It’s still hard out here for a One Percenter
by digby
I honestly don’t know what to say about this anymore. I think it’s the lack of embarrassment for being such insufferable putzes that really gets to me.
From the Bible to the Lannisters of Game of Thrones, it’s easy to argue that the rich have always been vilified, scorned and envied. But their counsellors argue things have only gotten worse since the financial crisis and the debate over income inequality that has been spurred on by movements like Occupy Wall Street and the Fight for $15 fair wage campaign.
“The Occupy Wall Street movement was a good one and had some important things to say about income inequality, but it singled out the 1% and painted them globally as something negative. It’s an -ism,” said Jamie Traeger-Muney, a wealth psychologist and founder of the Wealth Legacy Group. “I am not necessarily comparing it to what people of color have to go through, but … it really is making value judgment about a particular group of people as a whole.”
The media, she said, is partly to blame for making the rich “feel like they need to hide or feel ashamed”.
Yeah, I really feel as if the wealthy are hiding and feel ashamed. You hardly even know they’re there. Well except for their ostentatious whining, which is deafening and constant. Comparing themselves to the experience of people of color is a new one, but the sentiment isn’t. Recall this piece of work, billionaire Tom Perkins, who compared his plight to the Jews in the Holocaust.
Well, he’s not alone:
“You can come up with lot of words and sayings about inheritors, not one of them is positive: spoiled brat, born with a silver spoon in their mouth, trust fund babies, all these things,” she said, adding that it’s “easy to scapegoat the rich”.
“Sometimes I am shocked by things that people say. If you substitute in the word Jewish or black, you would never say something like that. You’d never say – spoiled rotten or you would never refer to another group of people in the way that it seems perfectly normal to refer to wealth holders.”
“Inheritors”, “wealth holders”. What nice phrases. Do you suppose they describe people like this? (The following is from a previous post of mine from 2014.)
Let’s check in with the Rich Kids of Instagram. It’s been a while and since I’ve recently been informed that the future of the world depends on their largesse it’s a good way to see what they’re interested in so we can all tailor our hopes and dreams around their hopes and dreams.
Basically, kids, don’t go to college, go to butler school:
Christopher Ely is prone to philosophizing about his life’s work. “You should be invisible, to a certain point,” he explains carefully, wearing a navy blue pinstriped suit and well-polished shoes. “You exist, of course, but you don’t.” Ely, of course, is describing the secrets of the manservant trade. As one of New York’s most famous butlers, he’s enjoyed a storied career that began as a footman at Buckingham Palace and led to a job as the butler and estate manager for philanthropist and power widow Brooke Astor. Ely, 48, does not use the term “manservant.” The word, he says, “has such connotation to it.”
This is one of the many tips Ely is preparing to pass on to the next generation of butlers, housekeepers, chauffeurs, governesses, housemen, personal assistants, laundresses, and chefs. This week he and Manhattan’s French Culinary Institute inaugurate the Estate Management Studies program. Tired of hearing people tell him, “We couldn’t get good staff,” Ely says, he set out to reinvigorate the entire domestic-service industry with a curriculum that combines its ancient hallmarks—efficiency, decorum, and discretion—with what the institute calls the “contemporary skills necessary to manage modern-day residences.”
Update: Also too, apparently this peek inside the lives of the rich and shameless “old money” of Charleston South Carolina has the old guard all in a tizzy. They don’t like to have their (lazy children’s) dirty laundry exposed on national TV.
Frankly my dear, these heirs to Antebellum gentility really don’t give a damn.
It reminds me of this earlier peek into the rich and shameless youth of New York City, featuring PC Peterson, the worthless heir to Pete Peterson, the man who openly admits he’s trying to save the country for his grandkids. He doesn’t tell us that his plan is to turn the nation into a feudal state.
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| Peter Cary “PC” Peterson, 18 years old and a senior at Dwight, is sitting at Philippe on the Upper East Side, talking about the way the world works, based on his extensive experience. “Everything in New York City is about connections,” he explains, his eyes glinting and head lolling back. “It’s who you know and how much money you have. It’s really sad. And I am not saying I’m like that. But that’s what New York is: money and power.” |
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