
Privilege, Pathology and Power - nichodges
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/opinion/privilege-pathology-and-power.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0
======
jondubois
When a rich person makes a joke, everyone laughs and usually the rich person
looks pleased with themselves - As though they think that their joke was
actually funny.

You would think that rich people would actively try to surround themselves
with people who don't laugh at their jokes and who aren't afraid to attack
their character, but in reality, they don't - After a few years, wealthy
people genuinely start to think of themselves as being funny and they feel
offended when people don't laugh at their jokes. No wonder they feel
increasingly isolated.

Those who can't fake well enough get pushed away.

~~~
rrss1122
Why would they surround themselves with such people? They're already wealthy,
they have nothing to gain by talking to someone who will attack their
character.

~~~
jondubois
Some of us just want the red pill. Smart/curious people tend to prefer the
ugly truth over a beautiful illusion.

It's a bit like religion - According to your reasoning, everyone should
believe in God - After all; why wouldn't you, who wouldn't want eternal life?

------
cubano
Politics _is_ business. It's always been this way.

For most of history, only the wealthy could vote, and all sorts of schemes
were used to keep "the poor" from exercising any political power whatsoever,
besides pitchforks and the guillotine of course.

As long as those whom become elected accept large sums of money from
individuals whom expect as least some _quid pro quo_ for their "investment", I
just can't see how anyone is surprised that this is the system we get.

"The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur
when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed
incorporations." \- Thomas Jefferson

This issue has been forever with us.

------
PaulHoule
I think "Citizens United" could be the end of the Republican Party.

Part of the reason why Trump has made it so big is that the Republican field
is huge.

The Republican field is huge because a lot of donors with more money than
brains are willing to shell out big money for their campaigns. Trump said that
Super PACs are a scam, but I think most of the campaigns are scams. Raise a
few million dollars and you can pay all your friends big salaries, then you
can turn around and get a favor from them.

~~~
setra
I think that this primary shows are little money has to do with elections.
Just look at the correlation of money spent, and percentage in the polls. All
the people doing well are spending very little. Many elections are actually
like this.

~~~
zepto
I don't think this is representative of anything. Trump speaks in clickbait
and that gets him media attention and hence popularity. You can easily argue
that it's an innovative strategy, but he is only able to do it because he
inherited his wealth.

~~~
setra
I am speaking of everyone not just trump. Also trump inherited around $40
million (in assets), then built a brand image worth billions. Good brands can
do well.

~~~
zepto
Sure - he has done a good job so far in brand building, but his brand is
predicated on him /already/ being rich - which is not anything he created for
himself, rather something he inherited.

------
roarkjs
Krugman says that greater wealth leads to a lack of empathy.

Surely it's a lack of empathy leads to greater wealth?

~~~
zepto
Could be both. But in the case of trump, his wealth was inherited, so the
argument goes in the direction Krugman states.

~~~
setra
which he increased by an order of magnitude.

~~~
zepto
It was gigantic to begin with, and he has performed about as well as an index
fund over his period in business, avoiding bankruptcy only by fluke.

~~~
setra
He goes from tens of millions is assets to billions. A fluke you say. If that
was so easy we would have a lot more billionaires. Investment choices are
always obvious after the fact.

~~~
zepto
I said the avoiding of bankruptcy was a fluke. And yes, it is certainly the
case that if more people inherited $40 million when Trump did, we'd have many
more billionaires today since a conservative investment strategy over the same
period would have made them so.

[https://www.quora.com/Did-Donald-Trump-inherit-a-lot-of-
mone...](https://www.quora.com/Did-Donald-Trump-inherit-a-lot-of-money-and-
then-increase-his-net-worth-at-an-unremarkable-rate?share=1)

