Amber Waves of Green

[phantom power]

I'd worked out that there are six degrees of economic separation between a guy making ten bucks an hour and a Forbes billionaire, if you multiply each person's income by five. So I decided to journey across America to meet one representative of each multiple. By connecting these income brackets to actual people, I hoped to understand how money shapes their lives—and the life of the country—at a moment when the gap between rich and poor is such a combustible issue. Everyone in this story, then, makes roughly five times more than the last person makes. There's a dishwasher in Miami with an unbelievably stressful life, some nice middle-class Iowans with quite difflcult lives, me with a perfectly fine if frequently anxiety-inducing life, a millionaire with an annoyingly happy life, a multimillionaire with a stunningly amazing life, and then, finally, at the summit, this great American eagle, Wayne, who tells me he's "pissed off" right now.

"I live my life paying my taxes and taking care of my responsibilities, and I'm a little surprised to find out that I'm an enemy of the state at this time in my life," he says.

... interviews with people making $200, $1000, $5000, $25000, $125000 and $625000 (Wayne) per week ...

Wayne talked to me about "derelicts on welfare" who check themselves into the hospital because they're "bored" and "want feeding," and "we're paying for all that activity." He said too much tax money is spent on "guys going to chiropractors, guys getting massages! On us! Give me a break. Guys getting Viagra!" He talked about "Los Angeles bus drivers who are on permanent stress leave because someone spat on them when they got on the bus, and now they're emotionally upside down. More than half the bus drivers are out on stress leave! Systems like that cannot work!" It seemed as if, for Wayne's philosophy to work, he needed to believe that those who don't make it deserve their ill fortune.

Later, I hunt for data that back up Wayne's feckless-bus-driver nightmare scenario. I can't find any. I do find something else, though—plenty of statistics showing that a guy with Wayne's level of wealth has never had it so good in America. And yet of all the people I interview, Wayne is the only one who seems angry about the politics of his situation. Frantz, Rebecca, Dennis—those at the bottom looking up showed no animosity for the rich at all.

http://www.gq.com/news-politics/big-issues/201207/amber-waves-of-green-jon-ronson-gq-july-2012?printable=true

[PossumSqueezins]

1. Interesting, but....

I'm at the bottom and I DO have some animosity towards Wayne.

[PassingFair]

2. I dislike Wayne as well.

[Progressive dog]

3. I hope Waynes' god will forgive him, I won't

The RW plutocrats ideology seems to be a mixture of Social Darwinism and of God rewarding them for whatever they are, maybe with a touch of Malthusian economics thrown in for good measure.
Yeah Wayne, maybe you are an enemy of a civil society. An enemy of the same civil society that allowed you to accumulate that wealth. An enemy of the civil society you are trying to buy the government of. An enemy of the civil society that you don't think you have to pay for.

[Manch]

4. Later, I hunt for data that back up Wayne's feckless-bus-driver nightmare scenario. I can't find any

I'm calling BS on his inability to find anything on the bus driver scenario.
went to: google.com
searched for: LA bus drivers take leave for being spat on.

Found this: http://gawker.com/5546930/new-york-bus-drivers-constantly-being-spat-upon
and this: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/25/nyregion/25spit.html?_r=1

He didnt search very hard or at all. Granted its New York not LA but still those were the top two! Makes it seem more ike a hit piece than anything else like he's searching for a reason to hate Wayne. I cant trust that the writer represented him fairly either.

[handmade34]

5. good research, but

as you said... it was not LA. I suggest you read the entire article before accusing the author of ulterior motives... not one person mentioned in the article claimed any hatred for Wayne (or people like him)..

now, I on the other hand, have plenty to say...