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Americans generally venerate the wealthy and aspire to be wealthy themselves. The bitterness you're describing is primarily attributable to the very real sense

Americans generally venerate the wealthy and aspire to be wealthy themselves. The bitterness you're describing is primarily attributable to the very real sense that the game is rigged. Just as "urban" and "welfare" have become stand-in buzzwords for poor African-Americans, so has the term "1%" become a phrase for, not just the wealthy, but for those among the wealthy who have gained at the expense of others through financial engineering and other schemes. For instance, these same people grew fabulously wealthy by wrecking the economy and not a single one received punishment. In fact, everyone else bailed them out and they went right back to the same schemes and obscene paydays. Then, there's the general truth that, while people are working harder, wages are effectively stagnant for many and an increasingly larger share of the rewards are accruing to a shrinkingly tiny percentage of the population. So, I think it's a naive false argument to blame people for "hating the rich". What they really hate is being pimped.

deleted 13y ago
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- unclebucknasty 13y ago
  >You view welfare as having an ethnic connotation but 'greedy parasitic financiers' doesn't? Examine the very hateful history of your line of reasoning. Defensive much? I never commented on the ethnicity of the financiers or any connotations thereof. In fact, ethnicity has nothing to do with my comment at all. It was a simple analogy intended to illustrate that, like the phrases I mentioned, the phrase "1%" is loaded and does not simply mean "the wealthy". But, while you're pouncing and introducing an actual hateful "ethnic" implication, you should probably consider that bitterness towards the 1% supersedes race. >Who exactly wrecked the economy and how? What schemes have been run? If your obtuseness is genuine, then you might start with Google, one of the many books that have been written, or a documentary. If your obtuseness is deliberate, then have fun with it. Either way, I won't engage in a debate about facts.

deleted 13y ago

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unclebucknasty 13y ago
>You view welfare as having an ethnic connotation but 'greedy parasitic financiers' doesn't? Examine the very hateful history of your line of reasoning. Defensive much? I never commented on the ethnicity of the financiers or any connotations thereof. In fact, ethnicity has nothing to do with my comment at all. It was a simple analogy intended to illustrate that, like the phrases I mentioned, the phrase "1%" is loaded and does not simply mean "the wealthy". But, while you're pouncing and introducing an actual hateful "ethnic" implication, you should probably consider that bitterness towards the 1% supersedes race. >Who exactly wrecked the economy and how? What schemes have been run? If your obtuseness is genuine, then you might start with Google, one of the many books that have been written, or a documentary. If your obtuseness is deliberate, then have fun with it. Either way, I won't engage in a debate about facts.