Column: Jamie Dimon should relax; nobody wants to take his stuff away

[LuckyTheDog]

Jamie Dimon wants you to know that he’s not a bad guy and wishes people would stop picking on him and people like him.

Speaking at an investors’ conference in New York recently, Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co., said: “Acting like everyone who’s been successful is bad and because you’re rich you’re bad, I don’t understand it. Sometimes there’s a bad apple, yet we denigrate the whole.”You’re right, Mr. Dimon, you don’t understand it. If you really think the rise of Occupy Wall Street and the rest of the “99 percent movement” is about demonizing individuals or denigrating the notion of success, then you really are missing the point.

The angst we see in the country today isn’t so much about “hatin’ the playas,” it’s about “hatin’ the game.” By “game,” I don’t mean capitalism, but the way capitalism has been used in recent years to further enrich people who were already wealthy, while the incomes of those in the middle class have stagnated or declined in real (after-inflation) terms. We see that not only in the Occupy movement, but in the Tea Party as well.

One does not have to be a Maoist, a follower of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un or some other kind or extreme egalitarian to be concerned about the rapidly growing income and wealth inequality in the United States. For a lot of people, there is a sense that the 2008 banking crisis was just a symptom of a bigger disease – some kind of cancer eating away at the ability of folks like them to get ahead and feel confident about their financial futures. They don’t want to seize the riches of the top 1 percent. They just want to be able to earn enough at work to provide a little comfort and security for their families – and maybe buy a new car every few years or take a trip to Disney World.

More here: http://www.northstarwriters.com/2011/12/21/jamie-dimon-should-relax-nobody-wants-to-take-his-stuff-away/#more-9530

[DCKit]

1. Speak for yourself. I'd take it.

But I'd be happy with a hefty tax rate, and an even higher rate on unearned income.

[lindac007]

2. How is it that they do not see what is going on around them?

I have come to believe that these people, Mr. Dimon and his wealthy colleagues simply don't understand what is going on out here in the real world, and I think its because they don't see it. They go from their mansions to their high rise offices, to their summer homes in their limos and planes and have no clue that there are people out here who are hungry and homeless and in danger of losing their homes and their jobs.

There can be no other explanation for it. Mr. Dimon's persecution complex for which he could probably use counseling, tells me that he is in some sort of bubble where nothing else exists but his life and the lives of his rich friends, who will never have to worry about losing anything.

Perhaps if he were sent pictures of the real world out here, people's belongings on curbs, children crying because they have lost the only home they ever had. Children going to bed hungry, men losing their jobs after years of hard work, unemployment lines, you name it, does anyone think that would make a difference to him and to his friends?

I don't know, but I do know that somewhere out there, there has to be someone of Mr. Dimon's ilk who has a conscience. It sure would be nice to find him or her.

[LuckyTheDog]

4. They see it

They just don't care.

[tabatha]

3. Jamie Dimon is a crook.

He is trying to pretend he is not.

[LuckyTheDog]

5. He's also a big-ass whiner (nt)