Mitt Romney's teachable moment about rich people in general

[MrScorpio]

Mitt Romney's main problem isn't the fact that he's a rich person. No, not at all. Besides, we've had rich people as presidents before... Two of our finest presidents were both rich men, FDR and JFK. To the nation's benefit, their legacies were solidified due to the fact that they weren't typical rich men at all.

They were about something that was more important. They considered the good of the nation as paramount over their own personal needs, or the needs of their class. Mitt Romney hasn't yet proved that he's made of similar stuff.

No, Mitt's major malfunction isn't the fact that he's rich. Nor are people like me, who aren't rich and prefer to keep Barack Obama as president "jealous" of Mitt's riches.

The biggest problem with Mitt is much simpler than that. It's the problem that most rich people have in this country - They're assholes.

If you, like me, have had the opportunity to meet some ordinary rich person in your life, the first thing that you'll notice about them is the fact that they're different. Most of all, they are mentally consumed with thoughts of money. How to get it, how to keep it, how to make more of it, how to make it work, how to keep from wasting it, how to keep it out of the hands of the government, how to keep it away from that loser brother-in-law, so forth and so on.

Money is the first thing that they think about when they wake up and the last thing that they think about when they go to sleep.

You look at them as another human being. However, when they look back you, your own humanity is trumped by your financial worth. If you're not rich like them, you might as well be an undocumented alien in their presence. Now, it's not to say that alll rich people think this way, but enough of them do so that it's a major problem.

Unfortunately, there are some pernicious myths about the rich in this country and I, for one, wish that most people would just wake the fuck up about them.

Some of these things should be quite obvious from experience, but for some reason, mass delusion perhaps, the lesson isn't being learned.

Let's talk about Trickle Down Economics, the biggest boondoggle of modern history. If you give rich people more money than they know what to do with, they'll have no choice but to spread the wealth. All you have to do is take a look at Typical Rich Asshole, Mitt Romney to figure out that Trickle Down is bullshit.

From his own lips, Bain Capitol was nothing more than a get rich quick scheme that was dependent on exploiting the tax code with the use of start up funds obtained from the government and rich investors. That's what the "harvesting" of the companies that they bought was all about.

Instead of "trickling down", Mitt and his cohorts hoarded their riches. Which, of course, is the very first lesson to being rich. You don't stay rich by giving your money away.

The next few things are easy to remember. What rich people AREN'T:

Just because someone is rich, it doesn't mean that they're also smart. A lot of rich assholes are fucking idiots.

Rich people aren't intrinsically generous based on their charitable contributions. Basically, the tax code is going to take away a certain portion of their money. However, most rich assholes would rather not have their hard stolen money go back to losers like you and me, through things like paying for food stamps and school lunches for our kids. No, they'd rather PICK their own winners. So, it all about control in the long run. If they can't keep it, they'd rather it not go to the unworthy for the so-called "public good".

To them, the public good creates a "culture of dependency". They know this, because they're the biggest welfare queens on the planet thanks to, you got it, trickle down economics.

Next, being rich does not automatically mean that you know what's the best way to run a government. Mitt's riches were from private equity, governance is public service. It's really freaking obvious that the two things are different, right? Any dipstick that tells you that Mitt is ready to lead the government because he had business experience is making a patently false analogy.

Any way, I should cut this short. I know you guys are not totally enamoured with my long essays.

America needs to figure out that our great wealth is much bigger and varied than what we think it is. The Rich, like Mitt, knows what is in the potential of our public worth. Their private worth is already great, however they'll never think that they have enough.

They want it all. Instead of leading, they want to own and rule it all. Because Mitt Romney, like most other typical rich assholes consider money, corporations and tax shelters more important than actual people.

[cpamomfromtexas]

1. In a lot of cases, you are absolutely right.

Otherwise, why would they mostly only give donations if their name is on the building?

I personally think money is overrated, thank God, there are ways to get along without having a boatload. However, a certain amount is required to even survive and therein lies the problem. They want to starve everyone out, bust unions, outsource jobs, and then and only then will they be able to ensure that you work for cheap!

Not only that, but they'd like to control the internet too so that we cannot share information to learn how to survive with less. Much learning has been lost over the years and the internet still keeps some knowledge and the sharing of that knowledge alive. But what would happen without it? Or what if Google controls so much that the informative sites are virtually invisible?

