PAY ATTENTION: a billionaire opines about the 99%, 'You're the prisoners, we're the guards'

[nashville_brook]

I'm supporting our local Earned Sick Time campaign here in Orlando, and I'm being asked a lot about why I think employers would oppose such a common sense measure. Ostensibly it makes sense to allow workers to earn 1 hour of sick time for every 37 hours worked (up to 56 hours a year). Who wants to be served food by someone with the flu?

In talking to elected officials who're campaigning for re-election, the talking point I'm hearing a lot is "no one should butt-in on the employer-employee relationship." As if your employer is a priest or doctor (while they've got no problem with telling your gynecologist how to practice her business).

By and large big business wants you to be threatened, insecure and unable to do anything about it. They want indentured servants -- prisoners, in effect. And as you'll see below in this blog post from Tiny Revolution, they aren't even ashamed to say so.

One of the positive things about our giant economic collapse has been an outbreak of honesty among the billionaires who run America. Now they seem to feel free to express how they truly feel about the rest of us.

Here are the views of David Siegel, timeshare mogul and star of the new documentary Queen of Versailles. He and his wife Jackie first got national attention for their attempt to build the largest house in America, a 90,000-square foot Versailles replica:

David and Jackie have been surprised by the criticism of their lifestyle. “So much negativity. You would think they would be happy for someone living the American dream,” Jackie says. … As for the notion that the divide between the wealthy and everyone else is grotesquely wide, David says: “There’s always been rich and poor, the 1 percent and the 99 percent.” And then he adds, “It’s like a prison. If you only have prisoners and no guards, you’d have chaos.”

So that's pretty straightforward: America is like a prison, and all non-billionaires are the prisoners.

More here -- including how Siegel says he "won the election for George W. Bush"
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/003634.html

[jpbollma]

1. People like himself and Romney

are why Communist revolutions sweep a country. Off with his head! We don't need anymore Marie Antoinette's. They better pray the US/Europe doesn't fall into a worse recession or they may need to worry.

[Kennah]

4. +1000

If a RW monarchy is coronated in January, it would seem to spell the end of the 1% reign, and it won't be pretty.

[roguevalley]

22. he forgets a couple of very important things. perhaps the silicon get to his brain.

1. we have 300,000,000 guns

2. We love our children and won't see them go hungry as these parasites drive by in their fucking mercedes.

3. there are 9,999 to every 0.000001 of them

4. their guards are our family members. They won't kill us to protect them any more than the USSR army stepped up against Boris Yeltsin and the revoluation there.

5. we know where they live. Their fucking houses can be seen from space. Try hiding, parasite.

6. His wife is a parody of a sexy woman. Her flinging around with her thin lipped anger and her silicon boobs is laughable.

They are the deluded ones. Truly.

[truth2power]

26. Sadly, I think you're wrong about #4. With what's been happening in Anaheim, for one,

I'm not persuaded that the police wouldn't side with the 1%.

Law enforcement is being increasingly militarized and they seem to really get off on it.

[DallasNE]

37. You Are So Right

Mayor's can't even control the police. Contrast police reaction to Tea Party protests and Occupy Wallstreet protests.

[nashville_brook]

59. couldn't agree more -- we lose any confrontation that's not non-violent. energies focused on...

anything confrontational are wasted. it only works to their advantage (as we saw with black bloc tactical "diversity&quot .

[truth2power]

69. We lose even the non-violent confrontations. My point was

that if it comes down to it the police will shoot us for just standing on the sidewalk holding a sign. And they won't care if the person they're targeting is their own mother.

[nashville_brook]

72. the fact that there's so much to risk in just holding a sign proves that it's effective

when organized well.

[patrice]

77. AGREED. Which, ultimately, makes this a numbers of persons "game" and, unlike Egypt, we already KNOW

what we want and, hence, what our objectives would be and have some workable ideas about how to go about attaining them. The key is non-violence, because, with that approach, WE are ALWAYS right and they are ALWAYS wrong. Without it, we become them and there is no doubt that we will lose on their turf. They have us completely out-gunned and there are toooooooooooooo many people in this country who are quite comfortable, even motivated, with killing in the name of authority (and are now going into comfortable careers in PRIVATE security/armies), as I am sorry to say the War on Iraq clearly demonstrates, and once the killing starts here, that alone will guarantee those numbers, because too many people will not be able to accept the truth of what is happening.

Violence will not get for us what we want. Yeah, I'm sorry that the fact that the 1% knows that we know that WILL be used against us, so we'll continue to hear from those on our side that we MUST establish our violence bona fides in order to be taken seriously, but none of that changes the numbers. Violence won't work and it WILL be used as an excuse for more violence and indefinite detention and THAT'S what the 1% WANT, because that gives them the run of the field and all future generations of this country will be even more enslaved than we are, waaaaaaaaaaay more.

