The Wages of Wealth
For the first time since the Thirties, the moment of truth is arriving for the wealthy in America. During the New Deal, as FDR saved the capitalistic system that had brought the economic elite such bounty, many of the ultra rich berated the president as a traitor to his class. They sat in their clubs and sneered at the reformers and were largely bystanders to the great American drama of their time.
I've been living in Palm Beach for the past decade and a half gathering information for my forthcoming book, Madness Under the Royal Palms, and I say with immense sadness that I think history is about to repeat itself. There is inchoate anger, great fear, and a willful distancing from the great new American drama that is about to begin in Washington.
I had lunch with one of the leading socialites the day after the election. "That black tar baby won," she said spitting out the words as if she had bitten into something foul. "And if he's killed the problem is that the one who would take over next is just as bad." I was stunned that this elegant, well brought up lady should say such things, but it was sentiment repeated any number of times in the next few days.
That weekend I went to a cocktail party given for major Obama supporters on the island by Cynthia Friedman, a prominent Democratic fundraisers. I had talked to any number of people when a man I had never met before came up to me and started spouting off. He was one of a number of mixed couple at the event where one spouse was for Obama the other for McCain. In this case, he had been as fervent a McCain supporter as his wife and been for Obama. He was a member of the restricted Everglades Club and he talked about a lunch he had there that day. "We've kept the Jews out of the club and now we've got a N------ in the White House." That was the first time in thirty years I heard the "N" word.
The problem here is not just politics. It's that even when these people think they are making these magnificent charitable contributions, many of these causes have nothing to do with the crucial issues and problems facing our nation and world. It's not chic to think about poverty, homelessness, AIDS, and other unseemly matters. I volunteer once a week at The Lord's Place, a marvelous organization working with the homeless in Palm Beach County. It's about a two-mile drive from my home but there is only one other person from the island of Palm Beach who volunteers. It's considered terrible gauche and rather unseemly.
I attended a luncheon at the private Club Colette in Palm Beach a few days ago for feral cats. There are about 400 of these wild animals on the island and they are treated better than the 4,000 homeless across the bridge. The cats get fed regularly and are watched over by a number of dedicated society ladies. It costs several hundred thousand dollars a year to treat these cats in the fashion in which they are accustomed, whereas last year The Lord's Place raised only $40,000 in Palm Beach.
During the luncheon one wealthy matron got up to make her testimonial. "I have 18,000 acres in the Adirondacks," she said. "I'll fly some of these cats up there in my private jet." I kept thinking about the homeless families in West Palm Beach sleeping in cars. It is stunning to me how far out of the crucial concerns of our country so many of these people are. There is desperate need across the Inland Waterway, but that is another world, and most of these people intend to keep it that way. It's a story writ large in wealthy enclaves across America.
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I am a regular visitor to Palm beach, as my sister and brother-in-law live there. Both of them are extremely hard-working individuals, who worked their way to where they are now.
I have also met many very kind, generous people who live on the island. I am sure there are a few bigots there, as there are in any city. However, if the majority of the residents of Palm Beach are indeed as bigotted as Mr Leamer professes, one wonders why he remains thethere?
I must doubt the veracity of quotes from nameless sources...
Take heart folks remember Palm Beach is on a barrier island and global warming (which many of the inhabitants are probably in some way responsible for) will raise sea levels and will take care of it (karma or something like that)
The warped values of the Palm Beachers in cultivating the feral cat population over alleviating the plight of homeless humans does not even evince a concern for animals per se. As with the decadent aristocrats of ancient Rome, the undomestic feral cats were introduced as a mere pragmatic measure to counter the infestation of rats on the island. In so doing, the Palm Beachers have disrupted the ecology of the island, for feral cats are predators that destroy bird species, and have been targeted by animal welfare organizations.
