Rolling Stone: The 1% Are NOT Citizens Of The United States [View all]

[Galraedia]

My Christmas gift from Rolling Stone this year was a true “Doh!!” political/cultural moment. You know, when something so obvious and in your face is just sitting there and suddenly you blink, and realize it. DOH!!! How did I not see that?! Writer Matt Taibii has put it into perspective for me and suddenly, much of the behavior of the 1% makes sense. They are not American citizens. I’m not making a hysterical Fox News style accusation of “treason!” That require that the 1% actually BE a part of the country to begin with. They are not. They exist outside any national fealty of any kind. I’ve touched on this concept before when I pointed out that Ayn Rand devotees, which many of these Very Important People are, are sociopaths. and when I discussed the idea that the Right desires to be ruled by their “betters”(i.e. the 1%) because they believe that they are more worthy because they are rich. Matt Taibii has put a much finer point on it:

The very rich on today’s Wall Street are now so rich that they buy their own social infrastructure. They hire private security, they live on gated mansions on islands and other tax havens, and most notably, they buy their own justice and their own government. But citizens of the stateless archipelago where people like Schwarzman live spend millions a year lobbying and donating to political campaigns so that they can jump the line. They don’t need to make sure the government is fulfilling its customer-service obligations, because they buy special access to the government, and get the special service and the metaphorical comped bottle of VIP-room Cristal afforded to select customers.




What these poor, picked on, fabulously wealthy seem confused about is why they are despised across most of the country and, indeed, the world. What he GOP would have us believe is that we are simply jealous of their success and far too many of the 1% are buying into this fable. Taibii lists some of the more…clueless comments from the very people who wrecked the world’s economy while skating away with billions of taxpayer dollars. From Bloomberg Businessweek:

“Who gives a crap about some imbecile?” (Home Depot co-founder Bernard) Marcus said. “Are you kidding me?” “If I hear a politician use the term ‘paying your fair share’ one more time, I’m going to vomit,” said Golisano, (billionaire founder of payroll processer Paychex Inc.) who turned 70 last month, celebrating the birthday with girlfriend Monica Seles, the former tennis star who won nine Grand Slam singles titles. Cooperman ( former chief of Goldman Sachs’s money-management unit), 68, said in an interview that he can’t walk through the dining room of St. Andrews Country Club in Boca Raton, Florida, without being thanked for speaking up. At least four people expressed their gratitude on Dec. 5 while he was eating an egg-white omelet, he said. “You’ll get more out of me,” the billionaire said, “if you treat me with respect.”

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/12/26/rolling-stone-the-1-are-not-citizens-of-the-united-states/