…the problem is that a great deal of the established media is made up of people who believe very strongly that our wealthy betters really are morally superior…
Alex Pareene at Salon:
It may surprise you to learn that these wealthy elites think the biggest problem facing America today is that the wealthy elite have to pay taxes, while the poor and unemployed sit around collecting Social Security and food stamps and unemployment benefits.
Is there anything — anything! — worse than a bunch of rich idiots telling a bunch of other rich idiots how hard rich idiots like them have it these days, and how everything would be better if only we just put these rich idiots in charge?
More on gross abuse from the rich and mean-hearted:
Specifically, we claim that higher income inequality between executives and ordinary workers results in executives perceiving themselves as being all-powerful and this perception of power leads them to maltreat rank and file workers.
We present findings from two studies – an archival study and a laboratory experiment – that show that increasing executive compensation results in executives behaving meanly toward those lower down the hierarchy.
Jim Harrison said:
I wish there were a hypocrisy index to go along with measurements of cruelty since a huge contradiction is built into a system where the sociopaths who control companies depend on the integrity of their employees…
Maxine Udall asks:
There is more at stake here than our economy. We must, as a nation, decide whether we want to continue on the path we have been on since roughly 1980.
Do we want to continue to reward disproportionately a small fraction of the population that (based on recent performance) seems better at misallocating financial, physical, and human capital through speculative endeavors?
Do we want to continue the trickle down of meanness?
Roger Gathman stomps:
I think, as you trace the amazing split between the income gains of the wealthiest 10 percent and the other 90 percent since the eighties, you will find that the more disposable money the wealthiest have, the more they will use it to ensure their positions. I don’t find this very puzzling.
And a rant from Mick Arran:
We are locked down, locked into a system which gives rights to the rich, the powerful, and the corporate.
And it doesn’t seem to matter to anyone that this only makes things worse and worse.
Believing that giving the rich control of the society will lead to economic prosperity for everyone is now dogma for the Religion of $$$. We’ve decided to take that on faith because the rich told us to.