$230,000 For a Guard Dog: Why the Wealthy Are Afraid Of Violence From Below!

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.alternet.org/economy/151837/$230,000_for_a_guard_dog:_why_the_wealthy_are_afraid_of_violence_from_below/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=alternet_workplace

spare cash not just into private jets, but into private security. Think there's a connection?

July 29, 2011 |



Photo Credit: Fubar843 via Flickr


“Violence in the streets, aimed at the wealthy. That’s what I worry about.”

That was what an unidentified billionaire told Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal a while back. Rich people are scared of global unrest, Frank reported, citing a survey by Insite Security and IBOPE Zogby International of people with liquid assets of $1 million or more (translation: folks who have or can get their hands on $1 million in cash fairly easily) that says 94 percent of the wealthy are concerned about “global unrest” around the world.

He noted:

Of course, Insite has an interest in getting the paranoid rich to beef up their security. Still, the numbers are backed up by other trends seen throughout the world of wealth today: the rich keeping a lower profile, hiring $230,000 guard dogs, and arming their yachts, planes and cars with military-style security features.

John Johnson, the owner of the $230,000 dog featured in the New York Times, is a former debt collector. (You can't make this stuff up.) He sold his debt collection company three years ago, but still has not just one, but six highly—and expensively—trained “executive protection dogs.” Harrison K-9 services, the trainers behind Johnson's pricey protection dogs, used to train dogs for elite military units like the Navy Seal team that raided Osama bin Laden's compound. The article doesn't say exactly how many dogs Harrison K-9 has provided for the world's rich and famous, but it does feature a quote from their head trainer saying she's trained “a thousand” dogs.

In addition to security systems, dogs and armed yachts, the security-conscious oligarch can hire a private spy company—Jellyfish, a spinoff of the notorious private security company Blackwater. Or what about their own personal drone? “Smaller, private versions of the infamous Predator” may be coming to well-heeled private citizens near you, according to the UK's Daily Mail. So far the private drones appear to only be for spying, but former Navy fighter pilot Missy Cummings told the Daily Mail, “It doesn't take a rocket scientist from MIT to tell you if we can do it for a soldier in the field, we can do it for anybody.”

So why are the rich getting paranoid? After all, here in the U.S. it looks like they don't even have to worry about their taxes returning to Clinton-era levels, let alone cope with a truly significant change to their lifestyles. Still, as the rich get richer, it seems, they get more and more worried about the rest of us coming for their wealth—and they're out to protect it by any means necessary.

FULL 3 page story at link.

[sarcasmo]

1. Eat the Rich.

[aquart]

2. They're not paranoid. They know they deserve to be hated.

They don't know why they're not dead already.

They haven't figured out that the food stamps they are trying to eliminate are keeping them alive.

[jwirr]

22. Food stamps are keeping them alive - absolutely. They have never

understood that the safety net was for them. From the very beginning FDR understood just how close we were to a rebellion like the one that created the USSR. The safety net stopped that because it recognized the needs that encouraged rebellion. So they can just buy that dog and continue to dismantle the safety net at their own peril. Here doggy, doggy.

[snagglepuss]

3. Private drones. I'm effing speechless. This is a must read. nt

:kick:

[GoCubsGo]

4. A $230 K guard dog can be neutralized by a few strips of bacon.

I guess these assholes never saw "The Return of the Jedi", where primitive Ewoks tripped up all those fancy Empire fighting machines with rocks and ropes and wooden spears. If they think all these fancy toys are going to keep them safe, they're going to be in for a big surprise.

[MrsBrady]

5. the neighbors dog behind me is beginning to understand

that i'm not a threat because I give him treats.

at some point he's going to come to the fence for ear scratches and won't be barking NON-stop
while i'm in my own yard :rofl:


guard dogs will eat dog treats too :)

[TheMightyFavog]

11. Not a well-trained guard dog.

Well trained guard dogs will ignore attempts to distract and/or divert them with food.

[WinkyDink]

17. Not until after you were dog-meat.

[eleny]

19. Or one bullet

[PoliticAverse]

27. Or never saw this Mythbusters episode...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntY7vf5X87k

or never read Fernando Aguirre's writings about his experience in Argentina's collapse
in which he claims that lots of guard dogs were just poisoned.

[undeterred]

6. A free and loyal dog can hurt someone just as badly as an expensive one.

[ShockediSay]

7. Just like the super rich in Mexco, who live behind high walls

w/ body guards, in 'gated communities. In Mexico City I believe they call it the theGolden Ghetto.

The way to success in Mexico is to be born into it, or drug your way into it.