Were one to remain within the predator metaphor, one might compare the callous opulence of the Palm Beachers to the faulty leptin receptors in the brain of a Zucker rat. Leptin is a miniscule molecule that binds to receptors in the hypothalamus, causing the rat to feel full. As Zucker rats have faulty leptin receptors they never feel satiated and so consume until they are bloated. Thus we used them to study obesity and related rapacious disorders. The greed and callousness of the Palm Beachers, which is a microcosm of a larger national malady, bears an uncanny resemblance to this predatory condition.
Dr. G. Heath King
The warped values the Palm Beachers in cultivating the feral cat population over alleviating the plight of homeless humans does not even evince a concern for animals per se. As with the decadent aristocrats of ancient Rome, the undomestic feral cats were introduced as a mere pragmatic measure to counter the infestation of rats on the island. In so doing, the Palm Beachers have disrupted the ecology of the island, for feral casts are predators that destroy bird species, and have been targeted by animal welfare organizations.
Were one to remain within the predator metaphor, one might compare the callous opulence of the Palm Beachers to the faulty leptin receptors in the brain of a Zucker rat. Leptin is a miniscule molecule that binds to receptors in the hypothalamus, causing the rat to feel
full. As Zucker rats have faulty leptin receptors they never feel satiated and so consume until they are bloated. Thus we used them to study obesity and related rapacious disorders. The greed and callousness of the Palm Beachers, which is a microcosm of a larger national malady, bears an uncanny resemblance to this predatory condition.
Dr. G. Heath King
I know they still exist, but people like this make me want to weep. However, the future isn't theirs. It's ours. Obama won. And even they will have to call him "Mr.Presid
While we talk about the economic crisis we forget that everything that is real is still essentially there. there may be less energy available than in past years and petroleum based fertilizers may be more scarce but compared to a year or so ago what is different? Not much in the real world that God or Nature or whatever you think is the supreme ultimate provides to Us. Earth, minerals, sun, water, skilled and unskilled labor all still essentially the same as 2005. so it really is a matter of our rules, conventions and definitions particularly the ones about property, property rights and rules about property transfers.
the rich feel very entitled to have the government do one thing only and that is- in effect- let them decide how things will be. If government does little but enforce the property rights government recognizes- you will be able to direct government services in proportion to how much property you own. You will be able to control the actions of others in proportion to your relative wealth and you will be able with government assistance as needed- dictate the division of currently produced income according to your relative share of the existent wealth. no individual could possess a great fortune without government assistance. this is what the rich feel entitled to and once wealth becomes concentrated in the hands of relatively few, you have de facto feudalism and serfdom. the more the difference in wealth the more isolated in the castle the ruling class becomes and the less empathy they have for the plight of the serfs. People who do not own substantial capital become nothing more than commodities in the functioning of government and their lives have no more meaning than the market value of their labor.
Millions of people without hope can beat up a few thousand rich people any day of the week.
And you never read the Great Gatsby? Class warfare is old news. What bothers me more is when I hear the same sort of rhetoric from people who are earning a hundred grand a year and believe it! When did we get this trickle down effect of conservative elitism? Well, it all started with Regan if you go back to this tired plot device's last incarnation. Our culture of entitlement, which was a shifting from public entitlement to the "me generation" raised in an era of plastic instant gratification. While the rich may always believe falsely in the quotation "let them eat cake", it's the outrage we see publically over the opulence of the CEO's of the Big Three in Washington begging for a handout that is our true measure of where we're headed. In that, there's hope!
Oh its worse then that. I have people in my office with full union benes and collecting social security checks every month (father is disabled) who spout it. Who never paid any taxes who spout it. Who are unemployable in the real world who spout it.
Well now, as we know Rush Limbaugh lives on the "island" of Palm Beach... As does Ann Coulter.. Interesting isn't it how so many of the so called "island" residents seem to be of the same selfish sentiment.
Mostly, the interesting rich are the ones who've done it themselves, true entrepreneurs. Old Money is very boring, suffocating.
The rich are truly insulated but the callousness and racial hatred you relate here is shocking.
