“Let me tell you something about the very rich. They are different from you and me.” F. Scott Fitzgerald from “The Rich Boy”
I talk a lot about the Rich and post a lot of articles about the Rich. I think it’s time I defined and clarified my thoughts-even if I speak in generalities.
First of all, I want to differentiate between two categories of wealth.
One, I’ll call simply, The Wealthy. The other, I’ll call The Rich.
I do not have anything against The Wealthy. They really aren’t that different from you and me. This is the social category that we, in the South, used to call “Old Money.”
The Wealthy had enough class and taste that the socio-economic differences are more subtle. They would be horrified to flaunt their wealth or to think it made them “better” than other people. This category of the financially blessed was usually better educated and, thus, aware of their privilege and the obligations that went with it. They understood the concept of “those to whom much is given, much is expected.”
I love the honest Wealthy folks I’ve known or known of in my life. These are people who gave back and made the world a better place.
The Wealthy usually did not involve themselves actively in Politics. If they did, it was usually out of a sense of duty or obligation to try to make things better for those less fortunate. It was kind of like joining the Junior League for them.
They were frequently Democrats.
The Wealthy understood shared responsibility and honor. There was a time when the Partners of Wall Street firms and Investment Banks were personally financially responsible for any losses. That is gone with the wind…
In the past, the Rich would try to emulate the Wealthy. Not today…
The Rich are the ones I can’t stand. We used to call this social group “New Money.”
These are the ones who, as a rule, are taking over our government.
There are exceptions to the “New Money” condition. The Koch Brothers, for example, have had money for several generations, but they are Rich, not Wealthy.
No matter how much money the Koch’s donate to the ballet and museums, they have no class or true sense of societal obligation. They are Rich, not Wealthy because they have no social conscience and only care about money. No matter how hard they try to seem otherwise, they are vulgar.
People recognize this and that’s why David Koch was booed at the American Ballet Theatre performance of “The Nutcracker” last December even when it was pointed out he gave the ABT $2.5 million. Money does not buy class or absolve one of all sins- even in New York….
The Rich build their lives around money. It is all that matters to them. They never have enough, always want more and are more than willing to do anything immoral, unethical or illegal to get it and keep it. They get away with this because they use their money to build a parallel world where the rules-and laws- don’t apply to them, but to everyone else.
As the late Leona Helmsley, who was Rich, not Wealthy, said: “Only the little people pay taxes.”
This is the mantra of the Rich.
The Rich have taken precedence over the Wealthy in today’s world. The Wealthy, being mostly Democrats, didn’t fight back and were over-powered by the Rich on Wall Street and in Washington. The Rich did away with the concept of individual responsibility for actions within financial firms. They only want individual responsibility to apply to the poor and middle classes.
The Wealthy who used to be part of the GOP, who were called “Cloth Coat Republicans” or “Country Club Republicans” are now extinct.
The Rich are the new Wall Street Barons and Hedge Fund Kings who made their money manipulating the system and not creating anything. They turned Wall Street into Las Vegas- both in tone and style. They manipulate numbers. Money is a concept to them, not a reality.
They don’t build factories or create jobs. They never will. That is too much work. They are morally bankrupt. They feel no need to “give back” as they really didn’t work hard to earn anything; they just took it.
The Rich are the top 1% of the population who own about 35% of the total wealth in this country. Of all the wealth created in the last 30 years or so, 47% went to this group. And they don’t want to pay taxes on it. This alone is enough to make me a socialist.
The Rich are the ones who manipulated the system so CEO’s,who in 1960 made an income of 42 times the average worker’s salary, by 2000 made 531 times the average worker’s salary. And now pay the lowest tax rate since the 1950’s.
This is the crowd that runs companies into the ground, brings the entire economy to the brink of disaster, destroys jobs and livelihoods for the middle class, then takes a “golden parachute” of millions of dollars for their efforts. There is no accountability for performance or decision-making within this group.
