Dear arrogant, clueless billionaires: Please shut the fuck up

The chutzpah is strong in this one.

Billionaire Florida real estate mogul Jeff Green, who is presently attending the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said this:

“America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence. We need to reinvent our whole system of life.”

Of course. It all makes sense now. It’s the little people’s fault for wanting anything more than food, water and a roof over their heads. Never mind the economic prosperity we enjoyed in the fifties and sixties, when taxes on the rich were far higher than they are today. That’s just a false memory. Now, go back to sleep, little people.

What we need, Mr. Green, is an economic system built on fairness with an equitable tax system. What we need is to drastically lower income inequality and to provide people with a realistic, livable minimum wage. What we need is for companies to stop sending jobs oversees. What we need is to stop allowing American companies and individuals to avoid paying taxes by keeping their money in off-shore accounts and foreign banks.

You are correct when you say we need to reinvent our whole system of life, but it needs to be done in a way that will make you and your billionaire friends very unhappy.

Billionaires say the darndest things

Good lord, the billionaires are at it again. Don’t these people have handlers? Every time one of them opens his mouth, the hubris, chutzpah and utter cluelessness assaults our senses like a barrel of rotten fish. Multi-zillionaire Tom Perkins, the man who equates critics of the wealthy with Nazis, also believes you shouldn’t be able to vote unless you pay taxes, and the more money you make the more votes you should get. He seems to have temporarily forgotten that he and his billionaire buddies already own congress and the executive branch. Why would they need more votes?

Then there’s billionaire Bud Konheim, the co-founder and CEO of the luxury clothing company Nicole Miller, who said this week that the 99 percent should shut their pie holes because if they lived in China they’d be rich. He thinks we’re a nation of whiners.

The arrogance on display here is monumental. Not satisfied to be among the richest, most powerful people on the planet, they have the gall to lecture the rest of us as if we are petulant children disrespecting their betters. They’ve convinced themselves that they truly deserve to have more money in the bank than some small countries, and that if you’re not as rich as them, there’s something wrong with you. They live on a rich man’s fantasy island, encircled by a tall fence that keeps reality at bay. 

I might suggest they take some time to brush up on their history. They might learn from the Czar’s of Russia and eighteenth century French royalty that no fence lasts forever.