AthenaAwakened
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... they would riot
-
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If the Poor Knew How Rich Rich People Are...
- Thread starter AthenaAwakened
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Nice Squirrel
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Eat the rich!
Derec
Contributor
That word you keep using ...hypothetical poor person said:
thebeave
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What is about poor people rioting as a way to express their displeasure with something? Especially in their own community. It's like me saying, "Dang... I didn't get that promotion. Think I'll go vandalize the kids' playground down the street". Wouldn't it be better and more productive if I just worked harder instead so maybe I'l get it next time? Or try to get a new job?
I guess I could kinda see why the poor people would riot in a rich people's neighborhood because they're jealous that the rich people have nice cars and Xbox's and eat caviar and stuff, but it still seems wrong overall.
I guess I could kinda see why the poor people would riot in a rich people's neighborhood because they're jealous that the rich people have nice cars and Xbox's and eat caviar and stuff, but it still seems wrong overall.
Derec
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Good point. It's not like trappings of great wealth were some sort of secret before Chris Rock and Cenk Uygur enlightened us all.
Jimmy Higgins
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Yeah... just work harder. I worked myself so hard last year, nearly to the breaking point. I came up approximately $1 million short of making $1 million. I can't imagine how hard millionaires like Rush Limbaugh work, especially on a program where he speaks about 20 to 23 minutes an hour... for three full hours.
Derec
Contributor
The joke's on them since caviar is kind of nasty anyway.
Executive 1: Hey, how did you get the productivity at your firm to go up so much?
Executive 2: I told them the key to becoming successful is to work harder.
Executive 1: . . .
Executive 2: . . .
Executive 1: lolololol!
Executive 2: inorite?
Executive 2: I told them the key to becoming successful is to work harder.
Executive 1: . . .
Executive 2: . . .
Executive 1: lolololol!
Executive 2: inorite?
And don't forget the cheese. Really expensive cheese smells like it came from the bottom of the laundry hamper.
Why didn't you just speculate on oil price?
Or start a business that exploits a lot of workers or pollutes a river?
I mean, honestly, the easy ways to get rich are very well documented here. If you arent doing them you have no one to blame but yourself.
Derec
Contributor
Wrong like of work?
That's because he's on the top of his business (political talk radio) and has been for decades. Still, he doesn't even come close to people like Oprah. TV >> radio.
Jimmy Higgins
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No. Most Americans don't work in a field that allows a Million dollar a year payoff, no matter how hard they work. From accountants to engineers to people manning the registers at stores to construction workers (who actually work real hard)... none of them really have a shot at a Million. They can get promoted, move up, even become VPs and still not see a million a year.
The claim made was that people should "work harder." I dispelled that garbage claim. Millions of Americans bust their asses and won't see a quarter of a million.
AthenaAwakened
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A Word of Exposition
As I was watching the video in the OP, I was reminded of a conversation I recently had in the supermarket.
I was in The Fresh Market. I don't usually shop there, but they had sweet potatoes on sale and this particular variety candies really well, so I was in line at the check out with my bag of sweet potatoes and I notice the woman in front of me also had a bag and we started talking. We soon were discussing a disturbing trend in modern life, paying the premium for what used to be the standard. The Fresh Market, like its competitors Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, is basically selling to a select group of people what the Safeway and A&P used to sell to everyone and they are doing it at price point that keeps swaths of the population out of their stores.
And the population seems to accept this as normal.
The same is true of airline travel. I remember my first airplane trip. My mom took me to Thalhimers Dept. Store to buy a traveling outfit. It was gorgeous and I was gorgeous in it. Every kid in my neighborhood was green with envy because little 8 year old me was about to embark on an adventure. I was going to fly, like the people on TV. I remember walking through National Airport and this time we weren't meeting someone getting off the plane, we were getting on. Everyone was so friendly, so helpful, and so complimentary of my outfit. On the plane, the flight attendant called me Miss and brought me treats. The pilot came back and talked to us and even gave me my own set of wings because he had heard it was my first flight. I felt like a princess. I knew then that I wanted to fly everywhere when I grew up. I wanted to fly around the world.
Today, I hate flying. The lines are long, no one is friendly and traveling outfits? what are they?
Now some people will say that there is a lack of civility in modern life because people today just are meaner than they used to be. There may be some truth to that but that's not the whole truth. We have engineered our society, or allowed our society to be engineered, in such a way that we reserved for the rich not just the silly perks of wealth, but also things like common courtesy and leg room, the things that used to be the standard.
And that is why the poor will someday riot and storm the gates of golf course communities. Not because they want neck massages and access to the champagne room, but because they want elbow room in the middle seat.
As I was watching the video in the OP, I was reminded of a conversation I recently had in the supermarket.
I was in The Fresh Market. I don't usually shop there, but they had sweet potatoes on sale and this particular variety candies really well, so I was in line at the check out with my bag of sweet potatoes and I notice the woman in front of me also had a bag and we started talking. We soon were discussing a disturbing trend in modern life, paying the premium for what used to be the standard. The Fresh Market, like its competitors Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, is basically selling to a select group of people what the Safeway and A&P used to sell to everyone and they are doing it at price point that keeps swaths of the population out of their stores.
And the population seems to accept this as normal.
The same is true of airline travel. I remember my first airplane trip. My mom took me to Thalhimers Dept. Store to buy a traveling outfit. It was gorgeous and I was gorgeous in it. Every kid in my neighborhood was green with envy because little 8 year old me was about to embark on an adventure. I was going to fly, like the people on TV. I remember walking through National Airport and this time we weren't meeting someone getting off the plane, we were getting on. Everyone was so friendly, so helpful, and so complimentary of my outfit. On the plane, the flight attendant called me Miss and brought me treats. The pilot came back and talked to us and even gave me my own set of wings because he had heard it was my first flight. I felt like a princess. I knew then that I wanted to fly everywhere when I grew up. I wanted to fly around the world.
Today, I hate flying. The lines are long, no one is friendly and traveling outfits? what are they?
Now some people will say that there is a lack of civility in modern life because people today just are meaner than they used to be. There may be some truth to that but that's not the whole truth. We have engineered our society, or allowed our society to be engineered, in such a way that we reserved for the rich not just the silly perks of wealth, but also things like common courtesy and leg room, the things that used to be the standard.
And that is why the poor will someday riot and storm the gates of golf course communities. Not because they want neck massages and access to the champagne room, but because they want elbow room in the middle seat.
Maybe Jimmy isn't a sociopath and that's why he didn't do the things you suggest.
Ford
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I remember my first flight as well. I wasn't 21 so I didn't get treats, but the seats were roomy. I described it as a living room that just happened to fly. It was an evening flight so dinner was served. I believe I had the fish (insert Airplane! joke here).
This year, as I have done in the past, I'm flying home for the holidays in 1st class. Not because I'm rich, but because I can afford a couple hundred extra bucks once a year.
The seats aren't quite as big as they were back in 1986, but the food is good, the special lines at the terminal are short, and though I am not rich, I get treated like I am. The people are nice and friendly. The thing is, being nice and friendly doesn't cost the airline anything extra. Is customer service now a luxury item? How much extra is that smile gonna cost?
AthenaAwakened
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That is my point. It does appear that even a smile and a friendly hello are now reserved for the well to do. We have become so enamored of money and the people who have it that we find ourselves disdainful of people who don't. We have commidified decency and common courtesy.
laughing dog
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You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Nexus again.
I took care of it for both of us.