Ann: "You should thank your lucky starts that you have the CHANCE

[SheilaT]

9. It goes far beyond a sense of entitlement, although

she and Mitt have a sense of entitlement so huge that it's almost unmeasurable.

But neither one of them has had a truly difficult job, even though they think they have.

Attending Harvard is probably not a picnic. But I'm under the distinct impression that it's almost impossible to flunk out. For someone who is working full-time while getting a degree, there's a huge time commitment. If you're only attending school (and I've done it both ways) your time commitment simply isn't that huge.

While being a stay-at-home mom isn't a picnic either, if you can afford even minimal household help, say a once a week cleaning service, you get to skip some of the more wearying aspects of the job, and get to focus on the fun and interesting stuff. And if you're a stay-at-home mom of any kind, you don't have to juggle getting to work, worrying that if you must miss a day because a kid is sick you'll lose your job. A working mom who can afford serious household (housekeeper, nannies) also does not fully understand the genuine balancing act the vast majority of working moms do.

In other words, while by their lights they've worked hard, they have not remotely experienced what life is like for the 90% out there. They don't have friends among the 90%, and only interact with them when those people are waiting on them in some way. And that doesn't happen very often for people in their stratospheric level of wealth.