The Angry Rich - Greed and Hypocrisy Unleashed

Paul Krugman has a timely column in the New York Times that looks at the bizarre mindset of many of America's wealthiest citizens who, while income disparages are rising to new heights, average families are struggling to survive financially, feel that they are victims because of potential increases in taxation levels. Besides making me ask myself, "God, where is a lighting bolt when you need one," these rich folk demonstrate a level of self-absorption that is mind boggling. I guess they rather see people homeless, children starving and the nation's infrastructure collapse rather than have to cut back on the purchase of expensive baubles or delay another updating of their already fabulous homes. Here are highlights from the column:
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These are terrible times for many people in this country. Poverty, especially acute poverty, has soared in the economic slump; millions of people have lost their homes. Young people can’t find jobs; laid-off 50-somethings fear that they’ll never work again.
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Yet if you want to find real political rage — the kind of rage that makes people compare President Obama to Hitler, or accuse him of treason — you won’t find it among these suffering Americans. You’ll find it instead among the very privileged, people who don’t have to worry about losing their jobs, their homes, or their health insurance, but who are outraged, outraged, at the thought of paying modestly higher taxes.
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[S]elf-pity among the privileged has become acceptable, even fashionable. Tax-cut advocates used to pretend that they were mainly concerned about helping typical American families. Even tax breaks for the rich were justified in terms of trickle-down economics, the claim that lower taxes at the top would make the economy stronger for everyone. These days, however, tax-cutters are hardly even trying to make the trickle-down case.
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And among the undeniably rich, a belligerent sense of entitlement has taken hold: it’s their money, and they have the right to keep it. “Taxes are what we pay for civilized society,” said Oliver Wendell Holmes — but that was a long time ago. The spectacle of high-income Americans, the world’s luckiest people, wallowing in self-pity and self-righteousness would be funny, except for one thing: they may well get their way.
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You see, the rich are different from you and me: they have more influence. It’s partly a matter of campaign contributions, but it’s also a matter of social pressure, since politicians spend a lot of time hanging out with the wealthy. So when the rich face the prospect of paying an extra 3 or 4 percent of their income in taxes, politicians feel their pain — feel it much more acutely, it’s clear, than they feel the pain of families who are losing their jobs, their houses, and their hopes.
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[W]hen they say “we,” they mean “you.” Sacrifice is for the little people.