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I refer to those in US who defend the top 1%.
I can understand the very wealthy being interested in keeping things up and/or introducing changes that will benefit them.
However, many posters on the forum seem to support or defend them. Posters who (I assume) cannot be considered wealthy. Some may even be in the lower income segments.
I lived in Europe and other places, but never noticed anything alike. In those countries, the middle class and poor are traditionally criticizing the rich, but the rich know how to care for their own interests. However, it seems that in the US they have more allies among the poor then anywhere else on the globe. Am I wrong?
(As a side note I do not hate the rich and think that they have an important economic role, as long as their influence is kept in balance)
Americans, by tradition, have always had a curious 'love/ hate' relationship with the very rich. Our culture holds that we have no rigid 'class distinctions'...that theoretically ANY American, with the right combination of 'pluck', hard work, and a few breaks, can JOIN the very rich.
American society is precieved as 'fluid', and we can THEORETICALLY travel upward or downward in social status....and therefore, while all Americans reserve the right to 'grumble' about the very rich, and to 'mock' them a bit....Americans don't really HATE their rich, because Americans like to believe that they may someday BE one.
As America becomes more 'Third World" in the future, we may LOSE that cultural optimism, and at some future date, when Americans realize that their opportunities are shrinking, we may learn to "hate" the rich, just like happens in most societies, where the rich ARE hated, and for very good reasons.
Americans, by tradition, have always had a curious 'love/ hate' relationship with the very rich. Our culture holds that we have no rigid 'class distinctions'...that theoretically ANY American, with the right combination of 'pluck', hard work, and a few breaks, can JOIN the very rich.
American society is precieved as 'fluid', and we can THEORETICALLY travel upward or downward in social status....and therefore, while all Americans reserve the right to 'grumble' about the very rich, and to 'mock' them a bit....Americans don't really HATE their rich, because Americans like to believe that they may someday BE one.
As America becomes more 'Third World" in the future, we may LOSE that cultural optimism, and at some future date, when Americans realize that their opportunities are shrinking, we may learn to "hate" the rich, just like happens in most societies, where the rich ARE hated, and for very good reasons.
That is a very scary scenario and I hope that it never becomes reality. I don't want America to become another poor country where the rich are hated and there is a constant class warfare. That is not the type of country our founders envisioned.
That is a very scary scenario and I hope that it never becomes reality. I don't want America to become another poor country where the rich are hated and there is a constant class warfare. That is not the type of country our founders envisioned.
Very scary indeed, and not a future I'd like to see. But it seems to be where we're headed...because we WANT to, apparently. The middle class is shrinking rapidly as a percentage of the whole....and it's a large middle class, NOT just per-capita wealth, which makes for a 'nice', liveable society, free from class envy and hatreds. We're now moving AWAY from this, toward the more traditional 'Third World' model of the very rich, and the very poor, with few people in between. It won't happen overnight, but that's the direction in which we're headed.
Want an example? I spent 21 years in the public water field in Southern California. One of my most important 'tools' on my trips was the card showing the 'gate codes' for entering various gated commmunities. At one point, our local water district probably had 20 or 22 various gated communities in whic we had to go for service calls, reservoir checks, etc.
I don't know about YOU, but I never HEARD of a 'gated community' when I was growing up. The only reason I can think of to live in a gated community is to 'keep the riff-raff out'. Who are the 'riff-raff'? Our fellow citizens and neighbors, that's who....Affluent Americans are now (apparently) living in fear of other Americans...and are willing to pay good money to live 'away' from them.
Does this sound like 'America'? Not to me..it sounds like Brazil or Haiti or Syria.....places where the 'rich' hire bodyguards and security men. As I said, we won't get to a 'third world' level of society this year...but the trend is in that direction...Rich vs poor.
I refer to those in US who defend the top 1%.
I can understand the very wealthy being interested in keeping things up and/or introducing changes that will benefit them.
However, many posters on the forum seem to support or defend them. Posters who (I assume) cannot be considered wealthy. Some may even be in the lower income segments.
I lived in Europe and other places, but never noticed anything alike. In those countries, the middle class and poor are traditionally criticizing the rich, but the rich know how to care for their own interests. However, it seems that in the US they have more allies among the poor then anywhere else on the globe. Am I wrong?
(As a side note I do not hate the rich and think that they have an important economic role, as long as their influence is kept in balance)
Yes, I've noticed this and I find it incredible. I am not against a person being rich if they deserve to be, but in this country the most corrupt, greedy pigs are idolized and defended by the very people that they are using, abusing and stealing from. The Bush/Cheney Crime Family are perfect examples. After what these thugs have done to this country, the enablers and defenders come out of the woodwork like termites as if they are programmed to do so. They scream about Socialism, but they are willing to live within a Fascist framework...unbelievable!!!
I don't want America to become another poor country where the rich are hated and there is a constant class warfare.
There has always been class warfare in the US. The financial elite have always been at war with the working classes. The problem is--and has always been--that the working classes don't realize this.
I refer to those in US who defend the top 1%.
I can understand the very wealthy being interested in keeping things up and/or introducing changes that will benefit them.
However, many posters on the forum seem to support or defend them. Posters who (I assume) cannot be considered wealthy. Some may even be in the lower income segments.
You assume too much. I take great pride in my personal wealth. You know what I like most about being wealthy? That I'm living the good life in the most liberal city in the entire world, NYC. This is the city where everyone talks about how unfair life is for the unfortunates, but they say it during a night out on the town that you could never afford. In time you find that most of your neighbors here say all of the right things about sharing the wealth, but they aren't putting their money where their mouths are. That makes them hypocrites. I like that.
Last edited by BringTheContent; 03-07-2009 at 10:35 PM..
I would say probably so. We are probably the only country that judges itself not by the prosperity of the nation, but by the wealth of a few.
Come on. You live in New York City, right?
You're either making a lot more money than 90% of the rest of the country, or you're really not living very well here.
Even the worst areas of the city have been "gentrified" to the point that most people just can't live here unless they're making good money. Very few people are still benefitting from the ways things were done in "old New York" these days, even with rent-control.
You're here, and you have Internet access. You're not living on a bench in Prospect Park. Even if you aren't wealthy, you're doing well enough, otherwise you couldn't live here anymore. If anyone ever decides that your personal wealth isn't all that important, and if they try to spread it around a little, you're going to have to move to Newark.
I refer to those in US who defend the top 1%.
I can understand the very wealthy being interested in keeping things up and/or introducing changes that will benefit them.
However, many posters on the forum seem to support or defend them. Posters who (I assume) cannot be considered wealthy. Some may even be in the lower income segments.
I lived in Europe and other places, but never noticed anything alike. In those countries, the middle class and poor are traditionally criticizing the rich, but the rich know how to care for their own interests. However, it seems that in the US they have more allies among the poor then anywhere else on the globe. Am I wrong?
(As a side note I do not hate the rich and think that they have an important economic role, as long as their influence is kept in balance)
Yeah, i think there's some merit to the phenomena you described. One aspect that i can point out is that some low/middle-end income earners vote purely for religous reasons in the political scene when there is some degree of economic security attained, especially southerners who are notorious for this.
Folks, there is no reason, ever, to waste your vote on religous reasons in America, only economic reasons.
Many Americans get duped over and over again because of this. [Abortion, gay issues -- ect.]
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