Rich people are being ‘demonized’ for flaunting their wealth. Poor dears!

[babylonsister]

Rich people are being ‘demonized’ for flaunting their wealth. Poor dears!

By Barbara Ehrenreich


The latest group to claim victim status is the rich. Actually the super-rich, whose wealth ordinarily exempts them from pity. While they are not yet subjected to airport profiling (except for early boarding and club access), they sense that the public is turning subtly against them — otherwise how could President Obama propose raising their taxes?

Admirers of the rich, led by pundits and politicians on the right — from Laura Ingraham to Larry Kudlow — have long derided the victimization claims of African Americans, women, gays and the unemployed, but now they’re raising their voices to defend the rich against what they see as an ugly tide of “demonization.”

At a time when poverty is soaring, unemployment hovers grimly above 9 percent and growing numbers of Americans suffer from “food insecurity” — the official euphemism for hunger — this concern may seem a tad esoteric. At a time when executive compensation is reaching dizzying new levels and the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing as fast as the federal deficit, it may even seem a little perverse.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rich-people-demonized-for-flaunting-their-wealth-are-under-attack/2011/09/28/gIQAcJn4AL_story.html

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Let them eat. . . . .

. . . . eat other.





K&R




Tansy Gold

[roguevalley]

12. awesome, tansy. :) Actually let them. when the revolution comes

it will be easy to find the enemy.

[Tansy_Gold]

16. it would have been a lot funnier

if I had been able to see the keyboard and the screen better at 6:30 a.m., duh :blush:

The post was SUPPOSED to say. . .



Let them eat. . . . .







. . . . . each other.



My bad!

[marmar]

2. Love Barbara Ehrenreich....

k/r

[xmas74]

5. So do I. nt

[plumbob]

3. My grandmother told me when I was growing up in the 50s that

poor people have poor ways, and rich ones have mean ones.

I never knew her to be off in any evaluation - she had keen insight and clear vision.

I miss her.

[no_hypocrisy]

4. Older, established wealth doesn't flaunt its status. They drive nondescript,

older model cars and don't flaunt their possessions and status.

It's the new rich that is ostentacious and impelled to showcase their stuff.

[CJCRANE]

8. That's what I call "stealth wealth".

That's the look I aspire to (because I can't afford the conspicuous consumption look).

[Coyote_Bandit]

6. And then there are those who flaunt

what they have purchased on credit.

[Cool Logic]

7. " “food insecurity” — the official euphemism for hunger"

There is no doubt that the economy is bad, but no one is dying of hunger in this country. In fact, half of the US's food goes to waste.

On average, households waste 14 per cent of their food purchases. Fifteen percent of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened. Jones estimates an average family of four currently tosses out $590 per year, just in meat, fruits, vegetables and grain products.

http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/Supply-Chain/Half-of-US-food-goes-to-waste

[OwnedByFerrets]

15. There may be a lot of food waste in this country....that doesnt mean

people arent going to bed hungry.

http://feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/hunger-studies/hunger-study-2010/key-findings.aspx

[BrendaBrick]

9. The two new TV series might be interesting...

"...and now two new television series are being hyped by some in the media as incitements to class warfare.

In “2 Broke Girls,” a couple of young women struggle to survive — not as runway models or high-maintenance housewives but, shockingly enough, as waitresses.

And Time magazine titillatingly describes ABC’s “Revenge,” set in the Hamptons, as “a target-rich environment of polo players and stock traders” in which a young woman stalks the singularly overprivileged people who, years earlier, ruined her father. No less a social commentator than “Revenge” star Madeleine Stowe has observed that “we’re dealing in a particular time right now in American history where I think the average American is going to want to see a takedown of the rich.”

I'd like to see HBO produce something along these lines...

[saras]

13. I'd rather see "revenge" as a Martha Stewart style how-to than as fiction, by far

Anyone who can hack the Pentagon's computers can surely hack gated communities' security.

[BiggJawn]

10. Would they rather be "demonized", or fed to the Guillotine?

Hard to believe a once-popular Teeee-Veeee show was called "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous", isn't it?

Oh, wait, we still have all those overpriced real estate shows on HGTV, don't we?

[dixiegrrrrl]

11. THAT is the reason I decided to never become rich.

I just knew I could not take all the demonization.

cunning plan working very well so far.

[Scottybeamer70]

17. too funny, dixiegrrrrl

:rofl:

[Kurmudgeon]

14. I don't mind the mega-rich flaunting it. Do whatever, just pay their fair share!

[Bloke 32]

18. How very dreadful for them!

I would laugh, except for the fact that it isn't funny in the least.

[progressoid]

19. “food insecurity”?

:grr: