The 1% Should Live Like The Poor

[Quartermass]

I'd love to see the 1% live in a homeless shelter for thirty days or try to live on twelve hundred dollars a month for one year.

I think if they did that, then, at least one or two of them might actually learn what it is truly like to be poor, and maybe develop some empathy for us instead of trying to hoard all the wealth they can wrangle out of us.


Sometimes the biggest of changes must start with the smallest of steps.

But as it stands now, the very wealthy have no empathy for the poor and care only for the money. Money is all they love.

[anarch]

1. I totally disagree

nobody should be deprived of basic necessities. It's disgraceful that our society allows it to happen, given the resources we have.

[lumberjack_jeff]

2. The problem isn't empathy, it's affinity.

We're not in this together.

As Taibbi points out, they're not really citizens in the sense that the 99% are.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/a-christmas-message-from-americas-rich-20111222

[WingDinger]

5. That is why CEO's are paid in company stock, and others get irrational bonuses.

[Cigar11]

3. Just ask Bernny Madoff

what's better.

[WingDinger]

4. I had a landlady that was sentenced to three months in her own slum apartment building.

Catch a few doing the poor or ill wrong, and sentence them to meager provisions. Then, they can tell all.

[FirstLight]

6. problem is...

the experiment wouldn't work....because they would know they have a way out. they would no doubt even attempt to bribe people to gain access to their money...

see, the problem with poverty, is that there is NO END in sight for many who live it. The only way to humble those with too much and have them see what it is to be with nothing, is to literally strip them of it. And that to me would be a better sentence than white-collar jail and 'fines'... they would have to be publicly shamed, stripped of all their wealth and have to watch it ALL be distributed to those poor people whom they so disdain...

[Zorra]

7. They should use far, far fewer resources than they universally do, that's for sure!

Having substantial monetary wealth most often seems to make it acceptable and necessary to live like a selfish, thoughtless, privileged hog.

[Mosaic]

8. That would teach them!

Great idea!

[Peregrine Took]

9. Many years ago Mayor Jane Byrne (Chgo) went to live in one of the worst housing projects here.

I think it would be a fantastic idea if these big mouth rethug pols who are always dissing poor people would put their fat butts where the poor live. Could they do it? Newt, Limpaugh, Romney etc? I wish some Dem would publically dare them to - maybe Al Sharpton.

"If you are so sure the "poor" are wastrel, drug taking, lazy bums living off the dole like lords - why don't you move to a project for a week or so - live on a poverty level diet, wait in line to work as a day laborer, or as a guy who washes windows walking around with a bucket and a brush in freezing cold weather?"

It would be great publicity for them but would have to be conducted by a neutral group like the Catholic Workers - in fact they could move into a Catholic Worker house and do menial chores, visit prisoners, work in soup kitchens 24/7

[WI_DEM]

10. You know, not everybody in the top 1% are assholes...

there are many who give millions to charity and are even liberal. Just as there are working poor or even poor people who vote Republican.

[Modern_Matthew]

11. Waste of time trying to make them see the light.

Literally throw them out of offices. The elected and non-elected.

[MedicalAdmin]

12. Hey that seems like a great idea for a reality TV show.

And then, at the end of the show, the rich person can assuage their guilt by spreading some of their pocket change around and then getting back into their limo.


...


On second thought, I think the idea has already been developed.

I think your passion is admirable ... but keep it focused on wealth inequality and the fact that the rich don't pay a fair share. I don't give a shit if they snort coke out of the asses of pigs (see rumors re: dupont family) while .... well, you get the idea ... as long as the pay an share fairly pegged to the amount of wealth they TAKE out of the country.

[Festivito]

13. Ignorance is bliss, and they love their bliss. /nt

[Zalatix]

14. Hyperinflation is the only way they'll ever get it

Reduce the value of money to nothing and the rich will be made to understand what they've forced upon the rest of us.

Yes, yes I know, hyperinflation would make everyone ELSE's situation worse... the problem is, as things stand now, you're gonna get to the "worse" and "worst" case scenario in due time anyway.

The Plutocrats won't stop until you're dead and no longer in their way.

[Courtesy Flush]

15. Wouldn't work

It would be an extended camping trip. They know they'll go back to their lifestyle soon enough. I had a teenage foster child who spent a night in jail once. I thought it would scare some sense into him. Instead, he said he had a great time.

What really hurts is knowing there's no end in sight.

[tabbycat31]

16. many 1% types lack empathy

My sister and BIL are 1% types, and I can't speak for my BIL but my parents were very big on empathy when we were growing up.

They went to a very elite college, and I often wonder if that college told them to check their empathy at the door.