What the "Rich" really think of the "Middle Class"

[no_hypocrisy]

I know someone who married "well" but she never bought into the lifestyle and the culture. Her husband takes her to expensive country club dinners where she hears all sorts of conversations that don't need to be guarded or politically correct. This beaut came from last Saturday.

The conversation at the table was about the astronomical price of property in New Jersey. It morphed into a discussion about their outrage of how the Middle Class didn't deserve their money. Especially those who made it by selling their little Cape Cods and ranch homes for seven figures and going to Florida to live the Life of Riley, putting the MC on the same level as The Rich. (The mentality is that American society is like one big country club as a metaphor. Membership should be strictly enforced to keep it exclusive. Access to wealth should be restricted in order to keep out the riffraff.)

This explains a lot about what's wrong with the mentality of our society. Even if * is removed, we're stuck with people who will do whatever it takes to return someone equivalent to * to office in order to maintain an American caste system in place. THEY DON'T WANT DEMOCRACY. They want aristocracy.

[Mend]

1. My experience as well....and they hated the techies who became

millionaires in the 90's because they knew how to do things to get rich instead of inheriting it. They want it to be like beautiful downtown Bombay, all peasants with bowls in the streets while they drive by in their Rolls.

[HughBeaumont]

2. That's about the size of it, although they won't admit it freely . . .

Just ask them . . .

[Disturbed]

5. The Aristocracy have great disdain for the lower classes.

Shrub said his base was "the haves and the have mores".

The RW caters to these elites and their goal is to return America to to Golden Era of Serfdom.

[SammyWinstonJack]

35. Prescott bush taught his little brats to have great disdain for the

lower classes. A lesson well learned. Great American family, those bushes. :puke:

[baby_mouse]

3. Disgusting. Victorian era throwbacks...

These people could do with some lessons.

[cali]

4. Certainly this is true of some of the rich

but there are people of wealth who aren't like the folks you describe. Bill Gates Sr. started an organization of rich people dedicated to retaining the estate tax. Warren Buffet has spoken out on the inequities of a tax system that rewards the rich and punishes the middles class. Many people of wealth vote democratic. So although the people you describe are reprehensible they don't represent all rich people.

[liberal N proud]

6. Absolutely correct - they want an aristocracy

One should not EARN their wealth, they should inherit it.

[Mnemosyne]

7. When I waitressed at the local CC years ago, the wife of a prominent

plastics company tycoon (inherited wealth) stated, within my earshot, "I love to go down to the factory and watch the peons work."

This woman is always receiving awards for her wonderful work in the community, after all she did help Wally World buy her land to build here. :puke:

I make sure the local peons know how much she values them. :evilgrin: Stinking old witch.

[Jon8503]

10. My take on this is yes, you are right about those attitudes but I have

seen as well, those that crept into wealth, not very smart or anything just rich and all of a sudden they feel they have moved up and beyond the place they used to be and all of a sudden want to be republican, not let those left behind have any of the things they acquired on their trek to wealth.

I think to a certain extent this is what happened to the dem party. A lot of people were able to get a good education, good jobs, a good lifestyle, acquire wealth and after they got these things moved from the dem party over to the republican party to protect their current interests.

It is the dem party that made this country great for everyone, not just for a few. This is a slight ex aeration not everyone is like that but I have seen it in others and have read that this is how the dem party lost a lot of its base over the years, union workers, loss of blue collar jobs, etc.

[Mnemosyne]

23. It's funny what money can do to

change some people and yet others aren't affected at all.

My Mom inherited a good amount when Dad died (he earned his, not great wealth, but pretty substantial). He thought of nothing but always making more money. She, otoh, doesn't want to make more money and is thought a bit odd by her financial planner/adviser. Of course, money like that grows whether you want it to or not. She says she has enough and doesn't need anymore! Mom rocks and does good things with her money helping children with deformities like cleft palates in third world nations get surgery! My sisters are furious and feel she is wasting "their" money. Yep, they are repukes!

I worked for a guy, in the mid-1990's, whose family owned 51% of Coca-cola bottling in the SE US. He was a miserable prick and hated anyone poor, or Northern. When I asked for a raise after 1 1/2 years, he said he couldn't afford it. I quit and he hired his d-i-l for some ridiculous amount. I was tired of being called an fucking Yankee anyway. And I drank Pepsi at work.:evilgrin:

Most snobs I have known have been repukes. I get what you are saying about the dems losing their base over the years. Is it shame and embarrassment at having been "there" do you suppose? It's all I can figure.

