The Pathology of the Rich: Disposable Citizens

[occupied]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

 

[tinydancer]

Middle class demand creates jobs, something the ultra rich find more profitable for them to create in places like Brazil and China and India.

There is truth to that, George. But to carry that discussion further, we would have to talk about unions and how they initially drove the manufacturing base to other countries.

I'm willing to concede how rich corrupt union management sold out US workers during the Cold War, but when we discuss other countries we should also consider German labor unions which had voting members sitting on the boards of directors of the corporations they worked for. When ultra-rich Germans suggested moving "their" factories to China, German Democracy said "No!"

Then what happened?

 

[deltex1]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

I could treat you like trash without a dime in my pocket.

 

[tinydancer]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

What a fool you are.

 

[Meister]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

If the rich treat you like worthless trash, there is no doubt in my mind that you gave them plenty of ammunition.

 

[georgephillip]

Its NOT THE RICH who are screwing over us and our nation.

It is a very select group of people (some very wealthy, of course,) and their TOOLS in GOVERNMENT who are responsible for our current state of affairs.

A curse on the leaders of OWS for turning what should have been public examination of the specific crimes of SELECT GROUP OF BANKSTERS into a CLASS WAR against the "1%".

Would you agree with Hedges that greed is responsible for our current state of affairs, and that we need to rediscover the language of class warfare?

"HEDGES: Because we don't understand the pathology of the rich. We've been saturated with cultural images and a kind of cultural deification of wealth and those who have wealth.

"We are being--you know, they present people of immense wealth as somehow leaders--oracles, even.

"And we don't grasp internally what it is an oligarchic class is finally about or how venal and morally bankrupt they are.

"We need to recover the language of class warfare and grasp what is happening to us, and we need to shatter this self-delusion that somehow if, as Obama says, we work hard enough and study hard enough, we can be one of them.

"The fact is, the people who created the economic mess that we're in were the best-educated people in the country--Larry Summers, a former president of Harvard, and others.

"The issue is not education.

"The issue is greed."

The Pathology of the Rich - Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1

 

[OODA_Loop]

Would you agree with Hedges that greed is responsible for our current state of affairs, and that we need to rediscover the language of class warfare?

It is being done now and been done forever under various facades.

Hasn't worked yet

Reality is others are more successful, wealthy, _______ than you.

Maximize your potential rather than blaming others.

 

[tinydancer]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

If the rich treat you like worthless trash, there is no doubt in my mind that you gave them plenty of ammunition.

I can tell you honestly I have hung out with the best of the best, the richest, the biggest stars in my old days.

Burton Cummings playing on a piano not just any piano whilst someone asked me if I wanted any coke and as I replied "why would I want coke, I'm drinking champagne" YES I WAS THAT STUPID, but I've been there.

Maybe one in a million quizzillion treated staff like crap, but I can say to this day not that I saw or not that did it. And that bullshit got knocked out of the park on the spot.

 

[Katzndogz]

Poverty is relative so we will always have the poor with us. Our poor are wildly wealthy compared to the poor of the world. The poor in many countries have to live under grinding labor. They find the American poor with the attitude of "demand and it will be given to you" stupefying!

Robert Malthus in his Essay on Population said that the poor will continue to outmaneuver any attempt to improve their condition. Therefore it is futile to pay the poor money in an effort to move them out of poverty because they will always take some action that would keep them in their poverty condition. Something also voiced by Benjamin Franklin a hundred or so years earlier. Something proved today with the lottery system that bestows great wealth on the poorest or those not so poor. A homeless man spending a dollar can win hundreds of millions. In a year, he will be homeless once again.

Socially, of course the rich are world's different than the poor. Of course they have a snobbish disdain for them. The poor are raised in a world devoid of the same social graces and constructs. The rich feel an obligation to philanthropy for the poor. The poor feel an obligation to prey upon their fellow poor, steal from them, kill them, do whatever they wish to them. Humanity to the poor are merely objects of sport to be hunted and trophies taken.

I have never met a rich person that was cruel or unkind. I have never met a rich person that was anything other than extremely gracious. BUT, I have absolutely met celebrities that seemed to take delight in being exceptionally cruel and unkind.

I have friends that are very rich. They live in a concierged, guarded, high rise luxury apartment building where everything is done for them by an army of workers dedicated to nothing but their comfort. Sofia Vergara is a neighbor. I saw her in the lobby screaming and swearing at the workers because the valet wasn't fast enough in bringing her car around. She was speaking to these people like they were dirt. Her celebrity gave her license, not her wealth. I commented to the concierge about this crass display to which the concierge replied "She's always like this".

 

[Katzndogz]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

I could treat you like trash without a dime in my pocket.

