Understanding America's Class System Honk if you love caviar

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2010/08/understanding-america.html#more

How about them political elites, huh? Five million bucks for Chelsea Clinton's wedding, 15K just to rent the air-conditioned shitters -- huge chrome and glass babies with hot water and everything. No gas masks and waxy little squares of toilet paper for those guys.

Yes, it looks big time from the cheap seats. But the truth is that when we are looking at the political elite, we are looking at the dancing monkey, not the organ grinder who calls the tune. Washington's political class is about as upwardly removed from ordinary citizens as the ruling class is from the political class. For instance, they do not work for a living in the normal sense of a job, but rather obtain their income from abstractions such as investment and law, neither of which ever gave anybody a hernia or carpal tunnel. By comparison, the ruling class does not work at all.

Moneywise, Washington's political class is richer than the working class by the same orders of magnitude as the ruling class is richer than the political class. This gives the political class something to aim for. To that end, they have adopted the ruling elite's behaviors, tastes and lifestyles, with an eye on becoming members. Moreover, it is a molting process that begins with the right university and connections, and culminates in flying off to Washington with the rest of your generation's most privileged and ambitious young moths.

They make enough dough to at least fake it until they make it. Fifty-one of the 100 members of the US Senate are at the very least millionaires -- probably more than that, since multi-million million dollar residences and estates are exempt from the official tally. For instance in the House, Nancy Pelosi's net worth is either $13 million, or $92 million, depending upon who is counting. Why they bother to shave such large numbers is a mystery. Thirteen million, ninety two million, the difference is not gonna change our opinion of Nancy. Our opinion being that the broad is loaded. More than loaded. The comparatively poor members of Congress, like Barney Frank, are near millionaires. His publicly declared net worth is $976,000. For the life of me, I cannot see how they get by.


More at the link ---

[Hannah Bell]

1. "the dancing monkey, not the organ grinder who calls the tune."

[Turbineguy]

2. +1!

That does pretty much sum things up.

[blindpig]

3. Alienation is a malady until it becomes catharsis.

It's happening, by fits and starts, here and there, coming and going but inevitably growing. Buck up Joe, it's coming, whether we like it or not.

k&r

[Starry Messenger]

4. k & r

[Fly by night]

5. Eat the rich.

[seabeyond]

6. i really do love caviar. i have an excellent recipe, cream cheese layer,

hard boiled egg layer, cavier on top. scoop some on a cracker and to DIE for.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. It sounds good, but

would it taste good if the caviar was substituted with a sardine, or some peanut butter?

I'm getting hungry now.

:hi:

[seabeyond]

8. eeeeew, lol.

i am in texas and made it a decade ago, for a company party. so many of my recipes didn't fly. like jumbo shrimp with cocktail sauce. people would not eat it. i had one other person in the whole party that even tried it. like it. but no one else

that is living in texas.

ah, i can't eat it all myself. i have missed out having to adapt

now meatballs in a grape jelly sauce is a real winner. everyone stood around that crockpot.

[immoderate]

9. Article is well done.

--imm