Good example: I was just diagnosed with West Nile, discovered high dose Vitamin C IV's are useful. It took 3 doctors to even diagnose it. The internet told me how it was treated, I was lucky to find a doctor that does it.

[Corgigal]

2. I call it the Greed Gene

I have never met someone who is afflicted with it that I can like. They aren't close to normal and all they do is try to con others to serve the Greed Gene. They are quite lacking in the humanity dept and I have to wonder back when mankind was all just a bunch of tribes traveling throughout the world if these Greed Gene people would have been the first to be bumped out of the group to meet their fate. Only Symbolic money has allowed these sicko's to flourish. Now some middle or poor class people worship them and want to be them. Too much Hollywood with this image.

[Patiod]

3. The worship of the rich comes from a Calvinist streak in our early settlers

These folks believe that some people are "elect" and smiled-on by God. Riches, therefore, are just God's way of showing who is one of the elect.

I think that deep down, a lot of Americans actually believe that people who are rich are just intrinsically better, smarter, more disciplined, and simply more worthy than the rest of us.

[WestWisconsinDem]

24. my brother-in-law is a filthy rich white conservative fundamentalist bibile-banger.

This guy is in Michele Bachman's district and surrounded by people who agree with him and have a LOT of money. Nearly every time money comes up, he has to get into the conversation how BLESSED the wealthy are, as if Gawd took money from the poor and deposited it personally into his fat bank account.

[XemaSab]

4. The rich people I've met haven't been obsessed with money

they've just been deeply clueless about the value of money.

I dated two rich jerks, and one of them tried to get me to go dutch to dinner one night, and I was like "I can't afford $30." I mentioned offhand to the other one that my former roommate owed me $100, and he was like "That's nothing."

When I see politicians talk about cutting food stamps, I think about this, and how for some people $80 is about what they drop for dinner every night, and for other people it's a whole day's wages.

[ehrnst]

11. Yes, I remember trust fund kids from college

and money was something that was always in endless supply. No sense of what it was like for me, someone who had to live on scholarship and work study.

[WestWisconsinDem]

25. I hear ya.

If I couldn't run reasonably fast I probably would have never been able to pay for college.

[valerief]

19. That rich asshole who wanted to date dutch--an example of how the more they have,

the less they spend.

[frazzled]

5. It's wrong to make generalizations about any class of people

Your post declaring all rich people "assholes" is as wrongheaded as a post that would declare all poor people "lazy."

And to exclude JFK and FDR as mere aberrations from the norm is faint cover for your argument. If you want to talk Mitt Romney or specific individuals, fine. But let's be clear: to generalize about any class or group of people is dangerous and wrong.

(PS: I'm not rich by a long, long shot)

[MrScorpio]

10. I did not generalize about all rich, just most of them

Which technically could mean just 51% of them.

Every single one of them is not an asshole. However, there is no disputing the fact that, as a class, they all benefit from how the assholes have put them into a position over the rest of us.

This is what ALEC is all about, for instance. How the rich assholes have bought and paid for politicians to pillage the public wealth. Or how the rich lobbies our goverment to keep taxes low for them at a much smaller percentage than the rest of our overall income.

Or how the rich are hellbent in privatizing public works and services.

These things are done with either the consent or the collusion of most of the rich. They own the media, that instills those beliefs in ordinary people that deferring to the rich is an overall good thing.

No, not all rich people are assholes. But I've listened to the ones who aren't warn us about the one who are.

That's a lesson that we all should heed.

[HiPointDem]

13. rich people generalize about the rest of us all the time. I see DUers generalizing about

southerners, smokers, religious people, republicans, "white trash" types who drink sodas, feed their children sugar and have low IQs as well.

but there's always someone here who wants to stick up for the poor, maligned rich.

[frazzled]

20. I made it clear that generalizing about ANY group is absurd

I'm equally opposed to generalizing about smokers, religious people, atheists, Republicans (well, I'm a little biased on that one), soda-drinkers, meat eaters, vegetarians, little people, women, men ... the list could go on.