There are people who deserve to be treated like trash! It doesn't matter how much money they have or don't have.

 

[occupied]

Does anyone here doubt that billionaires control the bulk of economic activity in the world?
Does anyone here doubt that money equals power?
Does anyone here think the most powerful people in the world are responsibly using their power?
Why does anyone here still defend them when they do not need or even want your advocacy and can ruin you with little thought and there is nothing you can do about it?

Tyranny comes from more than just governments, quit defending it when it is in the form of a rich bastard cashing in at your expense just because he does not think his gigantic pile of cash is quite big enough.

 

[georgephillip]

"'The rich are different from us,' F. Scott Fitzgerald is said to have remarked to Ernest Hemingway, to which Hemingway allegedly replied, 'Yes, they have more money.'”

"The exchange, although it never actually took place, sums up a wisdom Fitzgerald had that eluded Hemingway.

"The rich are different.

"The cocoon of wealth and privilege permits the rich to turn those around them into compliant workers, hangers-on, servants, flatterers and sycophants. Wealth breeds, as Fitzgerald illustrated in 'The Great Gatsby' and his short story 'The Rich Boy,' a class of people for whom human beings are disposable commodities.

"Colleagues, associates, employees, kitchen staff, servants, gardeners, tutors, personal trainers, even friends and family, bend to the whims of the wealthy or disappear.

"Once oligarchs achieve unchecked economic and political power, as they have in the United States, the citizens too become disposable."

Like Fitzgerald, Chris Hedges spent his early years among the rich and famous. At age 10 Chris earned a scholarship to an exclusive New England boarding school, and he spent some of his vacation time in the homes of his classmates:

"I spent time in the homes of the ultra-rich and powerful, watching my classmates, who were children, callously order around men and women who worked as their chauffeurs, cooks, nannies and servants.

"When the sons and daughters of the rich get into serious trouble there are always lawyers, publicists and political personages to protect them—George W. Bush’s life is a case study in the insidious affirmative action for the rich.

"The rich have a snobbish disdain for the poor—despite well-publicized acts of philanthropy—and the middle class.

"These lower classes are viewed as uncouth parasites, annoyances that have to be endured, at times placated and always controlled in the quest to amass more power and money."

Chris Hedges: Let?s Get This Class War Started - Chris Hedges - Truthdig

"The inability to grasp the pathology of our oligarchic rulers is one of our gravest faults."

When I was poor (and I was from a good family of means but struck out on my own because that was expected of me) I had two very wealthy and powerful women blessedly come into my life.

They never looked down on me.

Unless you're a canuck you won't know one. A Ridgepath. Maybe some of you will know the other. Sylvia Tyson.

Neither ever treated me like I was a slave or a servant as we worked together. And they both brought me into their worlds. And they raised me up. Both and we are talking richie rich here women made me not only equal but surpassing themselves. And they loved it.

I'm getting sick of these stories of "rich" being cruel and horrendous to others.


"When the sons and daughters of the rich get into serious trouble there are always lawyers, publicists and political personages to protect them—George W. Bush’s life is a case study in the insidious affirmative action for the rich.

I am glad for the OP.

I'm going to spend the rest of the weekend finding out every thing I can about this asshole (Chris Hedges) because I can truly say I never met in all my travels and life journeys a wealthy person that was cruel and unkind.

I've just not met them.

I suggest you start you research with Aristotle:

"The rise of an oligarchic state offers a nation two routes, according to Aristotle.

"The impoverished masses either revolt to rectify the imbalance of wealth and power or the oligarchs establish a brutal tyranny to keep the masses forcibly enslaved.

"We have chosen the second of Aristotle’s options.

"The slow advances we made in the early 20th century through unions, government regulation, the New Deal, the courts, an alternative press and mass movements have been reversed.

"The oligarchs are turning us—as they did in the 19th century steel and textile factories—into disposable human beings.

"They are building the most pervasive security and surveillance apparatus in human history to keep us submissive."

Chris Hedges: Let?s Get This Class War Started - Chris Hedges - Truthdig

You may or may not have ever known a ruthless rich person; however, there's no shortage of empirical evidence to prove their existence.

 

[Katzndogz]

As if the poor aren't ruthless.

 

[Vox]

so one of the kicked out from the circle still holds his grudges and can let go?

oh, what a revelation.

Chris, grow up. The amount of money does not make you happy. or mature

 

[Vox]

As if the poor aren't ruthless.

much more, for that matter, because of many factors involved.

