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Revolt of the Rich

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by BigBenito, Aug 29, 2012.

  1. BigBenito

    BigBenito Member

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    too short, did read

    When I read articles in which I spend most of my time nodding, I tend to get paranoid that I'm turning into a dittohead-esque figure. But, this was an enjoyable opinion piece that shines a light on one of the many problems with our country - the super rich and their detachment. (Oh, and bonus points for reading the comments section - well, at least attempting to read it.)

    http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/revolt-of-the-rich/?print=1
     
    1 person likes this.
  2. Dubious

    Dubious Contributing Member

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    NTL Did read.

    Wealth flowing to wealth is more like a gravitational pull than a worldwide plot I think though there is definitely some of that. It's a 100 factors that all strengthen each other. Education, opportunity, cronyism, cross breeding, time, nurture, evolutionary expedient human nature......
     
  3. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    As proven numerous times (I was recently guilty of this) a good article will not be commented on if too long.

    So I pulled out key points.

    **********
    Revolt of the Rich

    Posted By Mike Lofgren

    It was 1993, during congressional debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement. .... To this day, I remember something my colleague said: “The rich elites of this country have far more in common with their counterparts in London, Paris, and Tokyo than with their fellow American citizens.”

    To some degree the rich have always secluded themselves from the gaze of the common herd; their habit for centuries has been to send their offspring to private schools. But now this habit is exacerbated by the plutocracy’s palpable animosity towards public education and public educators,


    In both world wars, even a Harvard man or a New York socialite might know the weight of an army pack. Now the military is for suckers from the laboring classes ....
    ...

    The super-rich have seceded from America even as their grip on its control mechanisms has tightened.

    ... “Engine Charlie” Wilson, who said he believed “what was good for the country was good for General Motors, and vice versa.” He expressed, however clumsily, the view that the fates of corporations and the citizenry were conjoined. It is a view a world away from the present regime of downsizing, offshoring, profits without production, and financialization.

    The now-prevailing Milton Friedmanite economic dogma holds that a corporation that acts responsibly to the community is irresponsible. Yet somehow in the 1950s the country eked out higher average GDP growth rates than those we have experienced in the last dozen years.

    After the 2008 collapse, the worst since the Great Depression, the rich, rather than having the modesty to temper their demands, this time have made the calculated bet that they are politically invulnerable

    ...
    This raises disturbing questions for those who call themselves conservatives. Almost all conservatives who care to vote congregate in the Republican Party. But Republican ideology celebrates outsourcing, globalization, and takeovers as the glorious fruits of capitalism’s “creative destruction.” ...

    They were quick to denounce as socialism any attempt to mitigate its impact on society. Yet their ideology is nothing more than an upside-down utopianism, an absolutist twin of Marxism. If millions of people’s interests get damaged in the process of implementing their ideology, it is a necessary outcome of scientific laws of economics that must never be tampered with, just as Lenin believed that his version of materialist laws were final and inexorable.

    ... Conservatives need to think about the world they want: do they really desire a social Darwinist dystopia?

    The objective of the predatory super-rich and their political handmaidens is to discredit and destroy the traditional nation state and auction its resources to themselves.

    Was this the vision of the Founders? Was this why they believed governments were instituted among men—that the very sinews of the state should be possessed by the wealthy in the same manner that kingdoms of the Old World were the personal property of the monarch?

    .... What if Christopher Lasch came closer to the truth in The Revolt of the Elites, wherein he wrote, “In our time, the chief threat seems to come from those at the top of the social hierarchy, not the masses”? Lasch held that the elites—by which he meant not just the super-wealthy but also their managerial coat holders and professional apologists—were undermining the country’s promise as a constitutional republic with their prehensile greed, their asocial cultural values, and their absence of civic responsibility.
     
    #3 glynch, Aug 29, 2012
    Last edited: Aug 29, 2012
    1 person likes this.
  4. Dubious

    Dubious Contributing Member

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    TLDNR
     
  5. BigBenito

    BigBenito Member

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    If I were to extract a short version of the essay, I'd probably go with the last bit you quoted:
    I guess I need to read The Revolt of the Elites.
     
  6. Cohete Rojo

    Cohete Rojo Contributing Member

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    Saw this article linked on Ritholtz's blog. I agree with much of what is said but as said by preceeding members - it is not all that surprising.

    Many people know that the megarich CEO's get paid through capital gains. Most people believe it takes ideas, not money to be an entrepreneur - whoever heard of an entrepreneurial story that began with a discussion of historically low capital gains tax rates? And stories of capital flight due to capital gains tax rate increases are greatly exegerated - where is everyone going to take their money: Spain, Brazil, Russia, China?
     
  7. BigBenito

    BigBenito Member

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    Oh, hmm... randomly plagiarized the same quote that Sullivan used in his blog.
     
  8. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    Not plagiarism. All of it is from Lofgrens 's book. "The end of the party" . I saw him talk on current TV
     
  9. BigBenito

    BigBenito Member

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    Misspoke, I was trying to say that I used the exact same excerpt that Sullivan used (where I found a link to the original story).
     

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