It's just kind of assholey to make a blanket statement that all rich people are assholes. First, because we haven't defined "rich" (is it people earning $250K or just multi-millionaires? Just people who've made money in the financial industry? Does it include football players and lottery winners?). Second, because we could keep coming up with counterexamples of rich people who are not assholes (from Beyonce to Soros).

My protest is on the grounds that the argument is, um, stupid.

[HiPointDem]

26. do you complain about the other generalizations, though (cause every day brings several here)

or just when it's the rich being speared.

frankly, i don't much care about overgeneralizing about the rich (& by 'rich' i personally mean the folks who actually control the country's assets, with incomes well above $250K.).

they have the assets to defend themselves quite adequately. including control over the media, which they use to attack and defame everyone else, using vast over-generalizations of every conceivable sort.

fuck em all, i say. they deserve everything they get -- which is very little, considering their crimes.

[frazzled]

30. Well ...

being a smoker who is married to a Southerner, and who freely admits to having fed my kids sugar (probably too much) when they were young .... you can guess. Whenever someone uses the term "they" I cringe, because broad-brushing groups is what has led to much misunderstanding, hatred, and violence in the world. As I said, name me a particular "rich" person and I'm happy to bash them as an asshole; but I never ever indict entire classes of people.

But I see you've pegged me as an "apologist" for the rich, even though you know not one thing about me. I am no such thing. But whatever ... it's just another stupid generalization born of vitriol.

[HiPointDem]

31. haven't pegged you as anything, just asked the question.

and i don't think generalizing about .01% of the population that intermarries, goes to the same schools, shares business interests, wields most of the power in the country and self-consciously organizes to defend that power, utilizing media and other tools to lie to & manipulate everyone else, utilizing its control over capital to fund or defund politics and economic activity so as to herd everyone into the channels they choose etc. is anything like generalizing about, say, 47% of the population.

[snooper2]

29. It's not absurd, for example....

If there is a slight drizzle or light rain out, and you see a car with it's wipers on full blast fast as they can go watch out. There is a 98.7% chance that the person can't drive worth a fuck


The other 1.3% of the time the wiper controls are really jacked up and the person has no other option.

[valerief]

18. But most very rich people ARE assholes. If they weren't, we would have the damn

Congress they bought!

[Mariana]

27. It's wrong to make shit up about someone else's posts, too.

He never said ALL rich people are like that. He was very clear that he wasn't talking about ALL rich people.

[frazzled]

28. Au contraire.

With the exception of the two former presidents, "they" was used throughout.

[bluesbassman]

34. Of course he used "they", he's discussing a demographic.

You are the only person in this thread referring to "all".

[Risen Demon]

6. I think most rich people fall under either the Lawful Evil, or Neutral Evil characteristics

Yes... I'm using the Dungeons and Dragons alignment

{image=}

[porphyrian]

7. . n/t

[hifiguy]

8. Trickle Down Economics

is the theory that feeding the seed corn to the fattest pigs will make them poop out jobs.

[Sekhmets Daughter]

9. The biggest and most dangerous myth is

that rich people create jobs. They don't. Once they become rich the only thing they create is more wealth for themselves. The history of capitalism is that people with little or no personal wealth create goods or services that are wanted by other people...We certainly don't need more rich people getting richer...we need more poor or middle class people given the opportunities they need to become rich by creating good or services others want.

[CanonRay]

12. Thanks for the post

I've been thinking the same things for years, and wish I could rec it 100 times.

[dtom67]

14. By any other name...

Also remember that businesses , by definition, are fascist in structure. Absolute power organized in a top-down structure.

Anyone that thinks America should be run like a business is an idiot.

Or worse....

[heaven05]

15. true

[starroute]

16. I would just add one point

You say, "Rich people aren't intrinsically generous based on their charitable contributions. Basically, the tax code is going to take away a certain portion of their money. However, most rich assholes would rather not have their hard stolen money go back to losers like you and me, through things like paying for food stamps and school lunches for our kids. No, they'd rather PICK their own winners."

The way I see it, rich people would rather not pay taxes because government is the one institution in this country that has some control over them and might try to tell them what they can and can't do. They'd rather give some of their money to churches, charities, and other organizations that have no power over them while keeping the government perpetually starved and weak.