[truedelphi]

62. As far as 6 -- I'm not sure you can blame her for being angry. She is,

After all, married to him.

One thing about people who need all that money and power: it is true that not so very deep inside, they feel utterly powerless.

[nashville_brook]

68. that's b/c the more power one has, the more they must defend it.

and so there's the feeling that it's being threatened.

[Ilsa]

2. We should start a campaign to convince

Jackie that she needs even bigger boobs than the one she married.

Seriously, it would be funny to turn the tables and see if we can control their lives with a little online manipulation.

[progressivebydesign]

19. I always shudder when I see these old rich dudes with the vapid wife..

whose fake breasts are larger than his head. Those two should avoid posing with him at breast-level, makes his head look tiny!

[Ilsa]

39. But they're not big enough! She needs more

Surgery! They're not big enough!

[smirkymonkey]

64. They are just dripping with tackiness.

I know that's petty, but some people just deserved to be bashed for their ostentatious lifestyle.

[nashville_brook]

74. if tackiness were deadly, they'd be taking long dirt naps

[silverweb]

3. I saw her birthday party on video.

[font color="navy" face="Verdana"]Obscenely opulent doesn't begin to describe it. Can't find it right now, but I'll post it if I do.

[DirkGently]

5. Wisdom from a failed Timeshare mogul. THIS is the problem.

I'm beginning to think that not only is it possible for a moron to get rich, but LIKELY. And yet this pretense that money = "success = a person who knows what he/she is talking about.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

[nashville_brook]

16. +1

[nashville_brook]

45. the nouveau riche vulgaris are uneducated grifters and this one has a 90,000 sf chip on his shoulder

for nouveau riche vulgaris, it's not enough to be successful, but they have no idea what true success would feel like, so they pursue these obscene displays of "riches," that are supposed to signify and cement their achievement. the blonde, the boobs, the 8 kids, the bowling alley, the 10 kitchens, the full-size baseball field...these are a teenager's fantasy of success. it's driven by the need to believe they're inspiring envy as in "don't you wish you had ALL THIS"?

no we don't, because we're not teenagers anymore. we don't envy Versailles. we think it's sadly laughable. and so the Boy King reminds us that regardless of his vulgarity, his money makes him the 1% which means he gets to run the prison.

everything about this definition of success is malignant.

[Myrina]

71. Post of the year

[nashville_brook]

75. :)

[NYC_SKP]

6. Paid time off around the world:

http://www.oecd.org/



http://opiniojuris.org/2012/07/08/chart-of-the-day-paid-leave-and-paid-holidays-in-oecd-countries/paidholiday-2/


Sad, isn't it?

[nashville_brook]

13. it's shocking, really. here's another chart...likelihood of US worker to have sick time

[sabrina 1]

34. Yay! Something else where we're #1!

Go USA!

[Kennah]

7. They must be counting on liberal opposition to the death penalty ...

... to avoid the guillotine.

[Dawson Leery]

8. This entitled bastard is a failure at business.

He is crying because he now has to sell his nine figure mansion.

[nashville_brook]

47. Versailles is out of foreclosure, and supposedly, Westgate Resorts is profitable again.

with all the attention on their mansion, i wouldn't be surprised if he makes unsound business decisions to keep up the appearance of that albatross.

[Zalatix]

9. This needs to be broadcast around the world.

[aquart]

10. Oh, look. They can't feel good about the money unless you envy it.

[nashville_brook]

43. to me, this is at the root of the monied's dysfunctional relationship with the rest of the us...and,

it's this objectified relationship with money that keeps right-leaning 99%-ers in a prison of their own making.

example -- i've heard way too much from low-information, right-leaning colleagues that they don't want universal health care because if everyone had it, then their ability to access it "wouldn't MEAN ANYTHING." as if the point of having health care is to flaunt status, rather than to treat disease.

their point is that health care *should* be scarce b/c at root, health care is a measure of one's worth in society.

[Raine]

11. No, they are the prisoner and darned lucky they live in America. If they were living a number of

of other countries they would have to hire people like us to guard them from the other 99% and drive armoured cars. Otherwise they would be taken down and stripped of their possessions before they reached the end of their driveway. People like that should be so happy they live in America where they can flaunt their goods and not be picked off by the poor. This alone should make them glad to pay their fair share of taxes. If I was them I would worry about the ultimate effect their greed might have on the 99%.

