I know three billionaires. One used to live in his car and shower in my apartment. The other made his first mil when he was 11 years old and is now worthy at least one bil. The third is more of what you describe and she does live a world of excess. However, the first billionaire worked for almost 30 years with barely a day off, building his company. The 2nd billionaire wouldn't dream of a private jet or a fancy car. In fact he drives a used Lexus. He keeps a low profile. Number 1 considers himself a philanthropist and basically his job now is to give as much money away to worthy causes as they deserve. Number 2 gives to charities as needed. Number 3? Well, I don't know that she gives anything to anyone since she fits your description. If you ask me, the Larsons of life are everywhere and anywhere all the time. They're just made all the worse by how much money they perceive their power brings them. I'm afraid to admit that if $10M dropped into my lap I'd fly first class everywhere from now on. If $100M dropped, I'd charter private jets too. I just think it's a natural economic pecking order, too hard to resist if you grab the brass. ring in life. Hard not to be envious of these who have it all.
Well Lucian, as far as envy's concerned, one man's floor is another man's ceiling and I respect that. However, the natural economic pecking order will never be fixed. The theory kicked off in full gear shortly after the discovery of the Galapagos Islands when Charley Darwin wrote his papers. That being said, there's plenty of ultra rich undeserving motherfuckers I hate, especially after 50 years in the movie business. No doubt you know many of the he same ones I do. I can't fathom the ones on the east coast that you deal with...
Indulging in luxuries I can understand. What I don’t understand is why money makes people cruel, vicious, sadistic. Or were they those things to begin with, and money just allows them to exhibit those qualities without fear of consequences?
I know people who've worked hard for 20–30 years to build a company or a practice, with rarely a day off, but they aren't billionaires. Maybe low-end millionaires if you include the value of their land. How does hard, capable, even brilliant work make a few people billionaires and other people (if they're lucky) merely comfortable? Well, I'd hazard a guess that the economic system has something to do with it: manipulating capital is valued in a way that producing goods or services isn't. There may indeed be a "natural economic pecking order," but I can't help noticing that economic, legal, and social incentives and disincentives have a lot to do with how people fare within that order.
My pal got lucky. He was homeless when we started. Today he's worth $5-6B. He started his little company and worked and worked and worked and the rest is pleasant history. He never hurt people. Now, he's giving the morning out to help...his job now: philanthropy. All because he thought of something nobody else thought of and cleaned messes no-one else would clean. Hard for me to resent the guy because he got so lucky.
In 2000 a Gallup poll showed that 75% of Americans were certain that in the next 6-9 months they would become a millionaire through the lottery or a settlement. Why would you want regulations or taxes on a group you're about to join?
Incredible, but never underestimate how stupid most Americans are. Some famous writer— I forget which one— said that Communism would never take hold in the USA, because nobody identified with being part of the oppressed working class; instead those same people thought of themselves as “temporarily dispossessed millionaires.”
It just kills me to see Deplorables—especially the ones who don’t make enough money to pay taxes at all—vote against their own interests. They see these billionaires and believe, “that could be me! I’m American!” And such a void of morality when billionaires pour hundreds of millions into things like a Charles KKKoch PAC for dirty politics when the World is in dire need for healthcare, climate change, etc, etc. Read “The Shock Doctrine.” “Trickle down economics makes peons of us all.” Here’s a last laugh—those mansions by the sea? The golf courses overlooking the ocean? The drought encroaching farmlands? The mother-f-Kers are not entirely immune…
Money CAN buy happiness, even Paul McCartney, co-author of the song "All You Need Is Love" finally admits. Without money you liv too close to people with bad manners, you live with more bugs (bedbugs, roaches - we know we know these are all over NYC East side joints) without money your toddlers chew lead paint, your drinking water is polluted, you worry more about many things lower-middle class folks take for granted. The biggest problem with hedge fund billionaires is that only 12 of these lords control a large percentage of the voting at Fortune 1,000 companies and these companies rule the world. Thus instead of a democracy we have a freakshow oligarchy. We love reading about ultra-rich guys (and gals) do this twice a year at least. We want a report from your local polo field and a few lawn parties. Move over Graydon Carter.
If a million dollars were to land in my lap suddenly, it would mean that some people in my life whom I love and cherish would no longer be on this earth. I'll take them over money any time.
That generation of white boys on Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima never thought of themselves as privileged. We are now though, because of them. Way I see it, privilege is mostly earned. Today it has only one side and it is prejudicially viewed as it best saves its viewer.
"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different. ”
In the 1880's teenage boys would set fire to "Cottages" at Newport, Rhode Island. In the 1930's teenage boys set fire to a few palaces on Miami Beach or Grosse Point. Today teenage boys hack into bank accounts of the uber-rich and take a few mil. Mr. Larson should be given a pastel color cell with a really nice Walmart mattress and fed high quality Tyson potpies for dinner for a few years, not that it will change anything.
