Elites v. Elites

~ Laura

Funny post by David Brooks about the irritation that DC policy wonks have with the Wall Street richies.

Nonetheless, many people in Ward Three do have certain resentments
toward those with means, which those of you in the
decamillionaire-to-billionaire wealth brackets should be aware of.

In the first place, many people in Ward Three suffer from Sublimated
Liquidity Rage. As lawyers, TV producers and senior civil servants,
they make decent salaries, but 60 percent of their disposable income
goes to private school tuition and study abroad trips. They have little
left over to spend on themselves, which generates deep and
unacknowledged self-pity.

Second, they suffer from what has been
called Status-Income Disequilibrium. At work they are flattered and
feared. But they still have to go home and clean out the gutters
because they can’t afford full-time household help.

Third, they
suffer the status rivalries endemic to the upper-middle class. As law
school grads, they resent B-school grads. As Washingtonians, they
resent New Yorkers. As policy wonks, they resent people with good bone
structure.

I have no problem with a little old-fashioned, rich people bashing. I mean I hate them, too. There's nothing more annoying than hearing kids chat with each other about how they spent their winter holidays skiing in France. But, really, Wall Street did cut back this year. People didn't get bonuses this year at my husband's firm. That meant a 50% cut in take home pay. Sure, their base salaries are still quite respectable, but we should have heard more outrage a few years back. 

Published by Laura

12 thoughts on “Elites v. Elites”

  1. I’m not sure Brooks elites vs. elites is marking where the biggest fight is likely to occur if things get much worse. I’m worried about a general backlash against all elites. (I’m hoping for a new elite, but I’m worried it will go too far.)
    A high-level government employee with a six figure salary, a secure job, and a guaranteed pension may start to appear to be ‘rich’. The median household income around here is below $50k and there are whole communities where the median house price is below $10,000. Its going to be hard to convince people that a Californian in a house worth $400,000 is someone who should be bailed out.

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  2. Here’s a choice snippet from Bloomberg: “American International Group Inc., the insurer saved from collapse by government money after losses on credit-default swaps, offered about $450 million in retention pay to employees of the unit that sold the derivatives, according to two people familiar with the situation.
    “About 400 workers at the financial products unit may get the money in two installments, said the people, who declined to be named because details of the payments were confidential. The business was responsible for about $34 billion in writedowns since 2007 as the market value of swaps AIG sold to banks plunged amid the subprime mortgage market collapse.”
    The people who were responsible for $34 billion in writedowns are getting an average of more than $1 million each in bonuses. That is every penny earned by a person making $40,000 a year for 25 years. After the taxpayers bailed out their bankrupt firm to the tune of $150 billion. WTFF?
    And factually-challenged Brooksie baby is carrying water for the people making out like bandits. What a disgusting suck-up.
    Here’s some good stuff from the Cunning Realist: “Two people have come out of nowhere recently and, by way of New York City, become national figures: Bernie Madoff and Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, the pilot who landed the jet in the Hudson River. No long post needed on the obvious contrasts. But those contrasts are a good context for some larger issues. Sullenberger is everything this country — and those who champion Wall Street as a pillar of patriotism — likes to think it is about. Small-town Texas, top student, Air Force Academy, fighter pilot, distinguished career, family man, and ultimately a saver of lives. His counterpart in the news is, allegedly and apparently, a destroyer of lives. Without going into the separate issues of whether the Wall Street bailout is working, or what would have happened without it, there’s a basic truth: it takes money from people like Sullenberger and gives it to people who sit in front of banks of computer screens all day making a living off flickering green dots. Sullenberger’s not the only one who’s had a TARP pulled over his wallet. The emergency workers who got those passengers out of the Hudson River will send some of the money they earned that day to Washington, which will send it to traders and investment bankers. So will teachers, doctors, farmers, truckers, scientists, and small business owners. … The people who make this country run are spending part of every day working for people like this* — those who have done fantastically well in recent years, many of whom made dubious or ill-gotten profits.
    +++
    *The link went to this: “I attended a weeknight event in Manhattan’s financial district recently. During pre-dinner cocktails, I overheard a loud conversation between two guys standing next to me. Mid-30’s, well-dressed. I recognized one as an employee of a large sell-side firm considered to be one of the Street’s most prestigious (#1 below); the other guy I didn’t recognize (#2 below). Not verbatim obviously, but pretty close:
    #1: You ever check out any of these stock message boards?
    #2: What do you mean?
    #1: People post messages about stocks.
    #2: Oh yeah.
    #1: I was looking at the messages for our stock. There was one complaining about owning it for something like ten years and not making any money on it and asking where all our profits went. I was like, they went into my pocket, it’s called a payout, bitch.”
    I’ve been kidding with my updated Voltaire quote; but really, it’s getting to be pitchfork time.

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  5. I’ve been walking by the (minor) damage from the Super Bowl celebration, so riots are kind of on my mind anyway.

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  6. I dunno, MH, get the hair going properly, the truly wild eyes, and shouting out “Écrasez l’infâme!” would go great with a pitchfork mob…

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  7. Drezner gets it right in one: “In large part they got themselves into this mess, and now need the federal government to get them out.
    “If you take the government’s money, you’re going to have to live with Ward Three types asking nosy questions. If you don’t like that, try to avoid having to ask the government for a bailout.”

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  9. “If you take the government’s money, you’re going to have to live with Ward Three types asking nosy questions. If you don’t like that, try to avoid having to ask the government for a bailout.”
    And yet I’ve been hearing that the government has been asking some companies to take bailout funds (Wells Fargo?). Weird, weird, weird.

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  10. “If you take the government’s money, you’re going to have to live with Ward Three types asking nosy questions.”
    Drezner is correct, but doesn’t go far enough. Ward 3 is taking our money and not doing a particularly good job (except relative to Wall Street) of answering nosy questions from taxpayers.

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  11. “Drezner is correct, but doesn’t go far enough. Ward 3 is taking our money and not doing a particularly good job (except relative to Wall Street) of answering nosy questions from taxpayers.”
    Good point. Plus, as recent revelations have shown, paying the taxes to cover the tab for all this stuff is optional for some people.

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