How Do America's Super Rich Get Away with Acting Like 'Just Folks'?

[bronxiteforever]

By Doug Henwood, The Nation. Posted June 14, 2008.
Class conflict was a lot more open, on both sides of the divide, a century ago. Where's the outrage today?

And what about the sources of the fortunes that dominated the two Gilded Ages? The elite of the nineteenth century was fresh from building a massive industrial infrastructure, like steel mills and a transcontinental railroad system. Yes, it came with massive amounts of securities fraud (a reminder that financial chicanery is hardly a recent innovation in American economic history), not to mention waste, surplus capacity and shoddy workmanship. But it did result in the transformation of the United States from a relative backwater to a global industrial power.

How did Schwarzman and his colleagues in the private-equity and hedge-fund rackets, probably the most prominent members of today's overclass, make their money? Mainly by taking over existing assets and milking them for fees, dividends and interest payments. Sure, there are some new fortunes that come from high technology, but the biggest of those are the piles accumulated by Bill Gates and his Microsoft colleagues Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer (respectively numbers 1, 11 and 16 on the Forbes 400 list). Microsoft has made its money mainly from the monopoly status of its mediocre Windows operating system. The encouragement of innovation is one of the most common rationales for the accumulation of large fortunes put forward by the system's publicists, but it would be hard to name any significant ways Microsoft has been an innovator.

Oh, and there's the Walton family (three tied at number 12 and one at 16), whose fortune comes from Wal-Mart, whose low prices have helped the working class cope with the downward mobility that Wal-Mart has helped create.

MOre here

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/88131/?page=1

[sharesunited]

1. Is Buffett a real-deal exception? Or just better at a folksy charade?

[TalkingDog]

2. We've been co-opted in a couple of different ways...

One by making elite a term of derision rather than a description of someone who has an elevated: status, skill, knowledge, etc.

That means that, rather than flaunting their wealth, the monetary elite attempt to blend in. Protective coloration and common social values come to bear. Money does not preclude one from wanting to fit in.

In the "old days" prior to mass media, common social values were much more abstract: patriotism, virtue, heroism, etc. that could be acted on within a group. So the hill folk of the Appalachian mountains would have different social norms than the Carnegies of Pittsburgh.'

With the advent of 24/7 Television with an eye toward the bottom line, every item they present has to fit the "focus group" mentality.

And being "dirt poor" used to mean one had a lot of land, but no money. It did not preclude intelligence or education.

But with practically no farms left, it has become a term of derision and a sort of American "untouchables" status. So the poor want to move up and out of the glare of the condescending gaze of the middle class and the wealthy.

They've herded us to the middle, like good sheep. Now that they've finished fleecing us, those that can't breed or can't provide a service will be left to the wolves or to the butcher's knife.

The poor don't fight back because there has been a very effective muddying of the waters. I know 2 or 3 millionaires. I can walk right up to their modest houses, knock on the door and go in and have a glass of tea. Me, granddaughter of a sharecropper, daughter of a mill-worker with a 9th grade education. Granted, I've worked my ass off to put myself through college and get a Masters degree. I can speak their language now.

But now, they can also speak mine. 30 years ago this would not have been quite as easy. But that's Democracy at it's best and worst. We're all the same. Except for the part where they don't see any problem with living off the sweat of impoverished workers....who won't admit to being poor so they can fight against the rich who all claim to be middle class.

Clear it up any for you?

[bronxiteforever]

3. Good points-Watching Bill Moyer's last night along with Stephen Fraser was great

When you talk about having tea with Millionaires all I can think of is Bush "he is a great guy to have a beer with"and thw hole elite points which were slung against Kerry.

"The United States is the most economically stratified society in the western world. As THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reported, a recent study found that the top .01% or 14,000 American families hold 22.2% of wealth — the bottom 90%, or over 133 million families, just 4% of the nation's wealth."

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/

I think the GOP Upper Class have studied the lower classes and figured out what will keep them in their corner. This is so they get control of the one thing they really want-the tax code.
The tools are different from the first Gilded Age-no Pinkertons but the purchasing of as many media outlets as possible-fox, clear channel (pretty much all radio), Murdock and don't forget the K Street Project and the American Enterprise think tanks with their state splinter groups. It is fascinating to see how much out of state money comes into state elections and where it originates from.

Of course the death and mockery of unions left the American Economy competing with sweat shops. The GOP never answered the free trade quagmire of how it is in an american workers' best interest and the workers children's interest to go head to head with the huge poverty working classes of India and China.

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. I have a problem with the Microsoft gang being included

"Sure, there are some new fortunes that come from high technology, but the biggest of those are the piles accumulated by Bill Gates and his Microsoft colleagues Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer (respectively numbers 1, 11 and 16 on the Forbes 400 list). Microsoft has made its money mainly from the monopoly status of its mediocre Windows operating system. The encouragement of innovation is one of the most common rationales for the accumulation of large fortunes put forward by the system's publicists, but it would be hard to name any significant ways Microsoft has been an innovator."

Microsoft may have "monopoly status" but the fact is, mediocre or not, PC's running Windows are still the ones that most people buy. Apple's OS has always been said to be better, but people don't buy as many Macs because they're more expensive. That's business. Despite their piles of cash, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and Steve Ballmer could all be living much "larger" than they do. It's my understanding that Ballmer still lives in the same 4000 sf home that he's lived in for years (next door to Kenny G!). It's in a nice neighborhood, but it's hardly an estate. He even carpools or rides public transportation.

[jwirr]

6. My brother went to school with one the Microsoft execs and when

he came to the school reunion it was just like old times. The two boys were from the poorest families in the school and it seems neither forgot. We need to be careful when we judge all the rich with the same ruler.

[TexasBushwhacker]

7. Yup

Even though Bill Gates and his family live in a huge "compound" it's used for company retreats and such. He and his wife Melinda have pledged to give away 90% of their wealth to charitable, non-profit organizations and schools. I haven't heard of too many other super rich making the same kind of commitment to philanthropy. They've given $34 Million over the years to Planned Parenthood, and have been criticized for it by pro-life groups, but they just keep on giving. I also appreciated that Warren Buffett felt that they were doing a great job with their foundation, so he's pledging the bulk of his wealth to their foundation and much less to the foundations run by his children.

I saw an interview with Bill Gates, and he said that of all the rumors and stories about him that have made the rounds over the years, the one that hurt the most was that people said that he asked Melinda to sign a prenuptial agreement. The interviewer was rather aghast and said, "You mean you didn't"? Bill rolled his eyes and said "Of course not!".

[bronxiteforever]

8. I agree with all of these comments-I think the article has better points than these

Gates has done incredible good things for people

[ladjf]

5. In the theater world one can chose any role. But, theater is not reality.