The Rich are different

The old saw has never been more true. The rich not only have more money, but clearly, they are different because the rich only care about themselves. And at this point, they have enough money to buy their own priorites inside the Beltway bubble.

We're not even talking the filthy rich here, these are just your ordinary 1%ers, with an average worth of $14 million. Granted this was a small study in one city, but willing to bet these priorities would be the same in a nationwide survey:

On policy, it wasn't just their ranking of budget deficits as the biggest concern that put wealthy respondents out of step with other Americans. They were also much less likely to favor raising taxes on high-income people, instead advocating that entitlement programs like Social Security and healthcare be cut to balance the budget.

While the wealthy favored more government spending on infrastructure, scientific research and aid to education, they leaned toward cutting nearly everything else. Even with education, they opposed things that most Americans favor, including spending to ensure that all children have access to good-quality public schools, expanding government programs to ensure that everyone who wants to go to college can do so, and investing more in worker retraining and education.

The wealthy opposed — while most Americans favor — instituting a system of national health insurance, raising the minimum wage to above poverty levels, increasing the Earned Income Tax Credit and providing a "decent standard of living" for the unemployed. They were also against the federal government helping with or providing jobs for those who cannot find private employment.

Unlike most Americans, wealthy respondents opposed increased regulation of large corporations and raising the "cap" that exempts income above $113,700 from the FICA payroll tax. And unlike most Americans, they oppose relying heavily on corporate taxes to raise revenue and oppose taxing the rich to redistribute wealth.

Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it buys power and that's apparently good enough for those who wallow in self-delusion, smugly convinced they're self-made millionaires. To be sure there are exceptions, known to me personally, but generally, money kills compassion. There isn't even the barest modicum of empathy in these priorites. [graphic via]

The Banksters have gone well and truly crazy - Updated

This bank bailout in Cypress is insane. You can get the wonky details here, which include Russian mobsters, but the shorter is: The major bank in Cypress is nationalized. The bank fucked up. They intend to bail out the bank by taking between almost 7% to 10% of the depositor's money.

Unsurprisingly this has already led to a run on the ATM machines that ran them dry. Suspect they haven't refilled them. Meanwhile, the bank holiday that was supposed end tomorrow has been extended to Thursday to give the Banksters time to legalize the thievery.

I'll be surprised if this doesn't backfire. It brings to mind this quote from an old but still timely Atlantic piece, The Silent Coup: "But inevitably, emerging-market oligarchs get carried away; they waste money and ... look first to ordinary working folk—at least until the riots grow too large."

Update: The Cypriot Parliament rejected the Bankster's bailout deal. No way they're going to take depositor's cash. Can't blame them for wanting to avoid the torches and pitchforks. Don't understand this scam well enough to predict what the Banksters will do next but I'll be surprised if people don't take their money out of that bank anyway, if it ever opens its doors again.

Young bloodsucker

This ungrateful parasite pisses me off. Eduardo Saverin, the co-founder of Facebook, renounced his US citizenship last week. He's moving to Singapore.

Saverin, who owns a roughly four percent stake of Facebook, announced that he was expatriating last week, just in time to avoid paying a federal capital gains tax on the fortune heading his way when the social site files its IPO.

Forbes Magazine, calls him an American hero for skipping out on contributing his fair share to our public commons. Then they throw up the old John Galt threat:

Saverin’s departure is also a reminder to politicians that while they can obnoxiously decree what percentage of our income we’ll hand them in taxes, what they vote for won’t necessarily reflect reality. Indeed, as evidenced by Saverin’s renunciation, tax rates and collection of monies on those rates are two different things. Assuming nosebleed rates of taxation were a driver of Saverin’s decision, politicians will hopefully see that if too greedy about collecting the money of others, they’ll eventually collect nothing.

Greedy? Forbes has the gall to call the government greedy for expecting this kid to contribute a relative pittance towards upkeep of the infrastructure which allowed him to make his obscene fortune? It's no stretch to say Saverin would be nothing without US government support that allowed Facebook to flourish and further allowed Saverin to cash in when his partners tried to cut him out. Indeed, it's possible he wouldn't be alive if not for his move to the US in the first place.

This little leech was lucky. He hit it big and now skips out on the tab he rightfully owes in return. He's no hero. He's the poster boy for the unbridled greed that, even now, is shredding the social fabric of America. [graphic via]

[More posts daily at the Detroit News.]