I know three billionaires. One used to live in his car and shower in my apartment. The other made his first mil when he was 11 years old and is now worthy at least one bil. The third is more of what you describe and she does live a world of excess. However, the first billionaire worked for almost 30 years with barely a day off, building his company. The 2nd billionaire wouldn't dream of a private jet or a fancy car. In fact he drives a used Lexus. He keeps a low profile. Number 1 considers himself a philanthropist and basically his job now is to give as much money away to worthy causes as they deserve. Number 2 gives to charities as needed. Number 3? Well, I don't know that she gives anything to anyone since she fits your description. If you ask me, the Larsons of life are everywhere and anywhere all the time. They're just made all the worse by how much money they perceive their power brings them. I'm afraid to admit that if $10M dropped into my lap I'd fly first class everywhere from now on. If $100M dropped, I'd charter private jets too. I just think it's a natural economic pecking order, too hard to resist if you grab the brass. ring in life. Hard not to be envious of these who have it all.
Well, I for one am not envious of them. The natural economic pecking order is the problem.
Well Lucian, as far as envy's concerned, one man's floor is another man's ceiling and I respect that. However, the natural economic pecking order will never be fixed. The theory kicked off in full gear shortly after the discovery of the Galapagos Islands when Charley Darwin wrote his papers. That being said, there's plenty of ultra rich undeserving motherfuckers I hate, especially after 50 years in the movie business. No doubt you know many of the he same ones I do. I can't fathom the ones on the east coast that you deal with...
Indulging in luxuries I can understand. What I don’t understand is why money makes people cruel, vicious, sadistic. Or were they those things to begin with, and money just allows them to exhibit those qualities without fear of consequences?
I know people who've worked hard for 20–30 years to build a company or a practice, with rarely a day off, but they aren't billionaires. Maybe low-end millionaires if you include the value of their land. How does hard, capable, even brilliant work make a few people billionaires and other people (if they're lucky) merely comfortable? Well, I'd hazard a guess that the economic system has something to do with it: manipulating capital is valued in a way that producing goods or services isn't. There may indeed be a "natural economic pecking order," but I can't help noticing that economic, legal, and social incentives and disincentives have a lot to do with how people fare within that order.
My pal got lucky. He was homeless when we started. Today he's worth $5-6B. He started his little company and worked and worked and worked and the rest is pleasant history. He never hurt people. Now, he's giving the morning out to help...his job now: philanthropy. All because he thought of something nobody else thought of and cleaned messes no-one else would clean. Hard for me to resent the guy because he got so lucky.
Love this majorly
Thank you Lorraine.
Did I miss Part Un?
Several years ago, I wrote it as a FB post.
Ah, explains it. I only recently began following you
In 2000 a Gallup poll showed that 75% of Americans were certain that in the next 6-9 months they would become a millionaire through the lottery or a settlement. Why would you want regulations or taxes on a group you're about to join?
Incredible, but never underestimate how stupid most Americans are. Some famous writer— I forget which one— said that Communism would never take hold in the USA, because nobody identified with being part of the oppressed working class; instead those same people thought of themselves as “temporarily dispossessed millionaires.”
It just kills me to see Deplorables—especially the ones who don’t make enough money to pay taxes at all—vote against their own interests. They see these billionaires and believe, “that could be me! I’m American!” And such a void of morality when billionaires pour hundreds of millions into things like a Charles KKKoch PAC for dirty politics when the World is in dire need for healthcare, climate change, etc, etc. Read “The Shock Doctrine.” “Trickle down economics makes peons of us all.” Here’s a last laugh—those mansions by the sea? The golf courses overlooking the ocean? The drought encroaching farmlands? The mother-f-Kers are not entirely immune…
Money CAN buy happiness, even Paul McCartney, co-author of the song "All You Need Is Love" finally admits. Without money you liv too close to people with bad manners, you live with more bugs (bedbugs, roaches - we know we know these are all over NYC East side joints) without money your toddlers chew lead paint, your drinking water is polluted, you worry more about many things lower-middle class folks take for granted. The biggest problem with hedge fund billionaires is that only 12 of these lords control a large percentage of the voting at Fortune 1,000 companies and these companies rule the world. Thus instead of a democracy we have a freakshow oligarchy. We love reading about ultra-rich guys (and gals) do this twice a year at least. We want a report from your local polo field and a few lawn parties. Move over Graydon Carter.
I call it a "Capocracy." It used to be one man one vote but has now become one dollar one vote.
If a million dollars were to land in my lap suddenly, it would mean that some people in my life whom I love and cherish would no longer be on this earth. I'll take them over money any time.
"Some people are so poor all they have is money." Bob Marley
white privilege kills generationally…and its doublin down
That generation of white boys on Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima never thought of themselves as privileged. We are now though, because of them. Way I see it, privilege is mostly earned. Today it has only one side and it is prejudicially viewed as it best saves its viewer.
I have found myself thinking that self-actualizationmin
Our early 31st century society would be a cap on earnings and/or net worth for individuals. There is such a thing as too much money
F. Scott Fitzgerald said it best:
"Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves. Even when they enter deep into our world or sink below us, they still think that they are better than we are. They are different. ”
Love your writing style.
Wish I could put it otherwise, but "A-Fucking-Men, Lucian!"
Thank you.
I am reading a book called “Jackpot” by Michael Mechanic which is squarely on point with this issue
In the 1880's teenage boys would set fire to "Cottages" at Newport, Rhode Island. In the 1930's teenage boys set fire to a few palaces on Miami Beach or Grosse Point. Today teenage boys hack into bank accounts of the uber-rich and take a few mil. Mr. Larson should be given a pastel color cell with a really nice Walmart mattress and fed high quality Tyson potpies for dinner for a few years, not that it will change anything.
This kind of stuff can get you kicked off of Facebook for offending "Delicate Sensibilities"...