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"Ma! Obama's being mean to me!" - Pathos of the Plutocrat
#1
The New York Times
July 19, 2012

Pathos of the Plutocrat
By PAUL KRUGMAN

"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me." So wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald and he didn't just mean that they have more money. What he meant instead, at least in part, was that many of the very rich expect a level of deference that the rest of us never experience and are deeply distressed when they don't get the special treatment they consider their birthright; their wealth "makes them soft where we are hard."

And because money talks, this softness call it the pathos of the plutocrats has become a major factor in America's political life.

It's no secret that, at this point, many of America's richest men including some former Obama supporters hate, just hate, President Obama. Why? Well, according to them, it's because he "demonizes" business or as Mitt Romney put it earlier this week, he "attacks success." Listening to them, you'd think that the president was the second coming of Huey Long, preaching class hatred and the need to soak the rich.

Needless to say, this is crazy. In fact, Mr. Obama always bends over backward to declare his support for free enterprise and his belief that getting rich is perfectly fine. All that he has done is to suggest that sometimes businesses behave badly, and that this is one reason we need things like financial regulation. No matter: even this hint that sometimes the rich aren't completely praiseworthy has been enough to drive plutocrats wild. For two years or more, Wall Street in particular has been crying: "Ma! He's looking at me funny!"

Wait, there's more. Not only do many of the superrich feel deeply aggrieved at the notion that anyone in their class might face criticism, they also insist that their perception that Mr. Obama doesn't like them is at the root of our economic problems. Businesses aren't investing, they say, because business leaders don't feel valued. Mr. Romney repeated this line, too, arguing that because the president attacks success "we have less success."

This, too, is crazy (and it's disturbing that Mr. Romney appears to share this delusional view about what ails our economy). There's no mystery about the reasons the economic recovery has been so weak. Housing is still depressed in the aftermath of a huge bubble, and consumer demand is being held back by the high levels of household debt that are the legacy of that bubble. Business investment has actually held up fairly well given this weakness in demand. Why should businesses invest more when they don't have enough customers to make full use of the capacity they already have?

But never mind. Because the rich are different from you and me, many of them are incredibly self-centered. They don't even see how funny it is how ridiculous they look when they attribute the weakness of a $15 trillion economy to their own hurt feelings. After all, who's going to tell them? They're safely ensconced in a bubble of deference and flattery.

Unless, that is, they run for public office.

Like everyone else following the news, I've been awe-struck by the way questions about Mr. Romney's career at Bain Capital, the private-equity firm he founded, and his refusal to release tax returns have so obviously caught the Romney campaign off guard. Shouldn't a very wealthy man running for president and running specifically on the premise that his business success makes him qualified for office have expected the nature of that success to become an issue? Shouldn't it have been obvious that refusing to release tax returns from before 2010 would raise all kinds of suspicions?

By the way, while we don't know what Mr. Romney is hiding in earlier returns, the fact that he is still stonewalling despite calls by Republicans as well as Democrats to come clean suggests that it could be something seriously damaging.

Anyway, what's now apparent is that the campaign was completely unprepared for the obvious questions, and it has reacted to the Obama campaign's decision to ask those questions with a hysteria that surely must be coming from the top. Clearly, Mr. Romney believed that he could run for president while remaining safe inside the plutocratic bubble and is both shocked and angry at the discovery that the rules that apply to others also apply to people like him. Fitzgerald again, about the very rich: "They think, deep down, that they are better than we are."

O.K., let's take a deep breath. The truth is that many, and probably most, of the very rich don't fit Fitzgerald's description. There are plenty of very rich Americans who have a sense of perspective, who take pride in their achievements without believing that their success entitles them to live by different rules.

But Mitt Romney, it seems, isn't one of those people. And that discovery may be an even bigger issue than whatever is hidden in those tax returns he won't release.

Adele
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#2
Huey Long was assassinated for his views. Obama does give minor lip service against the Oligarchy, but ACTS as if he were one of them!!!!!...or their 'Boy'.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#3
Peter Lemkin Wrote:Huey Long was assassinated for his views. Obama does give minor lip service against the Oligarchy, but ACTS as if he were one of them!!!!!...or their 'Boy'.

From the Paul Krugman article above:

Quote:Needless to say, this is crazy. In fact, Mr. Obama always bends over backward to declare his support for free enterprise and his belief that getting rich is perfectly fine. All that he has done is to suggest that sometimes businesses behave badly, and that this is one reason we need things like financial regulation. No matter: even this hint that sometimes the rich aren't completely praiseworthy has been enough to drive plutocrats wild. For two years or more, Wall Street in particular has been crying: "Ma! He's looking at me funny!"

But at least Obama is trying to ameliorate the situation. He's not a revolutionary and we can't expect him to be. The American people are not ready for one at this time....

Adele
Reply
#4
Quote:The American people are not ready for one at this time....

