This is a good article - kudos to Dave Winer. It hits upon a crucial factor in the psychological divide between the "poor" and the "rich". I am remembering no

This is a good article - kudos to Dave Winer. It hits upon a crucial factor in the psychological divide between the "poor" and the "rich". I am remembering now of articles on how the psychological distance between economic classes is a factor in how the upper classes behave. One, there was an article on how the rich in India treat everyone else as nothing but chattel. Ok, it's India with its caste system, but economic class is tied to other social status categories as well. The second is how the children of the upper upper classes are effectively taught that everything in life is nothing but essentially a financial transaction, and if you aren't gaining the upper hand, or a profit, then you are a loser. This they learn from their interactions with their parents. I think this was a 'Atlantic' article, IIRC. The psychological implications are obvious. To add to this, I've been in the UK for 6 years now and have had some dealings with the upper middle classes - not quite rich, but the 'aspirational' rich whose focus is on maintaining their status and ever climbing upwards. This sort of thing goes on in America, sure, but ... I guess I'd say most of the UK is 'working class', which corresponds to 'middle class' or lower in American terms - but the strivers whom Thatcher idolized / glorified tend to be very nasty people, be they Labour or Tory. Rich people who know their place, who know that their wealth is nothing but effectively a roll of the dice and who are able to understand ... "humanity" and whose values are not predicated upon their status, and exploitation of everything they can exploit, but on an understanding of humanity at large, -- I can deal with such people, I respect them (if they respect me). It is the sociopathic types, whom Thatcher and Bliar (misspelling deliberate) are a prime example, who are the problem. Perkins sounds like such a person - unable to empathize with the Other and willing to see their point of view. I can empathize with the rich, both the decent ones and the assholes, and I condemn the assholes, not because they are rich, but because of their actions and their values that are the cause of their actions.