Howard Zinn on smug statements

[Scuba]

[heaven05]

1. another american treasure

[LibDemAlways]

2. Those who make the big bucks are

generally well connected. In this country the old adage holds true. It isn't what you know. It's who you know or who your parents know, and depends on the extent to which those contacts are willing to help you based on what you can do for them. The system is rigged. Work ethic doesn't even enter into it. If you are without resources and allies, God help you.

[Swede Atlanta]

3. What the reich wing fails to understand is......

most people don't expect or even want to be rich.

All they want to do is have economic opportunity to be able to provide for their families without having to work 2-3 jobs. All they want is for corporations, as a result of poor public policies adopted by elected officials, to stop offshoring good middle income jobs to the far corners of the earth.

This has nothing to do with whether someone works hard or not. Not all individuals have the interest or drive to start their own business. Many are happy to have a job with a company, work hard and show loyalty to that company and be treated fairly in return.

[Wolf Frankula]

4. It's Hard Work to Pick Rich Parents

Just ask anybody who was born rich.

Wolf

[adirondacker]

6. I proposed a class on it in college. No takers. nt

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

5. It is such a lie. As is the implied idea that those who are rich necessicarily worked hard.

In addition to their high-paying jobs, at which they may or may not work particularly hard, many wealthy people get, through their rich friends and connections, appointments to BS jobs that require they attend a few meetings a year and which pay more than most Americans will ever earn in 5 years.

[tiny elvis]

7. the other aspect of smugness is security in possessions, position and

expression without challenge
it will continue through habit to the last word on the scaffold

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. The comfort of the rich depends on a plentiful suppy of the poor. - Voltaire