The New Money crowd, that have become the Rich of Wall Street and the financial powers that drive Washington, focus solely on money. Getting it, keeping it, making more of it. They worship money itself, not what it can do. These people do not drive the economy- or only a small portion of it- as to them money is something to be hoarded and bragged about. Or flashed around with multiple homes, cars, planes, diamonds and wives. They don’t spend it on creating jobs, as they and the GOP would like you to think. That will never be their goal or priority.
Money is their God and they want to honor it.
I hate the nouveau and not so nouveau Rich who are determined to destroy the Middle Class and let the poor starve. I detest the nouveau Rich who want children to grow up in poverty and ignorance and deny Health Care because people can’t afford private insurance. I abhor the Rich who want to take money from Social Security and leave the elderly to eat cat food so they can keep more money in their Cayman Islands or Swiss Bank accounts.
The Wealthy class of yesterday would never behave this way.
And if they tried, the Government would stop them.
At least for the last 80 years.
Hopefully, this clarifies my position.
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Footnote: You can check my facts from my main point of reference and learn much more about “the numbers” here:
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html
Lost in the 21st Century 
My Thoughts: I Hate Sears
This is going to be a bit of a rant…
I hate Sears….
And I can’t even begin to count the ways, but I’ll try.
I always said there were three things you could count on in life: Death, Taxes and that I would never buy clothes at Sears.
So, they bought Lands End, who I use to love, and I had to mark them off my shopping list. Now I was limited to Brooks Brothers, J Crew, Polo/Ralph Lauren and LL Bean….
That only reinforced that appliances were the only reason to go to Sears.
I was raised that if you needed to purchase an appliance- any appliance- you just went to Sears. That’s what we did. It was a non-debatable given. Everyone thought Kenmore appliances were the best and they used to last for years. My Mother had her Harvest Gold Refrigerator in the kitchen for a good 30 years. Long after we all wished it would die…
No more.
When we bought and renovated our house about 5 years ago, I bought all the new appliances for our new kitchen at Sears.
I wanted to get the best, so they would last. Foolish, foolish me….
Within a month, the new refrigerator stopped working and we lost all our food. When I called for service, I had to speak to someone in Georgia to schedule service in North Carolina. It was a week to 10 days before they could get to us…When I complained about all the food we lost, they said I should have bought the extended warranty to cover the food. It was my fault we lost our food.
When the repairman finally came, he said it was a “known problem” and the part that failed on our refrigerator was failing on all the refrigerators of that model. Of course, they didn’t tell you that when you bought it or pro-actively contact you to replace it. This also meant they were out of stock for the part and had to order it. This meant a few more days before they could finally fix it. We went almost two weeks without a refrigerator.
This was a very expensive 2 door refrigerator with the pull out drawer for the freezer. I had loved it when we got it, but I can never truly trust it again.
Now, five years later, our top-of-the-line Kenmore Elite dishwasher is dead.
We, of course, only use non-Sears repairmen now. They do not have any vested interest in us buying new appliances. We spent about $175 them to fix the dishwasher door last month. It just started falling to the floor when you opened it.
A couple of days after they fixed that, the dishwasher started making a strange sound. When the repairman came back today, he said “junk it”. The stainless steal tub was leaking, the pump was shot and the motor was “sparking.” He said it would cost almost as much to fix it as to buy a new one. It wasn’t even safe to use it until we got a new one.
I broke the pattern. I did not go back to Sears. I’ll never go there again. Our relationship is over…
Instead, now I’m waiting two weeks for Lowes to deliver our new Bosch dishwasher. We have to wait for a special order because I am so picky and had to have a particular model that both had all the features I wanted/needed and was top rated by owners and major consumer magazines.
But I’m not sure I’ll make it. I’m a Dishwasher addict and can’t imagine washing dishes by hand.
I’ve already told my partner, Steve, this means no one can eat or drink anything in the house, for the next two weeks, unless it is in a disposable container with plastic utensils we can throw away.
The hell with the environment until I get my new dishwasher….
Now that Sears appliances and service are worthless, there is simply no longer any reason for Sears to exist.
It’s time to euthanize them.
Someone please put Sears out of their misery before they kill an appliance again.
Another American Institution has bit the dust and needs to be swept away….
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