Yo, top 1%: shut the fuck up

[ChuckF]

I get that the furor over AIG bonuses was driven largely cheap economic populism. I really do. I understand that that kind of populism isn't always constructive. And I also understand that people, including myself, are angry, and that the very wealthy are attractive targets for that anger. But I want to offer some free advice to the nation's very rich: shut the fuck up. You are only making it worse for yourselves.

Remember Jake DeSantis' AIG resignation op-ed in the NY Times? Yeah, he had some people until he mentioned the $740,000 after-tax bonus.

An anonymous "TARP wife" has written her confessions in an editorial for the not-quite-working-class Condé Nast Portfolio. Haha, no not really anonymous, it was Liz Peek, wife of Jeffrey Peek, CEO of CIT Group. I think it probably took about 12 hours for the Internets to blow her cover.

She seems to recognize the new need to be more discreet about consumption. She describes in detail her struggles to find a suitably undecadent Manhattan restaurant for her husband's birthday party, a task she compares to "Choosing Versailles to host World War I peace negotiations." And she even "get[s] it that I may not win much sympathy." That's probably a good thing, especially when she talks about government bailouts in terms like this:

It also means we’re part of the community of more than 400 companies that have received government bailout funds, whose fall from grace has been swifter and harsher than any since Mao frog-marched intellectuals into China’s countryside.

Nice analogy.

But how fucking tone deaf do you have to be write paragraphs like this:

In an effort to conserve cash, we are eating out less frequently, meaning that I’ve been turning out some pretty dreadful lasagna. Actually, staying home and watching Law & Order reruns has become our new guilty pleasure. It’s a far cry from opening night at the Metropolitan Opera, but it’s not bad. I drive the family crazy by switching off the lights every time we leave a room. Needless to say, we fly commercial. Using the company plane is now out of bounds; we’ve heard there are reporters staking out the private airports.

Goodness me, flying commercial (note, not "coach," just commercial), watching Law & Order, and driving your family crazy by not wasting energy. And, uh, way to avoid the nosy media by writing a column for a magazine. This is just like the liquidation of the kulaks!

So top 1%, stop talking. Nobody wants to hear it. There are tens of millions of American families who would switch places with you in a New York minute. Granted, you, with a little help from Ronald Reagan, have hoodwinked a lot of those very same people into defending your incredible wealth. Be content with the hugely disproportionate share of wealth that you control and stop trying to pacify the little people with your tales of deprivation. You are only making it worse.

[Watser?]

Please, upper crust, keep blabbing!

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

Granted, you, with a little help from Ronald Reagan, have hoodwinked a lot of those very same people into defending your incredible wealth.

It's even worse than that. Many of the hoodwinked believe that they're defending THEIR OWN incredible wealth. Five gets ya ten that over half of the teabaggers think they're part of the top 1%.

You are only making it worse.

Then by all means, they should keep it up. I'm not ordinarily a fan of dragging people from their homes and beating the shit out them in the street, but Liz Peek et al. are no ordinary douchebags.

[ChuckF]

Yes indeed. Beleaguered and besieged Liz Peek should offer public tours of the Peek manse, just to demonstrate the extent of sacrifice to the unconvinced. And the teabaggers who think a 39% top marginal rate for the top 1% is punitive and redistributive and socialist would get to see what they're protecting. (Actually I have no idea what the teabaggers are protesting. Does anyone?)

[LadyShea]

Actually I have no idea what the teabaggers are protesting. Does anyone?

Yeah, they're protesting like taxes and spending and stuff. Duh.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

(Actually I have no idea what the teabaggers are protesting. Does anyone?)

Sentience? Opposable thumbs? Damned if I know.

[BrotherMan]

They're opposed to pandemia telling them what they should and should not get sick with.

[chunksmediocrites]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

Yes indeed. Beleaguered and besieged Liz Peek should offer public tours of the Peek manse, just to demonstrate the extent of sacrifice to the unconvinced. And the teabaggers who think a 39% top marginal rate for the top 1% is punitive and redistributive and socialist would get to see what they're protecting. (Actually I have no idea what the teabaggers are protesting. Does anyone?)

39% top marginal rate? The thing is the top 1% last I heard made roughly 85% of their income off of capital gains, which is (has Obama actually increased it to 20% yet?) taxed at 15%; this is why Warren Buffett paid only 19% of his income in taxes a few years ago.

The teabaggers are protesting taxation, duh. That's their treasure and hard work being taken by marxist redistributionists to give to welfare queens and gay people and drug addicts. Taxing rich people means everybody gets poorer, especially since rich people warned that if they get taxed more, they won't have the largess to contribute to their charitable causes. Not taxing rich people means rich people can create more wealth and everybody gets richer, and people work harder because they get to keep all their sheckels. This will create millions of millionaires, unlike taxation which is basically just a giant Ponzi scheme. The tax cuts for everyone making less than 250k and higher taxation under St. Reagan is of course not to be discussed here.