[Jon8503]

28. I know what you are saying. I had to laugh at you drinking Pepsi

at work. Good for you. You are better than most of our dem leaders, you take a stand.

You know on your question "is it shame & embarrassment", it could be but that is one that I can't understand. I grew up in a rural area and have done really well or enough that I feel proud of myself for what I have done, managed to get thru college of which my parents could not afford, so had to do most of it myself as far as paying for it but they did everything in the world to help me. I am also proud of where I came from and my parents for what they taught me. So I guess I can't answer the question of them being ashamed of where they came from, cannot comprehend that.

Your mother seems to be a wise & good lady.

[Mnemosyne]

30. Mom is alright and has much compassion for the

suffering of children. Dad never deducted his charitable giving from his taxes either. They made me very proud of them for that.

I grew up in a rural area, between two farms, and still live in the same small community after many years trying to escape. I feel no shame at being poor and rural, I did nothing wrong.

Your parents sound so supportive. My dad thought women should "find good husbands". I never did, married to please my parents and ended up miserable.

Good for you on working your way to better things! I will never understand shame of people at where they came from. You should be proud of your accomplishments, but also of your roots, unless your parents were Nazis or elitists. It is what makes us who we are today.

I started drinking Pepsi at work, receptionist/secretary, after I heard "fucking Yankees" for the umpteenth time by the third week of work there. My silent rebellion!

Have a good one! :hi:

[Mend]

12. and over-heard on a golf-course in Bermuda, "wonder

what the poor people are doing today?"

[Mnemosyne]

19. Eat the rich! n/t

[MissMarple]

43. Funny, hubby's dad used to say that. He worked for every penny they had.

They had very little, but they always had food on the table, and most of the kids went to college. Christmas was usually a bit sparse, but the food was good, and they always had the basics.

[raccoon]

21. I think people like this have some sort of personality disorder.

Like, maybe, terminal bitchiness?

I knew a woman like this, wasn't rich--I'd say middle class.

She worked in an office job at a textile mill (now long since gone) and I heard from a co-worker of hers that she referred to those who worked in production as "those things back there."

She was just a bitch, pure and simple.

[Mnemosyne]

24. I'm a pacifist, but

I'd have been hard pressed not to slap the crap out of that woman!

How do these people look in the mirror each day? :grr:

[raccoon]

25. That's what I don't get--much less how does anybody LIVE

with these people (she was married) without committing homicide, suicide, or both?

[Mnemosyne]

31. Birds of a feather?! n/t

[raccoon]

32. I guess that's the case a lot of the time. In this case, this woman's

husband was a total wimp.

[mitchum]

47. Well, she should be put up against the wall and shot with a gold-plated...

gun.
Nothing less would do for someone of her exalted station.

[Dover]

8. While I agree with your statement, I don't think this issue belongs only

to the very wealthy. There is plenty of this attitude to go around that is pretty evenly distributed among the different ecnomic strata and directed at those who are 'below' them.

So getting rid of this issue begins 'at home' so to speak. How do you interact and get along with those of lower economic means?

[rman]

27. Kicking those below us in the hierarchy is an significant factor

in keeping the system going. Aside from exceptions, the super rich do that, the middle class does it. So yes indeed there plenty of this attitude to go around. It seems as though people think the only way to make things better for yourself is to disenfranchise others (which is in fact the only way for the super rich to become as rich as they are).

[moondust]

Small political minority.

If only the great masses would wake up and vote their puppets into oblivion where they belong...

[bluestateguy]

9. Not all rich folks are right wing Republicans

Places like Marin County and Beverly Hills California, and the Upper East Side of Manhattan actually vote solidly Democratic. There is a tendency for people to overstate the extent to which the wealthy vote Republican. The margin is not as overwhelming as you might think.

[bread_and_roses]

16. Some know it's best to "invest" in some bread and circuses for the peons

And that's largely what the Dems have become - the Party that oppresses a little bit less, throws a few bones more. Just enough to maybe keep people from taking to the streets. We don't see the Democrats promoting anything that would actually make a dent in the Oligarchy - National Health Care, real Living Wages, a guaranteed National Income, human rights constraints on the movement of goods/capital around the globe, etc.

You don't see the Dems (as a Party, there are individual exceptions) speaking to the ongoing racism, the third-world-ification of our inner cities, the insane oppressions of the "drug war," or calling for free secondary education (or even universal pre-K!).

The amazing thing about the current Junta is that they don't even seem to see the sense of keeping the populace quiet with a relatively decent standard of living. They would strip every social protection, every "common good" like "free" clean water or public education, every impediment to unrestricted profit - like decent wages, retirement protections, health care. They would see people dying in the street if it meant another day, another dollar in their pot.