[rurallib]

12. MItt: we got your VP candidate here, right here!

[hfojvt]

14. the analogy makes no sense

many members of the 99% are enjoying their retirements - people like my parents. My niece is about to get married. Presumably she is pretty happy about that and so is he. What exactly are we supposed to be prisoners of? What would it mean to be free? Presumably there will always be people much richer than others, and there will still be lots of hard work to do.

[lunatica]

15. If your nose or your niece's isn't being rub into the dirt it isn't happening?

Your empathy is quite moving.

[Zalatix]

29. That previous post sounded like something we'd hear from the GOP.

[hfojvt]

49. empathy for what?

the 14%? (as one blog that I used to read (before he quit blogging)) described the percentage of poor and imprisoned in this country.

But the OP was not about them. Didn't it say that the 1% are the guards and the 99% (in this rich person's view) are the prisoners.

My own nose IS rubbed in the dirt five days a week. I clean toilets and empty trash and pick up after others who are having a good time.

But I still make a decent living at that job, and I probably need to do something for 40 hours (or twenty hours, like I used to before I sorta foolishly decided that I want more money), but others are seemingly happier (and have more reason to be). So if he sees himself as a prison guard and the rest of us a prisoners. Well, I do not get that. I might have bought it when I was 27, but I sorta think my young self was being kinda dramatic.

[nashville_brook]

17. whoboy.

[Snarkoleptic]

18. Guys like this are harbingers of the cancer stage of capitalism.

They're also examples of why we must eat the rich. The excessive accumulation of wealth by the few decreases the velocity of money in the economy. Every extra million they stack up is one less million in circulation in our economy (and possibly stashed overseas). Trickle down truly is voo doo economics.

[RagAss]

20. My sig line has always said it all.

[roguevalley]

24. your sig line rules. I'll go find my knitting needles. I think its sooner rather than later.

the drought is going to bring hunger here and frankly, I think eating the rich would be tasty. All those truffles and gold.

[TheMadMonk]

30. How do you knit a guillotine? /nt

[truth2power]

40. LOL! Wasn't it Madame DeFarge who sat at the foot of the scaffold, knitting? It's been

many years. Can't remember what she kept muttering to herself.

[smirkymonkey]

66. Good One!

[roguevalley]

23. that cat took the bad taste out of my mouth regarding this tool and his boob wife.

thank you for the awesomeness.

[DirkGently]

44. Excellent.

[nashville_brook]

50. i agree that Siegel exemplifies what's most malignant about our culture right now, but

i hope that we don't focus our attention too closely on him. he's a signifier, a portent, a vapor.

we have to stay focused on what is possible to do in a democracy, and that's to level the playing field. he's a symbol of how uneven the field has become. i hope we focus on the uneven playing field because that's what they're really afraid of.

[limpyhobbler]

21. He thinks he has a right to live like that.

But he doesn't.

He thinks he "earned" it all on his own. But he didn't.

He owes us all some money back right now.

[99Forever]

25. Is this arrogant fuckstick TRYING ...

to start a violent revolution? Does he actually think he and his silicon bimbo start a chance of surviving it if it happens?

Piles of money sure don't cure stupid.

[nashville_brook]

58. energy focused on guys like Siegel is not what they fear - they fear organized people

they've come together in clubs like ALEC to crush our ability to affect democratic change...and that's why they fear and hate Obama. we have all the tools we need to stop them within reach. that's what keeps them awake at night.

[99Forever]

60. Ok.

Could you please explain what those tools are? From my perspective, things are growing steadily worse. I had huge hope that things would turn around 4 years ago for my family, they haven't and show no sign they will. We don't have another 4 years or even 1 to wait. We need our situation addressed yesterday. There are literally MILLIONS of others in the same boat. So, please please please tell me what it is that is going to be different this time.

[nashville_brook]

70. There's a lot going on at the state and local level everywhere that doesn't get

much attention, but is doing the work that is required for real change. it doesn't come from casting a vote for president -- it comes from identifying the target, organizing toward it, and mobilizing for change. the last 4 years of the Obama administration has proven to most of us on the left that this isn't something we can trust the political elites to -- it's something we have to press ourselves.

[99Forever]

80. Maybe it's me...

... but that doesn't help understand what tools you were talking about. I was very much involved, both in '08 for Elwyn "El" Tinklenberg and for Tarryl Clark in'10. I'm unclear as to how we go about "pressing" those that basically either ignore us, belittle us, or just plain tell us to quit complaining. I'm doing good just to survive. I have almost no resources to effect what these people do when they are for sale to the lobbyists once they do get into office. I keep hearing that 'we" can make a difference, but I see no evidence in the real world that it's true. It's like we are invisible to them unless we can pony up the $$$$$s. I'm about at the end of my rope.