[MonCapitan2002]

I have a word for these 1% people. Assholes.

[Caligulette]

Louder, 1%! LOUDER!!! Yes, complain to the masses of unemployed auto-workers, steel-workers, retail workers, teachers and librarians! By Gum! Solidarity amongst the stricken! I know you have lasagna noodles to burn and we are largely starving, but really, it's just a matter of degrees when you consider that We Are All Suffering!

Having to fly commercial is certainly as bad as having to choose between medicine and rent!

[Dingfod]

I think I'm going to have to pay the 39% marginal tax rate when my new website gets up: torchesandpitchforksrus.com

[GodPossessed]

I remember about 25 years ago when I went to make a presentation to a bunch of 1%ers about what our little company did. I don't think I got any work out of it, but I did have a conversation with one guy who was obviously "old money." I was in awe of the "Club" meeting room and all its finery and asked him "where does all this money come from?" I will never forget what he said. He got this paternal look on his face and said "There is a river of money in this country. Take your bucket down to the river as often as you like, but when you go to drink, try not to slurp or a poor person might hear you." I have often pondered those words.

[erimir]

Back in the day, when my parents were running a successful import business (they were the first people to import Baby Björn and Nowa Li products to the US from Sweden), we lived in a large house in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland.

One of our neighbors was the Canadian consul, whose wife was from an extremely rich Canadian family.

One time they were over at our house for a dinner party that my parents were hosting. When asked where the food came from, my parents told the guests that they had cooked the entire dinner themselves. To which Canadian consul's wife responded "How quaint!"

...random story. But I guess relevant to the skewed perspective of many top %1ers

[Zehava]

Originally Posted by Caligulette

Louder, 1%! LOUDER!!!

Complain loudly and publicly all you want you 1%ers.

The more these people open their mouths the more they confirm the fact that they are completely out of touch with reality.

OMG they can't eat out every night
OMG she has to cook dinner sometimes
OMG they can't attend the opening of the Metropolitan Opera
OMG watching Law & Order
And flying commercial with the only slightly less rich

What has become of America that our super rich are forced to take such measures?

There, there Liz Peek, let me give you a few words of comfort: go fuck yourself.

Well they were comforting to me anyways.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by ChuckF

Remember Jake DeSantis' AIG resignation op-ed in the NY Times? Yeah, he had some people until he mentioned the $740,000 after-tax bonus.

As of few weeks ago, Ol' Jake was still working for AIG, too.

[GodPossessed]

Originally Posted by erimir

One time they were over at our house for a dinner party that my parents were hosting. When asked where the food came from, my parents told the guests that they had cooked the entire dinner themselves. To which Canadian consul's wife responded "How quaint!"

Sounds like you guys were richer, in all the ways that matter, than them.

[Clutch Munny]

Fucking Canadians!

[erimir]

Yes, I've always thought the Canadians were spoiled snobs because of that.

My experience on this board hasn't changed that.

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[Caligulette]

Well, the bright side is that they'll actually starve once the staff mutinies. I mean - people who can't be bothered to make their own damn food deserve a good pop in the eye. Canadians.

[Wonderbread Leotard]

They're in the top 1% because God rewarded them for their prayers and their hard work. I mean, humble prayers to the Almighty are pretty much constant in Manhattan and on Wall Street. You didn't know that? Most of these people started out as humble laborers and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. It's America after all. You only have a problem with the American way because you're a fucking communist. You may as well have piloted those jetliners yourself.

I haven't forgotten what you did to Rambo, you fuck. Believe me, neither has he.

"ChuckF, I'm coming for you."

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

While I'm not a revolutionary, these people make me

(I'd cut a bitch to attend opening night at the Met. )

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by Caligulette

Well, the bright side is that they'll actually starve once the staff mutinies. I mean - people who can't be bothered to make their own damn food deserve a good pop in the eye. Canadians.

They could all go to the desert, you cannot starve in the desert because you can eat all the sandwiches there.

[Texas Lynn]

Originally Posted by Sovereign

They're in the top 1% because God rewarded them for their prayers and their hard work. I mean, humble prayers to the Almighty are pretty much constant in Manhattan and on Wall Street. You didn't know that? Most of these people started out as humble laborers and pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. It's America after all.

That vision of Amerikkka is long dead and not lamented.

When people say they got rich through hard work, ask them whose.

[Caligulette]

Amen, sister!

[Jug Pilot]

Originally Posted by Texas Lynn

That vision of Amerikkka is long dead and not lamented.

Actually, it never existed. It's just PR by the rich to make people think it's possible so you'll work hard to make them rich.

Originally Posted by Texas Lynn

When people say they got rich through hard work, ask them whose.

I'd like to add another amen to this too!