Adele, I'll grant you that!...the American People, as a whole, aren't YET ready for the truth of the past, let alone the truth of the present...and heaven forbid the truth, strength, and action needed to change the future! [Sadly!] But, I fear we run out of time, Planet, and the Oligarchy are looking toward the Final, FINAL Solution.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#5
Peter Lemkin Wrote:
Quote:The American people are not ready for one at this time....

Adele, I'll grant you that!...the American People, as a whole, aren't YET ready for the truth of the past, let alone the truth of the present...and heaven forbid the truth, strength, and action needed to change the future! [Sadly!] But, I fear we run out of time, Planet, and the Oligarchy are looking toward the Final, FINAL Solution.

Thanks, Peter. But if the Final, Final Solution is anything like what I am thinking it is, the oligarchy will perish along with the rest of us. Can they be THAT STUPID???
I guess they can... Whoever can say these are intelligent beings?

Adele
Reply
#6
Quote:Thanks, Peter. But if the Final, Final Solution is anything like what I am thinking it is, the oligarchy will perish along with the rest of us. Can they be THAT STUPID???
I guess they can... Whoever can say these are intelligent beings?

If the Final, Final Solution is the baking of the planet, then I imagine they are planning for some techno fix, a big load of geoengineering. You make money breaking shit, and you make money fixing it. Uhh, sadly The Solution will result in a substantially lowered population.

"We'll know our disinformation campaign is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --William J. Casey, D.C.I

"We will lead every revolution against us." --Theodore Herzl
Reply
#7
Adele Edisen Wrote:
Peter Lemkin Wrote:
Quote:The American people are not ready for one at this time....

Adele, I'll grant you that!...the American People, as a whole, aren't YET ready for the truth of the past, let alone the truth of the present...and heaven forbid the truth, strength, and action needed to change the future! [Sadly!] But, I fear we run out of time, Planet, and the Oligarchy are looking toward the Final, FINAL Solution.

Thanks, Peter. But if the Final, Final Solution is anything like what I am thinking it is, the oligarchy will perish along with the rest of us. Can they be THAT STUPID???
I guess they can... Whoever can say these are intelligent beings?

Adele

I'm not [in case you hadn't guessed] part of the Oligarchy. I do study them from their actions, and have met some up front and personal [long story, but lived for a time in Aspen, Colorado and there met a few who have one of their 5-20 homes there]. My take on them is they believe in some magical fashion that they can survive, while others perish...be it environmentally [they have the BIG houses HIGH in the MOUNTAINS on LARGE plots of BEAUTIFUL still virgin ALPINE forest, for example]. They also think they have the money to move out of harms way from wars, conflicts, martial law, etc. They think the Thought Police or any Police/Spy Agency will ever arrest them or even spy on them - they have their own Police and Intelligence operatives or think they run the big ones. They are, by and large, no more intelligent that the average person - but have a hell of a lot more arrogance and hubris. They think that their money and more so their power can buy them what others can not buy at any price. In the end, they don't care about their children/legacy nor their future - less so that of Gaia. They are involved with the NOW and the next few weeks/months of money and power which blinds them and controls them as any drug.They think they are 'better' and 'chosen' in some way - predestined to rule and live above the others. They are sick and dangerous. Few of them actively plan a 'final solution', but they aren't stupid, and those who live on the blood, sweat and money of others see the end gave is near and they are damn well determined to rake in and then cash in all of their 'chips' before the 'curtain falls'...and the hell with what happens to others and the Planet/ World Polity. [Let them eat GM Twinkies!]
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
Reply
#8
Quote:I'm not [in case you hadn't guessed] part of the Oligarchy. I do study them from their actions, and have met some up front and personal [long story, but lived for a time in Aspen, Colorado and there met many who have one of their 5-20 homes there]. My take on them is they believe in some magical fashion that they can survive, while others perish...be it environmentally [they have the BIG houses HIGH in the MOUNTAINS on LARGE plots of BEAUTIFUL still virgin ALPINE forest, for example]. They also think they have the money to move out of harms way from wars, conflicts, martial law, etc. They think the Thought Police or any Police/Spy Agency will ever arrest them or even spy on them - they have their own Police and Intelligence operatives or think they run the big ones. They are, by and large, no more intelligent that the average person - but have a hell of a lot more arrogance and hubris. They think that their money and more so their power can buy them what others can not buy at any price. In the end, they don't care about their children/legacy nor their future - less so that of Gaia. They are involved with the NOW and the next few weeks/months of money and power which blinds them and controls them as any drug.They think they are 'better' and 'chosen' in some way - predestined to rule and live above the others. They are sick and dangerous.

Was this from personal, direct conversations or from indirect inferences? Mind sharing a few inecdotes?
"We'll know our disinformation campaign is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --William J. Casey, D.C.I

"We will lead every revolution against us." --Theodore Herzl
Reply


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