[NancyDL]

39. Did you know that giving Food Stamps...

... is one of the best investments a government can make because food stamps are cash, and they are spent immediately. The money goes right into circulation where it's paid out for merchandise, paid out for salaries, taxed, spent and spent again. This money MULTIPLIES. Everyone benefits because when there's money in circulation, there's DEMAND. When there's demand, there's production.

It's not rocket science.

I believe there is a certain Dog-in-the-Manger characteristic about "The Rich" as a class. They want to keep everything they have, and they want to keep others from getting anything, even if they lose nothing. And there's no reason for this. As a social organism, "The Rich", at least "The Conservative American Rich" are sociopathic. There's no empathy there. It's like they're entertaining themselves by playing a gigantic living game of Monopoly.

And if there's no redistribution of wealth, the game will soon be over.

[MrScorpio]

41. Thank you very much for your comment

Welcome to DU.

[valerief]

17. Spot on! nt

[SCVDem]

21. So where are the jobs?

They've had ten years of their tax cuts and many more years of sweetheart tax codes.

I call bullshit on them and their propoganda!

Working money does not live in the Caymans or other tax shelter.

[Myrina]

22. K & R for this brilliant analysis.

Thank you, Mr. Scorpio!

[secondwind]

23. His wife Ann says he "is cheap" and will not turn up the heat when it is cold...

[Shankapotomus]

32. I think we should separate the Conservative rich

Last edited Tue Oct 2, 2012, 05:18 PM - Edit history (1)

from the Liberal rich and then from there, reduce down to who is an a-hole and who isn't. There are a-holes of every stripe and economic situation. The poor a-holes should not get a free pass either.

[Populist_Prole]

33. You knocked that one out of the park MS!

I much enjoyed reading it. It's a keeper.

[Smickey]

35. Loved the "picking winners" argument relating to

charitable giving. Spot on me thinks.

Edit: Sooner or later, probably later, we are going to have to have a conversation about how much wealth is enough for one person, family, or corporation. Seems pretty clear to me that above whatever this point is, the money itself becomes corruptive in nature.

[Brigid]

36. My stepfather was wealthy.

And he was definitely NOT an asshole. He was a kind and generous person, especially to the local hospital. I don't know how many people are still walking around because of the cancer and ;;cardiovascular centers he helped set up there in memory of his parents, but I do know I am one of them after my heart attack in 2008 (he never knew about it, because he was gone by then). Two huge differences between him and the Mitt Romney types: First, he wasn't born rich. As a child, he lined the insides of his shoes with cardboard to cover the holes in them. He certainly would have knomn what it meant to not have the money for a ridiculously expensive meal or some other luxurious--or not so luxurious-item. Second, he made his money by actually producing something (aeronautical parts), not by "harvesting" companies for profit. And he certainly did not bank in the Cayman Islands. I doubt very much that he and Mitty would have gotten along very well. He was wealthy, but not in that league; and had a completely different mindset.

[MrScorpio]

37. Your stepfather, to his humanity, was a different breed from today's nouveau riche

Trust fund babies, private equity barons, investment bankers, Wall Street mavens, outsourcers, monopolists and the people who have gotten filthy rich in the last thirty years under Reaganomics. These people are the rich assholes I'm talking about.

Who knows? If today's rich had to go through the same character building experiences that your stepfather obviously had to go through as he built his own wealth, perhaps we'd have fewer rich assholes and more wealthy human beings walking around today. Frankly, we can now see how this country advanced under the Eisenhower tax rates.

I say, bring 'em back.

But, we've gone through a generation of giving money to already rich people and look where we are today; a wealth class where the majority obviously value money over people. Our economy suffers from this, where workers aren't compensated enough to help drive the engine.

This would be a different country indeed if most of the rich were more like you stepfather rather than the assholes who were sitting in that Boca Raton house, commiserating over how tough it is to be rich in this country, with 47 percent of the people out there are nothing more than freeloading losers who are out to get a piece of their pie.

[Skittles]

38. awesome, MrScorpio

[TBF]

40. Engels - one of the originators of Marxist theory

was an industrialist in Europe (very wealthy family): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Engels

As far as I'm concerned it is what they do with it that matters. Engels was advocating for an entirely new economic system that would put folks on more equitable footing. That is the difference between him and Romney - Engels was not a selfish asshole.