E
EconomicDemocracy Coop
Guest
In a less than free and open society, sometimes a comedian can afford
to indirectly say things that the rest of us can't say.
The piece below is not by a comedian.
But it can also be said that in our less than free and open mass-media
and culture, there are things that you can't say (no matter how true)
about the fact that our economy is anything BUT a meritocracy, and how
the little guy (or gal) gets screwed while those at the top profit,
without being called a Marxist or what have you (translation: "I can't
refuse your correct facts and logic, so I'll use the M-word to attack
you personally") but at the same time you can make almost the SAME
points, with a similar set of correct facts and logic, but talk about
how the semi-rich are getting screwed, and it's not a meritoracy for
then, etc, and suddely you're not only allowed to say it but Fortune
magazine(!) will gladly print you piece and it's all-to-obviously-true
points...what irony..
Revolt of the fairly rich
Today's lower upper class is seething about the ultrawealthy.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Matt Miller, Fortune columnist
(Fortune Magazine) -- Not long ago an investment banker worth millions
told me that he wasn't in his line of work for the money. "If I was
doing this for the money," he said, with no trace of irony, "I'd be at
a hedge fund." What to say? Only on a small plot of real estate in
lower Manhattan at the dawn of the 21st century could such a statement
be remotely fathomable. That it is suggests how debauched our ruling
class has become.
The widening chasm between rich and poor may well threaten our
democracy. Yet if that banker's lament staggers your brain as it did
mine, you're on your way to seeing why America's income gap is
arguably less likely to spark a retro fight between proletarians and
capitalists than a war between what I call the "lower upper class" and
the ultrarich.
Here's my outlandish theory: that economic resentment at the bottom of
the top 1 percent of America's income distribution is the new wild
card in public life. Ordinary workers won't rise up against ultras
because they take it as given that "the rich get richer."
But the hopes and dreams of today's educated class are based on the
idea that market capitalism is a meritocracy. The unreachable success
of the superrich shreds those dreams.
"I've seen it in my research," says pollster Doug Schoen, who counsels
Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton, among others. "If you look at
the lower part of the upper class or the upper part of the upper
middle class, there's a great deal of frustration. These are people
who assumed that their hard work and conventional 'success' would
leave them with no worries. It's the type of rumbling that could lead
to political volatility."
Lower uppers are doctors, accountants, engineers, lawyers. At
companies they're mostly executives above the rank of VP but below the
CEO. Their comrades include well-fed members of the media (and even
Fortune columnists who earn their living as consultants).
Lower uppers are professionals who by dint of schooling, hard work and
luck are living better than 99 percent of the humans who have ever
walked the planet. They're also people who can't help but notice how
many folks with credentials like theirs are living in Gatsby-esque
splendor they'll never enjoy.
This stings. If people no smarter or better than you are making ten or
50 or 100 million dollars in a single year while you're working
yourself ragged to earn a million or two - or, God forbid, $400,000 -
then something must be wrong.
You can hear the fallout in conversations across the country. A New
York-based market research guru - a well-to-do fellow who's built and
sold his own firm - explodes in a rant about ultras bidding up real
estate prices. A family doctor in Los Angeles with two kids shakes his
head that between tuition and donations, ultras have raised the ante
for private school slots to the point where he can't get his kids
enrolled. A senior executive at a nationally known firm seethes at the
idea of eliminating the estate tax; it is an ultra conspiracy, in his
view, a reprehensible giveaway to people whose outsized lucre bears
little relation to hard work.
As one civic-minded lower-upper businessman told me, even his charity
now feels insignificant: When buyout kings plunk down $1 million for a
youth or arts group, his $20,000 contribution doesn't get him the
right to co-chair a dinner, let alone a seat on the board.
There's only so much of this a smart, vocal elite can take before the
seams burst - and a bilious reaction against unmerited privilege
starts oozing from every pore. Especially when it's clear to lower
uppers that many ultras are reaping the rewards of rigged systems:
CEOs who preside over tumbling stock prices, hedge fund managers who
barely beat the market.
It may seem far-fetched to think a revolt against extreme inequality
will be led by posh professionals. But the conversations above suggest
there's a potent political opening for a "comeuppance agenda."
Eliot Spitzer, an ultra by birth (like F.D.R.), has shown the power of
turning against the sleazy self-dealing of his class. Once Spitzer's
crusades against greed sweep him into the New York governor's mansion
next month, imitators may follow. Shame as a strategy to constrain
avarice may come back into fashion.
Like I said, it's just a theory. It could be sour grapes. But if I
were in this for the money, I'd bet there was something to it.
= = =
Matt Miller is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and
the author of "The 2% Solution: Fixing America's Problems in Ways
Liberals and Conservatives Can Love."
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fort...0/30/8391806/index.htm?postversion=2006102508
= = = =
STILL FEELING LIKE THE MAINSTREAM U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA
IS GIVING A FULL HONEST PICTURE OF WHAT'S GOING ON?
= = = =
Daily online radio show, news reporting: www.DemocracyNow.org
More news: UseNet's misc.activism.progressive (moderated)
= = = =
Sorry, we cannot read/reply to most usenet posts but welcome email
For more information: http://EconomicDemocracy.org/wtc/ (peace)
And http://EconomicDemocracy.org/ (general)
Email Note: "info" and "map" etc DON'T work. Now:
econdemocracy(at)gmail
to indirectly say things that the rest of us can't say.
