The Rich think they can get along without MOST of us.

[Tyler Durden]

I was remembering a conversation I had at "Taste of Houston" around Summer of 1986 or 1987.

"Taste of Houston" is where you pay $100 bucks to put on your tuxedo (YES, I own a tuxedo),hang out at the MGM Grand Hotel and eat samples from all of the hoity-toity resteraunts in town and smooze with the other well-to-do Houstonians.

I'm not well-to-do, neither was I well-to-do. My ex (at the time, spouse) got me in free.

It was QUITE an evening. Two converstions (one long, one VERY short as to be non-existant) stick in my mind.

The long one was with one of the richest lawyers in Houston. This pig imagined himself a "philanthropist of the highest rank" for his yearly charity contributions of around $100,000. This guy was making maybe $15-$20 MILLION, so that works out to me giving about $200 bucks a year. WOOOOOOO. Anyway, after listening to his sob story about how the IRS wouldn't let him deduct the trip made in his business jet to Mexico to pick out the pink marble for the foyer of his new house ("They ALWAYS stick in some of the VEINED stuff. I HATE that!"), he uttered, something like "Well, we could get along just fine with say, maybe 5-10% of the poor we've got now. That's more than enough to do the gardens and pick up the trash! HAW, HAW, HAW!"

Then he offered to introduce me to a friend of his, a guy half smashed and spilling his drink, tie off and collar open, telling some off color and sexist joke about blow jobs (I missed all but the last couple of words). He turned out to be George W. Bush, who waved at me and went back to his jokes and his drink. I did not see Laura.

The Rich Assholes think we are superfluous and that if they could just get rid of most of us, they wouldn't hear the ones left whining.

The WANT a "Bird Flu" or Climate Change wiping us out, BECAUSE THEY THINK THEY CAN BUY THEIR WAY OUT OF ANYTHING.

[patrice]

1. Heck, they're all just going to move away from the consequences

of who and what "we" are. I think some of them even expect to migrate to the Moon or to some other planet, sometime in the future, so what we do to Earth does not matter.

[Tyler Durden]

8. I knew a comic who called them "DOME-O-CRATS"

Because they'd be living in Domes, selling us oxygen and sunscreen.

Not so God Damned funny anymore.

[patrice]

14. Yep. Read "Stand on Zanzibar" and "The Sheep Look Up"

by Hugo Award Winner, John Brunner.

BTW, I happened to see an episode of Trading Wives recently, with one of those schedule dominated, clean-freak households, governed by a white-colar "man" whose fear of huamn emotions was prefectly framed by his perfect life. AND they had 5 or 6 children!!! It's hard to believe that they didn't use an actor for this father/husband's part, you could read his face so clearly: superiority written all over it. I wish I could have asked him what his politics are.

[tatertop]

2. that story is a real downer; I guess the truth hurts

[Missy M]

3. I'll bet when you met the guy half smashed and spilling his drink....

telling an off color, sexist joke you never in your wildest dreams thought he would be President of the US.

[Tyler Durden]

13. When he got elected GOV of Texas, I called him "Antichrist"

In front of my precocious 4th grader. I was working nights and got a call from the school to come in and talk to the principal RIGHT AWAY.

I ran in, thinking the worst, when they told me how my kid thought the new governor was the Anticrist, and how terrible that was.

I had hysterics, then told them just wait, you'll see.

[Missy M]

18. That's a great story. Your prophecy turned out to be dead on!!

[KittyWampus]

4. Yes, they do. This also accounts for the very wealthy gay people I know

who support the GOP and some blacks as well.

[Tyler Durden]

19. "BUT-BUT-BUT...I'm RICH!"

Yeah that'll work.

Living proof that money will not on its own may you smart.

[jackster]

5. remember, George told his

Harvard economics professor that the poor are poor because they are lazy and railed against "The Grapes of Wrath" because it was.... <<gasp>> communist!

[calico1]

6. Did he have an accent? Do you remember? n/t

[Tyler Durden]

15. Other than "Drunken"?

I was too busy trying to escape. I've been a Democrat and Neo Socialist since I was 13: I knew evil when I saw it.

[BlueEyedSon]

7. Yes, Katrina took care of some. The only poor they need now are in China

India, etc... thx to "globalization".

