I have spent my fair share of time with the so-called rich, I live in a wealthy city and my profession brings me up close, live, and in person. I must say they are the most boring people on the planet, self absorbed, and constantly worried about business, I suppose those are the two qualities that make one wealthy? So I don't know why people even aspire to be wealthy? For some the path to wealth was through some kind of work (usually not as hard as they would have us think) for others, the worst kind of wealth, the well connected, born into it kind, the path of entitlement.
I grew up very middle class, my dad was in the Air Force for several years and later worked in a union job, almost everyone's dad did back then. My mom mostly stayed at home and would work part time so we could have a good Christmas. They paid off their mortgage in what would seem a very short time by today's standards, we went on trips to Disneyland, drove nice cars, went to public school and were encouraged to attend College or University in some far away future. If I had kids I would want them to grow up like that, not rich, I like the idea of a middle class, it's what other countries admire and why people want to live in North America as opposed to say Sierra Leone or Afghanistan. I don't want to single out countries but recall the UN called these places amongst the most corrupt and lowest living standards in the world.
I have honestly lost some sleep recently over the tax fight in the US, they are our largest trading partner and I want them to do well as their economy has consequences for us in Canada. The fight, extending tax cuts to all, including the top 1%, people like Bill Gates, Paris Hilton and Donald Trump, or only those making less than a quarter million. The rich have had it easy the past few decades and especially under the Bush tax plan. Since 1980, when Ronald Reagan started "trickle down economics" the income of the highest tax bracket has gone up 80% while for those in median brackets income has risen 3%, total stagnation for the middle class. The Bush tax cuts did not create jobs, in the 90's Clinton created 20 million jobs compared to 2 million created during the Bush era. Yet, Republicans are still yelling their heads off about "the rich create jobs". Little thought is given to the fact that if you or I do not have extra income we do not buy things thus less people are hired to make things. Or how about, we don't even make that many things anymore? About 90% of my recent Christmas shopping was made in China, even my Alberta scenes calendar was printed in Korea, what's with that?
I just don't "buy" this right wing lie that the wealthy create jobs, I don't care how much former reality TV star and co-host of the View, Elizabeth, yells it at me in the mornings! I have always worked for so-called "small business" and I can tell you they are helping no one but themselves. Like the theory of Communism, this theory of small business saving the world does not recognize basic human drive, self interest and greed.In my first real full time job I made $4.25/hr, the lowest legally possible at that time, while the owner drove his collection of foreign sports cars and we constantly had the police showing up at the restaurant looking for him to pay up on unpaid speeding tickets. I remember another " McLeans Magazine, self-made business woman of the year winner" I worked for, straight-faced telling all of us in the company that we must all work harder, and there is no money for a raise for anyone, as she drove a brand new Lexus to work everyday and took frequent shopping trips to New York. My generation was really on the shitty end of the stick during the 80's and 90's, corporations suddenly discovered that they could lay off half the staff and make the rest work harder to line their pockets, the era of social responsibility was over. The rest of us, the young and not educated enough were left to work at minimum wage jobs, so cry me a river current 20-somethings, we didn't have a hope in hell of an entry level job, let alone a career, ha ha don't make me laugh!
Sure, there are the odd super-rich people doing great things, maybe a little of what Oprah does is good, a little is about publicity too. This Week with Christiane Amanpour recently interviewed Ted Turner, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who is responsible recently for funding the new AIDS drug breakthrough, hey cool, these guys are giving it all away and trying to do something positive. But they are in the minority I'm afraid. When I think of the super-rich I am reminded of another employment opportunity I had once, recreating a 17th Century gold leafed ceiling for a very bored oil executive wife. The house was nothing special, a large split level in a 1970's suburb, they were going to build a bigger house but thought they would spend without boundaries on this until that time came. Do you know the expression "more money than brains"? Aside from a gold leafed and intricately painted ceiling, there was an imported tile mosaic of a byzantine saint, reinforced floors for the imported marble throughout the entire house- complete with custom monogram, imported stone bathtubs, there was to be a mural of the Three Kings ascending the new staircase probably with an imported railing. And that was just the inside, outside she had torn up the entire yard, which is a travesty in this part of the world where trees take 20 years to grow, the plan was for imported English iron gates and a pink sandstone wall imported from India, really, in Calgary once known as the "Sandstone City" because of all the locally available sandstone!?!? I never stayed long enough to see this projects end, surprise, it kind of made me sick to my stomach to know that someone could blow what I owe on my mortgage on one shopping trip to Italy! Also, this insane Michael Jackson-ish project was taking forever! I remember this lady roaring up in some kind of tiny sports car, changing her mind about some detail or another and then pulling all of us aside to talk about where the new cast iron rabbit should be placed in the bathroom or how paint changes colour in different light and if it should be a shade darker or lighter, every detail had to be gone over and over again! Just let us finish something lady, I have to be able to get something done in a day when I work, I'm just crazy that way! It also put a chill on things when I had to negotiate my wage and she had someone else talk to me about it, and say what I was asking was too much, nice, I guess she was too busy to talk to the riff-raff artists who were trying to bring her personal Disneyland to life? I think about her every time I gas up my car, at least I know this money is going straight to some Italian marble quarry somewhere!
So, tax cuts for the rich? While the Republicans want to cut off Unemployment Benefits? So people like Paris Hilton can design purses to carry other people's cocaine? Hmmm, did anyone remember that Paris needs to have paying customers to buy those purses? It's economics 101.
No comments:
Post a Comment