[marions ghost]

22. No, not all rich folks are rightwingers...

but all Republicans are tightwad Republicans. And rich Democrats aren't a whole lot better. Excess money makes people grasping and selfish. It's just the nature of it. Poor people are much more generous.

The arrogance of the moneyed aristocracy is an old story. Many throughout history fall prey to the Cult of the Golden Calf. These are people who REALLY believe that money and all the trappings of it can ensure them "class." They think that this exalted status will make them happy. In fact, there is more class and real humanity in the average UPS driver or cafeteria worker.

The problem is now that the rich are bringing this country down. Somehow they always forget to invest--in The People.

[dusmcj]

11. SOP: Ratzinger (the new Poop) & neocons say it in so many words

Ratzinger's buttboy in Peru (the local archbishop there) proclaimed that contrary to liberation theology, the solution for poverty in Latin America is to promote a social elite which has a 'vision for society' there. Similarly, the neocons are unrestrainedly in favor of an elite which runs the country behind the scenes and applies 'mushroom management' (phrase from my ex-manager) to the people: feed them shit and keep them in the dark.

Fuck them.

[Vinca]

13. They're just pissed because they'll have to look harder for

maids and gardeners. That's why they're all for the "guest worker" program.

[Burried News]

14. This is why it is so nice to know histroy and start discussing the

Revolution of 1789 in France. They get the message pretty quickly and start to 'value' the middle class to protect them from the mob.

[Iris]

15. So, are these people old money or noveau rich?

Because, frankly, a country club membership is just not all that impressive anymore. There are clubs for various income levels, especially here in the South.

[OhioChick]

17. No need to worry about

the middle class any longer......they're disappearing.

[Iris]

18. hey. I was just going to say that.

I mean, isn't selling the ranch or the cape cod and moving to Florida the American dream? It's what my grandparents did, but for those of us under 50 now, it may always just be a dream.

[Ufomammut]

20. Sometimes people don't like generalizations

Precisely because of the nugget of truth within.

My wife has a childhood friend who made a lot of bad choices, ended up with many guys who weren't good for her, and who finally settled down with a wealthy (by our standards, anyway) small town guy whose family is ultra-uptight-conservative. She's always been a superficial tomboy type, "one of the guys," but her marriage to him has had a strange effect that has alienated my wife and some of their other mutual friends. They're both phony, and their interests are limited to spending money on house/cars, watching sports and playing "Texas Hold Em" with their like-minded friends, which they get all neurotic and overtly competitive about, resulting in arguments betweeen her and him.

I dunno, we don't know any "rich" people aside from them, but there is a noticable disconnect there.

[400Years]

26. This thread gives rise to the question of what constitutes "wealthy"

for me the definition would have to mean when you can live off of your wealth and not work.
Depending on your lifestyle that may not mean much money or it could mean alot of money.

[patcox2]

29. TPTW.

It means "trailer park white trash" and is a phrase you will hear often from upper middles and nouveau riche.

Thats the most common expression I have heard from them for "poor" people.

The old money kind will simply talk about "these people" with a certain inflection. "That kind." "Those people." "Not our kind." GHW Bush used to do in public, in speeches, when he would talk about Saddam or Noriega as "this guy" or "This guy over here" in exactly the same tone he would use when blackballing someone for club membership. "Who does this guy think he is?"

In contrast, a fellow Upper would be described as a "quality person" of "good breeding."

[Hidden Stillness]

40. Short Term Job Taught Me About This Type

Many years ago, I had a job for over a year as a bagger ("courtesy clerk") at a supermarket, in a very wealthy, Republican area. I lived among these people for a long time there, and I got a lot of their behavior. The attitude of most of them toward the employees, some of whom were actually also rich and from the same neighborhood--and I learned a lot from them too, but as friends--was a kind of dismissive contempt, as if we were their servants, and no amount of work we did was enough.

Your own post brilliantly sums up the way they use language, and you get the drift of it after a while. No matter how fantasy-world-ignorant and isolated these people are, they believe they are describing the actual outside world. The worst I ever heard, one of the few times I heard them come right out and use phrasing like this "around us," was when I overheard a rich teenage cashier talking to a rich customer, and overheard the phrase "the lower classes." I never bagged for that person again. They presumptuously refer to you by your first name, (on your name tag), as if they are entitled to, yet they never tell you theirs, and often would not even look at you the whole time they were talking. Another time, in the bottle-return area, a rich woman customer originally from India cut ahead of all the other customers, after, incredibly, asking management at the front office if she could do it, and she said, to me, "I'm rich. I can do whatever I want."