The haves want to keep having while the non rich and minorities are dismissed as inhuman.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Fortunately most of the people your writing about are quite helpless.
What do you mean. Wealth equals government intervention. Try taking an apple from one of their trees when you are hungry and see if they are helpless. to the extent government is reduced to enforcing market outcomes and property rights, the helpless rich can call upon those individuals with the sanctioned power to use force to come and control you. Remember Pottersville in the dream sequence in Its a Wonderful Life. think old mr Potter was helpless. He had an army of police to do his will.
Boy, I find these quotes hard to believe...
and said what she's claimed to have said to a perfect stranger. And an apparent stranger at an OBAMA event blithely walks up to Leamer and spontaneously says they keep Jews out of his country club, but now a "N-----" is president? Hmmmmm....
when people are boozed up and comfortable, in vino veritas.
Racists are not ashamed of the fact that they are racist. Whereas you or I would be ashamed of these attitudes, and would only confess them to someone we trusted, they are not ashamed. They think racism is normal, and natural, and right.
I know this is true because I hear this kind of talk from my Republican friends. I was at the Truman White House in Key West when an elderly man asked me about the exibit while I was leaving. I told him it was good. He made a statement about how bad things were now that Obama won the election. I told him that I thought Obama was our only hope for the future. He called me a socialist. I said I think you better check your record because G.W. Bush just socialized everything. Then he started shouting that I wanted to take his money and give it to the poor. I said I had to leave because you can't argue with Republicans. They are all about devide and conquer but they don't understand how to govern.
You should have asked him if he was refusing his monthly Social Security checks, because by G0d, wealth is being 'redistributed' from the working class to him. Socialism is A-ok if it benefits them, but screw everybody else.
This is old news. The wealthy are not just distanced from the drama of everyday life, their beliefs, backed by their money, are what have created many of the problems of ordinary life in the first place. The answer is obvious: get rid of the unproductive and dangerous wealthy and one eliminates the source of the anti-democratic spirit that distorts our political process. This can happen quickly through progressive tax policy and legislation that levels the economic playing field. Since this would benefit the majority it could easily produce the votes necessary to achieve it. The question is: why hasn't something this obvious been done before? The answer is: the wealthy have bought a majority of the politicians. So we have the people's interests on one side, and the influence of wealth on our politicians on the other. This standoff has been consistantly won by the wealthy since the end of the FDR administration. And since Obama is no FDR what do you propose to do about it?
Prior to the Reagan Administration, US tax policy was for higher taxes on "unearned" income, that is, inheritances, capital gains, dividends. Work was "rewarded" with lower tax rates on income. Since the early 80s, US tax policy has been shifted in favor of the wealthy. The burden of paying for government has been pushed onto the middle class mainly but lower class workers as well.
Not only did this serve the wealthiest 1% of Americans well, it was part of the attack on government in general. Far easier to reduce government until it could be drowned in a bathtub when you shift the burden of paying for it to those who work for their money and feel the loss of it much more.
Seems to me we could look to Europe to see how well such a system actually works out for it's people? Back in the days of FDR, they used a propoganda campaign that stated if you bought American, you were getting a quality product and world class service for your investment! And oddly enough, our products stood the test of those claims, so people the world over bought them! The problem came when we faced competition from other nations. Instead of stepping up the plate and taking them on with innovations, we got caught up in whinning and complaining about what the other guy was getting. And we lost our edge. Now we're wringing our hands in victim consciousness! You simply can't have it all.... there has to be a trade off you're willing to accept that makes it work in harmony with reality! And from what I can see, it's that we shifted our values from what it means to be an American. We let the Republican re-define the meaning of the phrase "value system" to serve their base, and we lost our edge. I recall when our nation actually took the challenge from the Russians in the space race literally! And we kicked arse in that fight! What happened to us that we ended up here complaining about those that have, without a clue as to how manifest our own glorious moment! Sheeesh... we've become a pansy nation! Jealousy isn't a solution, it's an emotion!
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