 

[Vox]

I have friends that are very rich. They live in a concierged, guarded, high rise luxury apartment building where everything is done for them by an army of workers dedicated to nothing but their comfort. Sofia Vergara is a neighbor. I saw her in the lobby screaming and swearing at the workers because the valet wasn't fast enough in bringing her car around. She was speaking to these people like they were dirt. Her celebrity gave her license, not her wealth. I commented to the concierge about this crass display to which the concierge replied "She's always like this".

She is an example of what is called "from the dirt to the knights"
she will always be DIRT, no matter how much gold is dripping around.

as happens with many not very bright people who are propelled to the fame and money almost overnight - they really think they are better than those they scream at.

 

[occupied]

As if the poor aren't ruthless.

much more, for that matter, because of many factors involved.

They are also far more generous with each other than you would think possible with their limited resources. Matters of bare survival are somewhat removed from questions of morality, many simply do not have the luxury to think about such things because an empty belly makes up a person's mind for them pretty quick.

 

[georgephillip]

Once upon a time there was a man called Joseph Kennedy Senior. A flawed man. A sinful man.

But he gave America gifts in two of his sons.

One was a good child who loved his land and wanted every one to succeed.

One child was torn between his two brothers. But had great promise. Sadly he could not fulfill his destiny.

The son left could never fill the shoes of his older brothers He became a liberal. And gave America a legacy of hell.

Karl Marx wrote "(t)he ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships..." do you think it's likely the Kennedy family embraced that notion any less than the Bush family did?

"The fact is, if you're poor, you only get one chance. If you're wealthy like Bush, you get chance after chance after chance after chance. So you're a C student at Andover, and you go to Yale, and you go to Harvard Business School, and you're AWOL from your National Guard unit, and you're a cokehead, and it doesn't really matter. You don't even really have a job till you're 40 and you become president of the United States."

The Pathology of the Rich - Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1

"The fact is, if you're poor, you only get one chance

Bullshit. Big time bullshit.

I've had so many lives. I'm like Lazarus or Freddie. I keep coming back. That's my nature. And my nature is to be a winner at whatever I do.

It's called spirit. And wanting to be the best you can be. Now I hit the top. That's me.I rocked.

So do others.

Someone though might be out there tonight being a good waitress, just doing her job but being extra special nice to the poor mom with three kids coming home from dad's place.

With all the kids saying "Daddy gives us this".

And the waitress without adding it to the bill gives all the kids and the mom the pumpkin pie saying "you won today; you're our winner".

You see? You never just get one chance. Every minute you breathe is a new chance. Every day is a new chance.

This is the difference between a progressive than me. I keep breathing. And I believe in tomorrow.

Why? Because it's a new chance.

Do you believe Dubya would have been elected president if he had not been born rich?

"The fact is, if you're poor, you only get one chance. If you're wealthy like Bush, you get chance after chance after chance after chance. So you're a C student at Andover, and you go to Yale, and you go to Harvard Business School, and you're AWOL from your National Guard unit, and you're a cokehead, and it doesn't really matter. You don't even really have a job till you're 40 and you become president of the United States."

You seem to be conflating random acts of kindness with the privilege that comes from picking the right ancestors.

The Pathology of the Rich - Chris Hedges on Reality Asserts Itself pt1

 

[georgephillip]

All the conservatives here just came in their pants at the thought that though hard work they too can become billionaires and treat people like worthless trash also.

Conservatives sometimes find it hard to let go of old mistakes:

"Aristotle, Niccolò Machiavelli, Alexis de Tocqueville, Adam Smith and Karl Marx all began from the premise there is a natural antagonism between the rich and the masses. 'Those who have too much of the goods of fortune, strength, wealth, friends, and the like, are neither willing nor able to submit to authority,' Aristotle wrote in 'Politics.' 'The evil begins at home; for when they are boys, by reason of the luxury in which they are brought up, they never learn, even at school, the habit of obedience.'

"Oligarchs, these philosophers knew, are schooled in the mechanisms of manipulation, subtle and overt repression and exploitation to protect their wealth and power at our expense. Foremost among their mechanisms of control is the control of ideas."

Chris Hedges: Let?s Get This Class War Started - Chris Hedges - Truthdig

 

[midcan5]

"Do not waste your time on Social Questions. What is the matter with the poor is Poverty; what is the matter with the rich is Uselessness." George Bernard Shaw

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKCvf8E7V1g]Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs" - YouTube[/ame]

Worship of the rich on the right has reached religious fanaticism levels. If you feel like the rich are having trouble with their new Bentley payments why not help them out. You want to call Romney, he has money made here hidden off shore, he'll help the rich, you don't worry yourself now.

The rich get rich because of their merit.
Tax cuts spur economic growth
State of Working America preview: The rich get richer | Economic Policy Institute
Why the Rich Are Getting Richer | Foreign Affairs