Stop beating up the Rich (Shouldn't we figure out how to lift everyone up instead?)

Fortune ^ | 09/06/2012 | Nina Easton

[SeekAndFind]

Alexis de Tocqueville famously chronicled American society's love of equality -- and its equally passionate pursuit of money. "The love of wealth," the French historian wrote in the 1840s, "is … at the bottom of all that the Americans do." America stands out among Western nations for its grudging, and often fawning, admiration for the wealthy classes it produces. With the road to riches seemingly wide open, Americans favor aspiration over resentment, envy over animus.

Except when they don't.

Rebellions against the rich are as much a part of the fabric of American life as the Horatio Alger myth. One year ago this month, that rebellion crystallized at lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park, with the start of a series of autumnal protests called Occupy Wall Street.

During summer organizing meetings, anthropologist and former Yale professor David Graeber had hit on a brilliant marketing formula for the rebels: "Why not call ourselves the 99%?" he recalled asking fellow plotters. "If 1% of the population have ended up with all the benefits of the last 10 years of economic growth, control the wealth, own the politicians … why not just say we're everybody else?" In a hotly contested presidential election year, that formula found easy political resonance. The 99% doesn't just mean the poor or the unemployed or even the hardhat crowd. It includes the vast middle class of blue collar and white collar and pink collar -- even the upper middle class. It's the 99% that defined America's post-World War II economic might and remains the target of any serious aspirant to the Oval Office. With head-spinning speed, the 1%-99% divide entered the vocabulary of journalists, politicians, and voters. More than ever in recent memory, both a presidential election and critical policy debates in Washington are being fought through this prism.

[SeekAndFind]

Some reasons why people "hate" the rich:

* Reports of CEOs making 231 times the average worker's pay

* News of fat Wall Street bonuses often unhinged from performance

* Images of executives flying to Washington on private jets to beg for bailouts feed fears that the system is hopelessly rigged toward the rich and powerful.

But think about it -- is it right to lump ALL of the 1% into a monolithic group of greedy, tax-avoiding, selfish capitalists?

[skeeter]

Never included in the list of hated rich are politicians, who arrive in office of average means and leave loaded.

Like Bill Clinton, for instance.

At least rich capitalists can claim to have contributed something useful to society.

[ZULU]

Democrats are so overcome with envy, jealousy and rage at successful people that they can’t overcome it.

To their way of warped thinking, anyone who succeeds does so because he/she is a cheater, entitled through birth or has connections.

They are angry, jealous, envious people. Just look at their faces - all of them. Contorted with rage and self-righteousness.

After a few decades, it becomes written into their features.

[sauropod]

Sure it is. Just ask Lieawatha... I mean Elizabeth Warren.

[Leep]

IF you took hate/envy/division and OPM out of the equation the proggers would have to be judge own their merits.

[MrB]

The left’s ideology is based on violation of all the 10 commandments.

Envy, lying, theft, adultery, murder, and dishonor of the beliefs of those who’ve gone before... just to go through the “horizontal” commandments.

[camle]

if we didn’t have the rich, who would the left persecute?

[vet7279]

Money buys legislation which governs the non-wealthy. For example, Virginia Congressman Rigell took time off, flew to Omaha with his “personal” reporter, to get his opinion on government. Have you ever heard of a congresscritter doing the same for non-wealthy? Corporations donate to candidates to get favorable legislation, does a representative do that for you? The wealthy have, for the most part, earned the distrust and “hate”.

[cripplecreek]

Retiring "greedy rich guy" giving $1000 per years worked to employees.

Howard Cooper gives $1,000 per year of service to 89 employees as 'thank you'

[Paisan]

I never worked for anyone who wasn’t “richer” than me...

[cripplecreek]

The wealthy have, for the most part, earned the distrust and “hate”.

Some have, some haven't.

[Wurlitzer]

I have always maintained that you should be able to make as much as you want and people are willing to pay for your talent (with the exception of “professional sports”).

However, like most things, taking it to the extreme sure does make for a PR problem and in a world of 10 second sound bites it is very difficult to make a case for someone making 200 times people who are part of the company even if fully justified by what they bring to the table.

There also is a huge problem with the good ole boy network from the BODs. One company I worked for paid a $6 Million bonus for a few years to the son of the then dead majority owner even though his actions could be directly linked to the company hemorrhaging money until they went bankrupt. I almost could side with the OWS douche bags in this case.

I doubt there is a magic number that the head of a company can make X times the average wage of the other workers as the perpetually envious, communists, will never be happy until everyone is just above the poverty line.

The reason I exclude “professional athletes” is for a few reasons. We would never pay a pilot with a take off and landing record equal to a batter in MLB. Secondly, in most cities taxpayers are forced to build the playgrounds regardless of their interest in the sport. Now if the owners have enough money to pay these “professionals” millions per year then maybe they should build their own playgrounds and if they did I would not care if they paid someone 1 Billion if fans were willing to pay the ticket price.

[Iron Munro]

Democrats are so overcome with envy, jealousy and rage at successful people that they can’t overcome it.
To their way of warped thinking, anyone who succeeds does so because he/she is a cheater, entitled through birth or has connections.

This is classic projection by which they rationalize their own behavior because "That's what they do".

So liberals feel perfectly justified in believing the way to enrich themselves is by cheating, using their connections and voting for totalitarian socialists who promise to steal wealth from others and redistribute it to them.

[ZULU]

I LOVE that!!! Can you BUY it?????

[Iron Munro]

I LOVE that!!! Can you BUY it?????

I can't find it for sale anywhere.
Possible business opportunity?

[MarkL]

I don't know if this is really the true source of the dollar symbol, but does anyone else remember "Francisco D'Anconia's" monologues about how American English was the first language to coin the term "make money?" (sorry, I couldn't help the pun). Or that the dollar symbol is actually a stylized version of "US" as in "United States?"

Mark