevelt came from wealth he understood that mindset
obama wants to appease the rich while they continue to rob the middle class blind
one only has to look at wall street and banks and insurance to see this robbery happening right before our eyes
gov even using printed and borrowed money to keep the rich richer. that is knowledge of the masses as sheep.
listen to roosevelts 1936 speech in the garden and you will understand what roosevelt knew who the enemy was to the middle class
I knew dutch reagan and he hated unions and the middle class, ge made him their mouth piece
he put wall street in charge and corp america and the rest is history
history shows that the masses have always been like sheep among wolves
the masses rather than see they must accept this class warfare for what it is they elect a person that gives them hope
the saviour image
well he is rewarding wall street and corp america like the rest
even profits mega profits and bonuses off the sick and needy, 700 million to one CEO in five years off the sick and needy, that is power profound power.
that is power when you can do that to the masses while many work two jobs to make ends meet.
politicans know who butters their bread come election time
money wins elections and corp america has the money
the good news capitalism has to self destruct
the bad news it will leave america as third world status and unstable
without massive borrowed and printed money we would be near third world status now.
The truly hateful thing about the mega-rich is their use of their ill gotten gains. They buy the media and the advertisers to turn the ill informed rabble into sheeple. Then they buy elections based on their deception, and get the Boners, LIEbermen, Nelsons, and various other sellouts to further rob the poor to pay the rich, and use their money to lie in ways that make the sheeple vote against the sheeple's best interests. It wouldn't offend me so much if they just spent the money on the yachts and homes. They spend it accumulating a bigger portion of the pie.
Comment from my boss, who inherited his business from his dad, a lazy bum, and his mama, who worked herself into an early grave:
Working people need to start understanding that the job they have may be the last job they'll ever be able to get. This, of course, while watching Glenn Beck.
The rich do pay attention to the working folks. They ridicule our consumption patterns, our bluntness as "low breeding", and our looks, since they hire and promote for beauty.
They'd better be paying attention to Glenn Beck, whether they love or hate him. The Obama admins who admire Mao Zedong did not have to live through the years of the Cultural Revolution. The peasantry who were derided as tacky and low-bred gave Rico Suave, his minions, and the Chiang administration's flunkies hell times three, of the type they'd always had to endure. Let Beck howl and cry. We should be pointing out to the rich that they'd better cut the workers in on a bigger piece of the productivity pie, or they will be losing the entire bakery.
..."Collective run of bad decision-making"? Let's back up there a minute, pal. As anyone with half a brain knows (yes, even people who write for the New York Times), the financial services industry pushed our country over the economic brink through an assortment of unethical and illegal practices. Someone maxing out their Visa is not exactly in the same category; they merely bought the crack. Wall Street marketed and sold the crack. See the difference? ...
...Would you like me to explain the difference, Brad? People who have earned their money through providing a service or product, people who hire others and treat them fairly - we still admire those wealthy people. We'd like to be like them.
Wall St. traders - bloodsucking scum who, as Elizabeth Warren puts it, made their money through selling "tricks and traps" - tricks and traps that destroyed our economy and sent them running to Washington with their hands out - those wealthy people can kiss our collective grits.
(And who gets not only the tax cuts but the bailouts?)
being pissed this much at the wealthy, even if they're crooks, when they don't have this kind of anger for their elected officials. Most all of the problems with corporate greed is the result of corporate lobbyists and lawyers writing the bills that favor their interests and giving them over to senators who make them into law. Most law isn't even written by Congress critters. It's written by industry lobbyists with some markups occurring by staff and other lobbyists.
yet people are somehow happier being pissed at rich people.
...control the lobbyists and politicians. Want to end their dictatorship? End the rich. End capitalism.
Have any of you ever had your rich employer and their rich executives -- who got rich and are getting richer from your labor -- tell you about or show you your "invisible paycheck"?
The Invisible Paycheck is HR-speak for the per-employee cost that your employer pays & tracks for employer-side payments to your Social Security contribution, health care contribution, etc. When this information is shared with you, you're supposed to feel grateful for your employer's magnanimity -- while ignoring that your flat-to-falling wages are why your employer and his/her executives can now make 400+ times your wages.
It's time employees turned the tables. Employees should start informing their employers of their Visible Subsidy and get a tax write-off for it (equal in amount to the calculated difference between your total compensation + benefits and that of the top executive).
