Those rich f*cks

"Naturally, when you try and take the bone away, even if they didn’t deserve that bone in the first place..."

I found that quote buried deep in a New Yorker article in which Wall Streeters bemoan their loss of status amid the current financial downturn. It's all "very" disturbing stuff, about how terrible it is when 8-figure salaries are somehow looked down upon by members of the public, on the subway. The selfarrogance here is simply amazing -- that they deserve to have a GDP bigger than that of Haiti because they manage markets. Oh yes, and create wealth. Sweet sweet wealth, the one thing you can never get enough of, much like coke.

But now thanks to some good old-fashioned populist rage its no longer cool to be a banker. As it should be: Bankers are inherently nerds. It's what makes the late gangster accountant Herbert Kornfeld funny. But somewhere along the line that idea was lost and number crunching became a "prestige" profession, desired by Ivy League popped collar types. I think this occurred sometime in the 80s. Greed is good, Reagan and all that. But when financiers has carte blanche and runs amok for 30-odd years, it's going to be particularly heart-wrenching for them when the lights finally get turned out. Not to mention the hangover.

And it does seem those lights are getting turned out, or at least dimmed. The crazy bender of deregulation is mercifully coming to an end. Shit, the government is actually talking about maybe regulating the derivatives market, a little. Curbing profits to cover losses, will wonders never cease. Multi-millionaires have enough power to get what they want -- they don't need Washington's help to get what they want. I assume these people have butlers.


The problem with class warfare is the rich are much better at it. Its common sense -- money and influence makes it easier to push your ideology. Setting aside lobbyists and the moneys that actually change the rule of law: The country has long embraced idea that anyone can get rich, buy a house, make their way. And do not get me wrong: I agree with this. There are few things better than life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (maybe the golden rule). But again, somewhere along the line that American Dream (for lack of a better term) got twisted up in the desire to buy more and more stuff, just to keep up with the Joneses.

But what can be done? Populism is always appealing, and one would think it could be an important tool in evening the playing field, or at least bringing those rich fucks down a peg. Power of the mob. But it tends to be right-wingers like Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck who best stoke the fires of poor morons, in pursuit of profit and ratings. Screaming nonsense about kenyan socialism and lighting people on fire draws in more eyeballs than a reasoned analysis of, well, anything else. So populism is out, and that's just about as much wrong-headed analysis I can manage at this point.