[DirkGently]

81. Yes. Mass pressure / direct democracy is a must.

No leader(s) no matter how well-intentioned, will effect the changes we all need.

[mckara]

27. Fortunately, We Know How to Build the Guillotines!

[DocMac]

78. Nah, we have chainsaws now. nt

[Bolo Boffin]

28. Louis XIV was living the American dream?

Um, no, I don't think so.

[eShirl]

31. What is wrong with some people?

Their parents raised some spoiled brats.

[Tx4obama]

32. Movie trailers

[nashville_brook]

54. we're going to see this tonight, hopefully.

i love where she says, "this is the staircase i'd use IF i were going to the childrens' rooms."

[LibertyLover]

63. I love where he says

that the kids have their own wing with a stage to do whatever it is that kids do. WTF? He's got 8 kids and he doesn't know what they do?

[nashville_brook]

65. the stage will allow them to put the FUN in dysfunctional.

[CoffeeCat]

79. Maybe the kids will create plays from that stage...

I'm sure those kids have learned a great deal from listening to their "father" wax poetic about his guard status in this country full of prisoners.

Maybe the kids will present "Shawshank Redemption" for their summer series and "Escape From Alacatraz" for their holiday presentation.

"Daddy watch! Billy is about to say his "I suppose Andy just disappeared like a fart in the wind" line!"

[drm604]

33. I am nobody's prisoner, Mr. Siegel.

And you are nobody's guard.

How silly of you to think otherwise.

[Amonester]

35. Seems like he is his banksters' prisoner nowadays...

At the end of the film, the bank is threatening foreclosure on Versailles but the Siegels are still holding onto it, although only by the hairs of their chinny chin chins.

http://entertainment.time.com/2012/07/19/the-queen-of-versailles-how-the-biggest-house-in-america-became-a-brokedown-palace/#ixzz22dpz5G8i

I am more concerned for their kids... these two fucksticks shouldn't procreate...

[smirkymonkey]

67. One thing she got right "The bankers are like vultures".

I can't believe they have 8 kids - poor things.

[woo me with science]

38. Many, many, many are.

Millions will be wage slaves until the day we die, working long weeks with little or no benefits, well into our 70's or even later, in order to afford food and shelter and keep our heads above water in the debt traps that have been carefully constructed for us.

[nashville_brook]

46. we're seeing the acceleration of this, and I'm afraid that the corporate money in this election will

be the last nail in the coffin for workers, as they take over state and local positions that have immediate effect on people where they live.

[woo me with science]

52. Yep.

Purchasing our government means the ability to restructure society and our laws so that every aspect of our lives can be used as a source of profit.

Expect to work longer for less, expect to pay more for every aspect of your life from birth to death, and expect safety nets to be gone. Those who can no longer generate profit for the top will be considered expendable.

We become little more than farm animals on a vast corporate plantation, to be used and discarded.

[nashville_brook]

53. precisely. Griftopia.

[Starry Messenger]

36. k&r

[cali]

41. this asshole is well on his way to becoming one of 99%

again. hope they're enjoying their rapid descent.

Honesty, these are not the people with money that you need to worry about.

[nashville_brook]

48. i agree he's not the point of the OP -- rather that he candidly says what smarter billionaires don't

and that that's the situation we need to deal with.

it's a little depressing that the response to this has been bring out the guillotines. we need to instead address the issues of inequality and worker protection. the guillotine solves nothing. laws that protect us from people like this are what we need.

[DirkGently]

51. Yes. The vulgarians forget the rhetoric.

Like the politician who crowed that voter ID laws would hand his state to Romney.

It's not about someone being obscenely rich or obscenely tasteless.

It's about the power differential conveyed by obscene wealth. This turkey wants to live in a shopping mall -- fine. What's noteworthy is he believes it is entirely just that this makes him one of the "prison guards."

[nashville_brook]

61. and if you read the entire post at Tiny Revolution, he uses that prison warden power

to manipulate the political activity of his employees.

[DirkGently]

76. But of course.

[cali]

55. well said. I agree with all that you articulated.

[HiPointDem]

42. the american dream is to live in versailles? the american dream is to be a prison guard? i'm

confused, and he's a asshole with a free-spending bimbo for a trophy wife.

people with too fucking much money.

[L0oniX]

56. They are flesh and blood. People own 50 cal rifles with scopes. They should have some fear.

Too bad that the maniac mass killer people with guns don't focus on better targets. Is Batman rich?

[nashville_brook]

73. these domestic terrorists with 50 caliber rifles are not on our side #templeshooting

[woo me with science]

57. K&R

[Care Acutely]

82. Ick. n/t