There is no cheaper tightwad than a rich Republican. One time, coming back from a break, I heard a loud, angry fight at one of the cash registers, where somebody I knew and liked was working. Management was called to the register, it went on and on, and when I heard about it later--believe it or not it is a fact--a customer was fighting about the claim that she had been cheated out of ONE PENNY---one single penny. This is how these people got rich. They take advantage of every service the store offered, and paid for nothing. I never heard so many demands to take their groceries to their vehicles and load them, a "carry-out," as this area, when these people were all perfectly capable of doing it themselves. One time, a rich woman had bought two cartsful, and another bagger and I loaded them into her small car (she had thoughtfully not allowed nearly enough room for all this shit, but that was our problem now). After a lot of work, we were each tipped a dime. She made a show of giving it to us, and it was a dime. I was so offended as a human being that I flipped it on the ground and walked away. She said, with a strange, mocking voice, "What's the matter?" and when I looked back, she was trying to bend over in her high heels, to retrieve the cash. It made a singular impression of "the banality of evil."

Rich people love to taunt you when they know you can't fight back. Once, I was out getting carts in the parking lot, and a male whistled at me and pointed to a cart over on the other side of the lot, where this male was, like I was a dog being called, "come and get this one." When I was in the bottle-return room, counting cans and bottles returned by these people, (they all watch you like a hawk, making sure you count every one, and often they would go to the front office and lie, claiming that I had undercounted them; luckily, they knew me by then in the front office and always believed me), they often brought in huge garbage bags to be counted. You relly learn how filthy these rich people are, with something like this. I cannot tell you the number of times where I opened the bag to start counting bottles, and there were dirty disposable diapers, an opened container of sour cream, empty bags of chips, on and on--to try to degrade me with. Every single time, they--smiling--pretended they knew nothing about "whoever" put that there. I always gave it back to them, with their bag, and never let them see you shocked or hurt. They are like devils.

Rich people steal things all the time. There is an expensive spice called saffron, that is usually only available behind the counter, because it gets stolen when just on the shelf in the aisle. It could not be kept there in Richieville either, because they always stole it, even though every single one of them could easily afford it. Rich people are clueless and stupid. One time when I was outside getting carts, a rich couple came out and were so pleased that the workers in the store were so nice and helpful, etc. They came right up to me and asked if the staff was so good because there was no union here. I was flabbergasted, and had to recover. As I recall, I answered that it was because there WAS a union there, that they were good.

I could easily go on and on; these are just several examples I remember off the top of my head, all these years later, and these people have not changed. They still think we are their servants. I began that job with no particular opinion one way or the other, about rich epople. I left it hating them, and wishing them all destroyed.

[KansDem]

44. Thanks for these observations! I was reminded of some experiences too

I live in a somewhat economically diverse area--as much as possible for NE Kansas. My home is in what I would call a solid middle-class neighborhood. However, around me are wealthier communities in a kind of pastiche arrangement. It's not unusual to drive through several communities and experience the gamut from small homes with single moms to large estates with huge lawns.

Anyway, this arrangement leads to a mixing of the economic factions at the local supermarkets:

Rich people steal things all the time--At one local supermarket there is a display of bulk coffee brands. One is an economical brand and another is an expensive "designer" brand. I saw a fashionably-dressed woman pick up a bag with the economic brand's label and fill it with beans from the expensive "designer" coffee bins. As I watched this I thought she had at first made a mistake, but it soon became apparent she wanted to buy the expensive coffee at the economical price. I happened to get behind her in the checkout line and noticed she paid with a Visa Gold card. I thought to myself, "So that's how you get those cards...!"

Rich people love to taunt you when they know you can't fight back--Recently I stopped by another supermarket to pay a bill. The customer-service counter will accept utility bill payments and I find it convenient to simply run by on my way to work (I work one evening a week and go in later that day) and pay the gas, electric, and phone bills. This one time I approached the desk and find I had to stand in line. No problem, there was only a couple people in front of me. I also noticed a shopping cart filled with groceries and a store employee standing idly by it. I thought this was odd but didn't think much of it until I realized the cart of groceries belonged to one of the customers standing in line at the customer-service counter. It appeared she had done her shopping, checked out, and either requested or had offered assistance with her cart. A young employee was pushing the cart to her car for her. She must have decided to do some business on the way out at the customer-service desk, so instead of thanking the employee and taking the cart herself, she stood in line and had the employee stand there with her (slightly back and off to one side). I thought, "How arrogant!" She appeared to be quite capable of taking her own cart of groceries out to the car, but her sense of entitlement ignored the worth of the employee, who certainly could have returned to his duties for the benefit of other customers. And she was there several minutes with the employee standing "dutifully" by... I spent this time watching other upscale customers and noticed they rarely, if ever, acknowledged the store employees. I did not hear "please, "thank you," or "Hello, how are you?" It was as if the employees were there merely to serve them, and were invisible when not needed. I felt sorry for the employees, especially those old enough to be grandparents getting the treatment from young, upscale 20-something customers.

