Can't End Well

[n2doc]

By Tom Toles

It’s not JUST that the rich are now so very very rich that is the problem. It is not just that the rich can buy a government that the Supreme Court has ruled is there for the buying. It’s not just that the “supply side” now has all the supplies, and the “demand side” is too broke to demand anything other than hospice care for its remaining days. What is it then?

It’s this: Vast wealth is an ADDICTION. This is one of those things that the moral thinkers in the olden days got perfectly right. Once the value system of IMMENSE wealth became re-established in this country, and it has, there is no turning back. The rich have to know on some level that the current wealth-skewing is bad for the nation, and a handful of them say they will give some of it away, mostly LATER ON sometime, but they are not going to break the pattern of hyper-wealth because THEY CAN’T QUIT. OMG! I just dropped THREE NOTCHES in the Forbes 400 list!

So the drive for crazy salaries and stock deals and shady 20+ percent returns will persist, and whatever it takes to GET those things will persist. And they know they shouldn’t be sucking so much of the profit out of their companies, and they know they should be contributing more in taxes, and they know that since they now hold all the power that it is UP TO THEM to take responsibility and rebalance all this. BUT THEY CAN’T. They are addicted, and they will tell themselves whatever stories they need to to continue. Just like the old-timey philosophers understood. It’s why greed used to be a BAD thing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/tom-toles/post/cant-end-well/2011/07/29/gIQAvASRhI_blog.html

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[LiberalLoner]

2. K&R n/t

[DocMac]

3. Rec'd

[Little Star]

4. The wealthy do have an addiction and like any other addict

they need help. Someone needs to do an intervention on their asses real quick before we all sink down the tube!

They are sick mother-fuckers and their greed will be the death of us all.

[Ship of Fools]

5. Yes!! The Masters of the Universe are bored,

so all they really have left is to compete with each other.

[bvar22]

6. Some people are not happy being RICH.

They want to walk on masses living in destitution.

New & IMPROVED Gilded Age 2.0 is HERE!

If YOU are NOT in the Top One Per Cent,
its your own damn fault!
If you were smart,
you would have been BORN RICH,
or been a Wall Street Banker.