The piece below is not by a comedian.
But it can also be said that in our less than free and open mass-media
and culture, there are things that you can't say (no matter how true)
about the fact that our economy is anything BUT a meritocracy, and how
the little guy (or gal) gets screwed while those at the top profit,
without being called a Marxist or what have you (translation: "I can't
refuse your correct facts and logic, so I'll use the M-word to attack
you personally") but at the same time you can make almost the SAME
points, with a similar set of correct facts and logic, but talk about
how the semi-rich are getting screwed, and it's not a meritoracy for
then, etc, and suddely you're not only allowed to say it but Fortune
magazine(!) will gladly print you piece and it's all-to-obviously-true
points...what irony..
Revolt of the fairly rich
Today's lower upper class is seething about the ultrawealthy.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Matt Miller, Fortune columnist
(Fortune Magazine) -- Not long ago an investment banker worth millions
told me that he wasn't in his line of work for the money. "If I was
doing this for the money," he said, with no trace of irony, "I'd be at
a hedge fund." What to say? Only on a small plot of real estate in
lower Manhattan at the dawn of the 21st century could such a statement
be remotely fathomable. That it is suggests how debauched our ruling
class has become.
The widening chasm between rich and poor may well threaten our
democracy. Yet if that banker's lament staggers your brain as it did
mine, you're on your way to seeing why America's income gap is
arguably less likely to spark a retro fight between proletarians and
capitalists than a war between what I call the "lower upper class" and
the ultrarich.
Here's my outlandish theory: that economic resentment at the bottom of
the top 1 percent of America's income distribution is the new wild
card in public life. Ordinary workers won't rise up against ultras
because they take it as given that "the rich get richer."
But the hopes and dreams of today's educated class are based on the
idea that market capitalism is a meritocracy. The unreachable success
of the superrich shreds those dreams.
"I've seen it in my research," says pollster Doug Schoen, who counsels
Michael Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton, among others. "If you look at
the lower part of the upper class or the upper part of the upper
middle class, there's a great deal of frustration. These are people
who assumed that their hard work and conventional 'success' would
leave them with no worries. It's the type of rumbling that could lead
to political volatility."
Lower uppers are doctors, accountants, engineers, lawyers. At
companies they're mostly executives above the rank of VP but below the
CEO. Their comrades include well-fed members of the media (and even
Fortune columnists who earn their living as consultants).
Lower uppers are professionals who by dint of schooling, hard work and
luck are living better than 99 percent of the humans who have ever
walked the planet. They're also people who can't help but notice how
many folks with credentials like theirs are living in Gatsby-esque
splendor they'll never enjoy.
This stings. If people no smarter or better than you are making ten or
50 or 100 million dollars in a single year while you're working
yourself ragged to earn a million or two - or, God forbid, $400,000 -
then something must be wrong.
You can hear the fallout in conversations across the country. A New
York-based market research guru - a well-to-do fellow who's built and
sold his own firm - explodes in a rant about ultras bidding up real
estate prices. A family doctor in Los Angeles with two kids shakes his
head that between tuition and donations, ultras have raised the ante
for private school slots to the point where he can't get his kids
enrolled. A senior executive at a nationally known firm seethes at the
idea of eliminating the estate tax; it is an ultra conspiracy, in his
view, a reprehensible giveaway to people whose outsized lucre bears
little relation to hard work.
As one civic-minded lower-upper businessman told me, even his charity
now feels insignificant: When buyout kings plunk down $1 million for a
youth or arts group, his $20,000 contribution doesn't get him the
right to co-chair a dinner, let alone a seat on the board.
There's only so much of this a smart, vocal elite can take before the
seams burst - and a bilious reaction against unmerited privilege
starts oozing from every pore. Especially when it's clear to lower
uppers that many ultras are reaping the rewards of rigged systems:
CEOs who preside over tumbling stock prices, hedge fund managers who
barely beat the market.
It may seem far-fetched to think a revolt against extreme inequality
will be led by posh professionals. But the conversations above suggest
there's a potent political opening for a "comeuppance agenda."
Eliot Spitzer, an ultra by birth (like F.D.R.), has shown the power of
turning against the sleazy self-dealing of his class. Once Spitzer's
crusades against greed sweep him into the New York governor's mansion
next month, imitators may follow. Shame as a strategy to constrain
avarice may come back into fashion.
Like I said, it's just a theory. It could be sour grapes. But if I
were in this for the money, I'd bet there was something to it.
= = =
Matt Miller is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and
the author of "The 2% Solution: Fixing America's Problems in Ways
Liberals and Conservatives Can Love."
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fort...0/30/8391806/index.htm?postversion=2006102508
= = = =
STILL FEELING LIKE THE MAINSTREAM U.S. CORPORATE MEDIA
IS GIVING A FULL HONEST PICTURE OF WHAT'S GOING ON?
= = = =
Daily online radio show, news reporting: www.DemocracyNow.org
More news: UseNet's misc.activism.progressive (moderated)
= = = =
Sorry, we cannot read/reply to most usenet posts but welcome email
For more information: http://EconomicDemocracy.org/wtc/ (peace)
And http://EconomicDemocracy.org/ (general)
Email Note: "info" and "map" etc DON'T work. Now:
econdemocracy(at)gmail