[Contrary1]

8. If it ever comes to that, their money won't be worth all that much...

the "rest of us" will have already taken control of what their big $$$ could buy.

[Iggo]

9. 230k?

He's still a dog.

A cute dog.

But a dog, nonetheless.

[azul]

13. That price must include the dog's servants too.

These special animals can't open the fridge or use the regular bathroom, of course.

[patrice]

10. Hell yes!, there's a connection! e.g. AFP/FRC hired dowager to represent my district, Kay O'Connor,

after being "elected" by ChurchCo to her 2nd term, RESIGNED (and handed the seat off to her hand-picked heiress, a Mary Kay Cosmetics sales girl, btw) and, as SECURITY SYSTEMS SALES PERSONS AT MY FRONT DOOR recently told me, is telling us all that break-ins and home invasions will increase here in Cupcake Land, therefore I should put my name in a drawing to receive one of their alarm systems for free in order to advertise it to my neighbors. So, not only should I be frightened, but I should also give my information to someone, whether I actually get anything out of it or not.

Scared me a little, but I told them any criminal dumb enough to risk jail for my junk is probably going to get removed by the smarter criminals that go after the stuff that has more value.

[jwirr]

23. The security industry is one of the fastest growing businesses today.

Like any other business I wonder how many are just scams.

[patrice]

24. Check out HOSPICE. Some people are handing out ANTI-DEPRESSANTS, until they can get away with

getting prescriptions for MORPHINE and writing that off as "pain" medication with CMS even though it seriously aggravates COPD and other conditions. The dosing schedule is a HUGE deal too.

[jwirr]

25. It isn't only in Hospice where many are dying this happens. My

grandson is going to in patient treatment for pain killer addiction. I am sure that he knows every con in the book to get what he wants. Scamming is a way of life today.

[patrice]

26. Can't tell you, because it makes me cry, about my nephew.BE THERE for your grandson the best you can

but also know it may be beyond you at this point.

[jwirr]

29. Thank you. It is very hard to do both hard love and let him know that

we believe he can do it. I think he truly wants to but the urge is always there. His girl friend was angry and ran over him with her car - breaking his hip in 6 places and for years the doctors gave him the very drugs he was addicted to even though it said he was plainly addicted in his medical records. It helps that he has little choice but to stay in treatment - he has a 9 month jail sentence over his head if he does not.

[patrice]

30. It breaks my heart that so much happens around FAILED relationships!! That's what triggered my

nephew's self destruction and once someone gets into that place it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for him/her and their whole set of circles.

There was at least one suicide every year when I taught high school and my kids were growing up. IMHO, the experience of failed relationships, in their most quintessential forms, is also what drives military suicides. Anomie is frightening, I imagine especially when you have had some HORRIFIC experiences that resulted in death & destruction.

[jwirr]

31. So sorry about your nephew. The school suicide thing is happening here

also about one a month. I think somehow we need to teach these children that we can be whole within ourselves and that a broken relationship may make you sad but it does not make you less.

As for the soldiers, especially those in combat areas, it is hard enough to go through what they face everyday without having to worry about home. My nephew has been deployed 4 time to the ME and I heard they are having trouble with their marriage now. It should not surprise us - when you have been to hell you come back a different person. But they are working on it because there is a little girl who loves both of them. Hopefully there is some help for them on base.

[patrice]

32. 1++++++ many hearts! nt

[lonestarnot]

12. So their greed has created their own gilded prison. Gulag Archipelago.

[Proles]

14. Hmm... something tells me that

a few tough puppies and other fancy toys won't stand a chance against a mass of people with nothing to lose.

[ThoughtCriminal]

15. I would have very high expectations

We're talking movie-like superpowers.

It sure seems like it would probably be cheaper to pay a little more in taxes and build a society where you could feel reasonably safe outside the gate.

[WinkyDink]

16. "Personal Drones" should be ILLEGAL, FGS. But they also have private islands and yacht-homes, not

just gated communities.

Moreover, the tax-payer-supported police, National Guard, and military WILL be turned on any citizen up-rising against the wealthy.

[deaniac21]

18. A private drone turned me into a newt.

[L0oniX]

20. What do they use to stop a 50 cal from 500 yards?

[Maru Kitteh]

21. The rich have ALWAYS been paranoid. This is nothing new. nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

28. Does the 230 grand include the red cape with the "S" on it?

It damned well better. For that layout, I expect nothing less than Krypto.

Money != Intelligence, or even Common Sense (which, it turns out, isn't all that "common" after all). But we all know that by now.

[Stinky The Clown]

33. "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you"

[leeroysphitz]

34. They had fucking well better be afraid. n/t