[NashVegas]

33. Old Money Has Always Hated New Money

We didn't invent the term "nouveau riche."

This is coming from the perspective of someone who grew up two-three rungs up from the trailer park, on the socio-economic ladder and now mingles among people of all walks of life. Living in the very society-conscious South.

One of the things that people with old money tend to do is contribute to their local community both with their cash and with their time. You can sit around on your butt all day, or you can get on a committee and hang out with people in similar circumstances, and have something to pat yourself on the back for.

People of lesser circumstance don't have that background, that habit of contribution. We grew up with the 40 hour work week, and some of us, barely enough money to get by day-to-day, let alone write checks for everything from museums to the local animal shelter.

So you sell your house, you sell the IT stock options, you win the lottery, or whatever, and all the sudden you've got all this money. If you want to be accepted by the old money, the quickest way to do it is step up to the plate. It also helps to be able to keep the money rolling in once you've got it. The truly rich don't live off of their income, they live off the interest of their income/capital. Otherwise, you may be on the same footing with them, financially, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're "the right sort of people."

[Minnesota Libra]

34. I'm truly beginning to believe this, and I wonder just how many........

.....other people (the ones who don't get involved in politics, march, speak out, etc) already understand this very concept.:cry:

[Don Claybrook]

36. History has always found a way to deal with these people

When the people are oppressed for long enough, they will revolt. And it's a lot more difficult to whine about the poor when your head is mounted on a pike in your front yard.

I don't advocate this, of course, but I do see it as a possibility if we keep going down this path our country is on. Wealth redistribution is something that wants to happen, wants to seek equillibrium. The rich would do well to be happy with being rich and not seeking to be super-rich. The equation just doesn't work for them long-term when they go overboard at the expense of the rest of the population.

[PassingFair]

37. Middle Class sometimes pulls this *hit on the working classes, too.

Had an argument with a guy the other day, who was complaining about how it's the UNIONS
that had tanked our economy! He said that the workers had it TOO GOOD, with vacation
homes and SUV's. AND THEY DON'T EVEN HAVE COLLEGE EDUCATIONS!.
THAT got me mad. Like a diploma is some kind of talisman or
guarantee of "the good life".

I used a little Eugene on him, appealed to his humanity:
we let it drop, but not without him having to question his own bigotry
and sense of entitlement, and everyone at the table gasping
at his sense of superiority.



"Those who produce should have, but we know that those who produce the most - that is, those who work hardest, and at the most difficult and most menial tasks, have the least."
--Eugene V. Debs

[Generic Other]

38. What I really think of the "rich"

It would all fit in a guillotine basket.

[Tsiyu]

39. I wonder how they decide who "deserves' their money

We know hard work isn't the factor.

Nor are brains.

Or ethics.

I guess Jeebus has a list?

[earth mom]

41. I've worked for the rich in the past

and I tell you, they are snobs of the worst kind and cheaper than Scrooge. To hell with all of em. :puke:

[deutsey]

42. Don't forget they tried to pull off a coup against FDR

The wealthy elites in this country tried to oust FDR early in his presidency but the guy they tried to recruit as their figurehead, war hero Smedley Butler, exposed their scheme.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Coup.htm

Looks like they found the right figurehead in ol' W.

[mitchum]

48. And they don't realize that FDR kept their heads from ending up on pikes..

the US was VERY close to a massive revolution. The advances of the New Deal alleviated some of this economic oppression.
FDR was not a traitor to his class, but rather, saved his class. And they are too stupid to realize this truth.

[arendt]

45. How appropos! See my thread in GD: "Dave - I'm losing my mind..."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x735395

arendt

[Dob Bole]

46. What I really think of the Middle Class...

spoiled rotten, thinkin' their kids are better than everyone else, forgetting about the poor, out of touch with reality tools of the Man.

Of course, that is a vastly inflated stereotype. But neither the rich nor the middle class seem to care about or understand the poor very much.

[Jim Warren]

49. It's always been about class

the real enemy has always been fascism. (good companion thread to arendt's essay)