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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMoaning Moguls - Why are the super rich so angry?
BY JAMES SUROWIECKI
The past few years have been very good to Stephen Schwarzman, the chairman and C.E.O. of the Blackstone Group, the giant private-equity firm. His industry, which relies on borrowed money, has benefitted from low interest rates, and the stock-market boom has given his firm great opportunities to cash out investments. Schwarzman is now worth more than ten billion dollars. You wouldnt think hed have much to complain about. But, to hear him tell it, hes beset by a meddlesome, tax-happy government and a whiny, envious populace. He recently grumbled that the U.S. middle class has taken to blaming wealthy people for its problems. Previously, he has said that it might be good to raise income taxes on the poor so they had skin in the game, and that proposals to repeal the carried-interest tax loopholefrom which he personally benefitswere akin to the German invasion of Poland.
Thats not how its always been. A century ago, industrial magnates played a central role in the Progressive movement, working with unions, supporting workmens compensation laws and laws against child labor, and often pushing for more government regulation. This wasnt altruism; as a classic analysis by the historian James Weinstein showed, the reforms were intended to co-opt public pressure and avert more radical measures. Still, they materially improved the lives of ordinary workers. And they sprang from a pragmatic belief that the robustness of capitalism as a whole depended on wide distribution of the fruits of the system.
That all changed beginning in the seventies, when the business community, wrestling with shrinking profits and tougher foreign competition, lurched to the right. Today, there are no centrist business organizations with any real political clout, and the only business lobbies that matter in Washington are those pushing an agenda of lower taxes and less regulation. Corporate profits and C.E.O. salaries have in recent years reached record levels, but theres no sign of a return to the corporate statesmanship of the past (the occasional outlier like Warren Buffett notwithstanding). And thats one big reason that its become impossible for Washington to get things done, even on issues of bipartisan interest.
If todays corporate kvetchers are more concerned with the state of their egos than with the state of the nation, its in part because their own fortunes arent tied to those of the nation the way they once were. In the postwar years, American companies depended largely on American consumers. Globalization has changed thatforeign sales account for almost half the revenue of the S&P 500as has the rise of financial services (where the most important clients are the wealthy and other corporations). The well-being of the American middle class just doesnt matter as much to companies bottom lines. And theres another change. Early in the past century, there was a true socialist movement in the United States, and in the postwar years the Soviet Union seemed to offer the possibility of a meaningful alternative to capitalism. Small wonder that the tycoons of those days were so eager to channel populist agitation into reform. Today, by contrast, corporate chieftains have little to fear, other than mildly higher taxes and the complaints of people who have read Thomas Piketty. Moguls complain about their feelings because thats all anyone can really threaten. ♦
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2014/07/07/140707ta_talk_surowiecki
el_bryanto
(11,804 posts)give them enough money to be super rich and see if the subject, myself in this example, gets really angry.
I think the benefits of that experiment could be substantial.
Bryant
randome
(34,845 posts)When you 'have it all', what's the purpose of existence?
[hr][font color="blue"][center]No squirrels were harmed in the making of this post. Yet.[/center][/font][hr]
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)rustydog
(9,186 posts)They are referring to "these people" not you and me.
You don't count, I don't count. it is a world market and Americans are not needed by the billionaires.
Class dismissed
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)Coming from them, it's so glib and greasy and laden with spin.
gordianot
(15,237 posts)They do seem to fall victim to political money scams.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)Pretty much says it all.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)The Pitchforks Are Coming
For Us Plutocrats By NICK HANAUER From Politico Magazine
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025158130
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)JEB
(4,748 posts)Because they are self centered pricks.
redqueen
(115,103 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)monmouth3
(3,871 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)Oh, the jungle VIP
I've reached the top and had to stop
And that's what botherin' me"
Octafish
(55,745 posts)It used to happen all the time, before Prozac.