Thursday, July 19, 2007

What the Rich think of themselves

This article is interesting if only for us to better understand what the very rich think of themselves. And by extention us.

[excerpts]
...starting in the late 1970s, as the [income tax and government oversight] constraints receded, new tycoons gradually emerged, and now their concentrated wealth has made the early years of the 21st century truly another Gilded Age.

...the very rich [contend] that they are, more than others, the driving force of a robust economy... "The message is that all brilliance emanates from the top; that the worker on the floor of the store or the factory is insignificant."

A handful of critics among the new elite, or close to it, are scornful of such self-appraisal...
[And, historically,] ...none of the nation’s legendary tycoons was more aware of his good luck than Andrew Carnegie... Repaying the community did not mean for Carnegie raising the wages of his steelworkers. Quite the contrary, he sometimes cut wages and, in doing so, presided over violent antiunion actions... Carnegie did not concern himself with income inequality. His whole focus was philanthropy.


What does this tell us?

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