I do mean "Visible" Subsidy and not "invisible" because of the visible quality-of-life difference it makes in a woman's or man's life to be paid pauper wages: when that means you brown-bag your lunch instead of going to a restaurant every day; when that means you have to take the bus to work or that you drive a '90 Chevy Malibu to work instead of a Porsche Carrera; when that means you don't earn enough to live in a neighborhood with good public schools to provide your kids the same educational (and thus life) opportunities as your bosses' kids; when that means you can only afford to live in a high-crime neighborhood instead of in a guard-gated-golf-course community; when that means you don't earn enough to afford a health plan, or to buy the health plan your bosses purchase -- and often the bosses have a completely different set of superior health plans.
I could go on, but you get the picture.
Had that happen at the end of last quarter. They sent us our year end benefits package round up letter on slick paper, in full color. And then the CEO of our company, (major drugstore) was given a raise from $950,000 a year. to 1.2 mil. AND a bonus package that is tied to the stock performance of 1.2 mil a year..minimum...with increases based on the percentage of increase in our stock. It went from $23 a share in January to closing at $39 a share on Friday. I've already done the math, and we are facing "restructuring" which has already meant that some long time employees have taken job redefinition, complete with hour and pay cuts.
Yeah.
and the horse&*# lie that if you work hard, then you'll also make it big, just like your company's CEO. Moore is spot-on. Some of the CEOs (especially in big companies) have had favored status from an early age: their parents were either high-earners or alumni of exclusive universities, which got the kids a superior pedigree educationally and that distinction, and/or the wealth-network, then opened the doors to upper management. So the rich get richer. Some of the CEOs have worked their way up, but the long climb and the scars they earned have made them greedy and insensate.
The Visible Subsidy takes its toll on every worker who busts her/his ass to keep someone else in clover.
Every person who spends hours per day commuting to a job that the person knows is subsidizing an elite set's luxe lifestyle should think about the Visible Subsidy and how it has affected the person's family life. In fact the Visible Subsidy is often the reason for the long commute, because we live in places affordable-to-paycheck that often are far from our jobs.
Courtesy of Monty Python:
Voice Over (and CAPTION:)
'THERE NOW FOLLOWS AN APPEAL ON BEHALF OF EXTREMELY RICH PEOPLE WHO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG WITH THEM'
Sir Pratt: (at a large leather-topped desk with an elaborate table lamp) Hello. I'd like to talk to you tonight about a minority group of people who have no mental or physical handicaps and, who, through no fault of their own, have never been deprived, and consequently are forced to live in conditions of extreme luxury. This often ignored minority, is very rarely brought to the attention of the general public. The average man in the street scarcely gives a second thought to these extremely well-off people. He, quite simply, fails to appreciate the pressures vast quantities of money just do not bring. Have you at home, ever had to cope with this problem... (cut to a rich young yachting type surrounded by girls in bikinis) or this... (cut to a rich woman loading her chauffeur with all kinds of expensive parcels) or even this... (cut to a still of Centre Point) I know it's only human to say, 'Oh this will never happen to me', and of course, it won't. I'm asking you, please, please, send no contributions, however large, to me.
"Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist in Hawaii..."
What the fuck?? This guy makes a living assuaging the petty guilt feelings of trust fund babies and Wall Street parasites? Oh boo fuckin' hoo! You feel guilty because you're sitting on a pile of money you didn't earn while people litterally die from no health insurance,and end up homeless because the mortgage they were sold was nothing but a mass of legal bullshit and fine print? Good! I hope these pricks never get a decent night's sleep. In fact, let em all go munch on a 12 gauge.
The NY Times article says, "...the risk is creating a generation that distrusts investing and associates wealth with greed".
No S c h i t t ! Isn't greed what we have been looking at the past 8 or more years with the Cheney presidency showing just how brazen they can be in their greedy search for more, more, more?
I'm not angry at anyone being rich. I am angry at the unadulterated greed and the sorryass Congress that allows these thugs to continue their rip off of the working people in this country. I am angry that our law makers(Breakers) allow the jobs to leave the country, all to benefit the greed mongers.
Force those greedy bastards to bring the jobs back to this country and watch the recovery. We are tired of buying cheap, Chinese made crap that among other things, is poisoning a lot of us.
I truly feel absolutely horrible for the people who, when facing their worst time, might have to downgrade and buy the modest apartment I rent right now, after I have been kicked out after losing a job which currently leaves me with no savings at the moment.
Newsflash to stupid NYT editor. I have no problems with the rich. But, when such people try and pretend that they have it just as bad as someone in my own circumstances, it's hard for me not to loathe such a person as it shows a ridiculous amount of ignorance and disrespect when it comes to people like me. My best bailout is temporary unemployment assistance checks, where if I don't have a new job by the time it runs out, homelessness becomes a much more realistic prospect, or sharing a house with 7 people in sections of cities that are decaying and unsafe with Ramen Noodles most likely becoming a twice a day meal, which simply isn't part of the equation for people with million dollar homes.
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