[Democrats_win]

9. Somewhere I've read that the Bush's belong to groups that think this.

They think they only need about 20% of the population to do all of the work. I don't know if it's a "new world order thing" or what.

Of course that seems to be contrary to the "culture of life" ideal they're espousing now.

It sickens me, because people like to work, feel useful and here are the bush's thinking they're wise and powerful. But really are they that wise? They're not even the wealthiest people in Midland, Texas.

[izzie]

10. I wonder where they think the money comes from?

I found that most think that money also makes them smart. It only means they have money. One does not mean the other.

[Tyler Durden]

22. $100 bills from heaven.

The churches down there could be praying the Pharasee's prayer for real.

They're constantly thanking GOD. Think God has a checking account?

[stopbush]

11. The rich ALWAYS make out, whether the economy is roaring

or tanking. What they're interested in is getting laws passed that transfer wealth from the rest of us to them over the longterm.

You're correct - they believe they can buy their way out of everything. Even an event as catastrophic as Katrina doesn't open their eyes to how quickly civilization degenerates when "the little people" aren't there to do basic things like crowd and traffic control. I guess they all assume that the police are going to open up a private lane for their Hummer or Lexus on the way out of town.

These types have a lot in common with Leona Helmsley - or, as bush called them in 2000, "my base."

[gmoney]

12. Tyler Durden in a tux in the hotel with the fancy appetizers?

Sounds like something I'd want to steer clear of. :) Whatever you do, don't try the clam chowder.

[Tyler Durden]

17. Clean Food Only!

I was too busy picturing myself as a Young Bertand Russell to pee in the soup.

[liberal N proud]

16. That is all they are worried about is someone to take the trash

and mow the lawn.
So...
Who is going to build their house, roads and the grand hotels they like to party in?
Who is going to prepare the fine meal and wait on their tables?
Who is going to sew their tuxedo's?

[ArbustoBuster]

20. Who is going to fight their wars? n/t

[Tyler Durden]

24. You are expecting REASON from these "people"...

Not exactly an act of reason in itself.

[ArbustoBuster]

32. I'm not expecting reason from them...

...I'm expecting reason from others. And if that's unreasonable, then we'd better give up on democracy right now as a flawed system.

[Ksec]

21. I once worked a 'taste of houston"

Or was it Galveston? Anyway we had a lobster tree we made that represented the Hotel Galvez, then a Marriott.. Everyone who wanted a nice big chunk , got one.

It was the richest who came there. All in all they were pretty respectable and didnt come off as impolite jerks. Im sure there are those types. Ive met many.

[Tyler Durden]

23. Galveston.

Galveston hates Houston hates Galveston, remember?

"Madge, they just don't move in OUR CIRCLES."

I never met ANYONE from Galveston who I hated like the rich and clueless of Houston.

Tried to write a book about Houston and Galveston called "CAUSEWAY". Two hundred pages of drivel before I wisely erased the files.

[Ksec]

25. Lots of big oil aholes in Houstron

used to come down to Galveston for conventions and stuff. Really rich people who wouldnt look you in the eye. I know them well/

[RaleighNCDUer]

26. 86 or 87?

But I thought * quit drinking in 84. 84 stuck in my mind because that was the year I quit smoking dope.

[mattclearing]

28. Well, DU seems pretty sure that Bush never really quit drinking.

He's had glasses of wine on state trips before, even been photographed with them, and now the National Enquirer seems to think he's hit the bottle.

[Tyler Durden]

30. Yes, you have the year correct.

I laughed myself hoarse when he came on with that "Stopped Drinking" shit.

Maybe he stopped drinking RYE and switched to SCOTCH.

[blindpig]

27. I'm not so sure

They need lots of us for cheap labor and for markets. Also to maintain the destructive fiction of eternal "growth". But I'm sure they'd like to be relieved of the troublesome among us.

[triguy46]

29. Isn't that what Vonnegut's 'Player Piano' is all about?

A future world where only one or two guys know how to keep things running? Bushco is well on its way. First we had Heckuva Job Brownie, then the apppointment of a Veterinarian to head the women's health section of FDA, Kenny Boy Lay is soon to head the fed. You replace enough people with incompetents and things begin to break.

[triguy46]

31. Just one word for you....Plastics n/t