Featuring April Ryan with Rep. Maxine Waters, Maria Perez, Erwin Chemerinsky, Colette Delawalla with Jen Rubin, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, Ben Sheehan, and The Contrarian Podcast
I’m grateful that Colette Delawalla is making it known how RFK Jr is going to kill people and worst of all infants and children with his pseudoscientific policies for public health. She explained quite clearly and I applaud her efforts to have unqualified people removed from jobs they aren’t qualified for.
Never in my long life have I met a billionaire. When I talk about billionaires, I mean all those multi-millionaires, CEOs, corporate executives, and business leaders of major companies.
The closest I came was when I visited Nantucket, where billionaires dock their yachts at a secure wharf with a gate and a security guard who told me they never sail on their boats. Instead, they tell their captain where to go, then fly there in their private jets. In Nantucket, there is also a ridge overlooking the harbor with enormous “trophy houses” owned by billionaires who visit these houses maybe two days a year.
Forbes reports that there are 2,781 billionaires worldwide, with a total wealth of $14.2 trillion, and that we have between 900 and 924 billionaires, excluding other millionaires.
Honestly, I have to admit I despise billionaires. I see them as abusers; I believe their existence is harmful, insulting, and subtly degrading to the average person. To me, their display of privilege is offensive. They can live among others, flaunt their wealth and status among less fortunate people, and feel justified in amassing their riches. By their mere presence, they create a two-tier society.
I can only imagine what it's like to have billions of dollars at your disposal. I wonder what motivates them to keep trying to grow their wealth. What will they do with their money? If they have children, they can leave their fortune to them. My experience with “trust fund children” is that they often face serious issues due to a lack of direction. For example, when my family rented a cottage in Nantucket, a young psychiatrist rented the one next to ours. We spent time together on the lawn and became friends. One day, I noticed he seemed upset and asked if I could help. He said he always knew he wanted to be a psychiatrist. He did well in college, excelled in medical school, enjoyed his psychiatry residency, and worked to establish his private practice in Boston. Yesterday, his father, who was wealthy and, in his eighties, told him and his brother that he was reducing his assets and giving each of them $50 million. Now, he had nothing to work for; he didn't have to work, and he felt completely disoriented, as if his world had been turned upside down.
As a psychologist, I try to understand how they can deny the harsh reality when faced with the suffering of their less fortunate neighbors in their country and around the world. They often resort to widespread denial and create their own illusion of grandeur. They deny the obvious, reject the world around them, and remain in some form of cocoon-like thinking. They reinforce the idea that they are superior and deserve their billions; they stay isolated from the public, living in secure private facilities and associating only with other billionaires and multi-millionaires.
I do not believe they are all the same. Some billionaires have donated large sums to public institutions such as hospitals and schools (Ken Langone, CEO of Home Depot, donated to the NYU hospital). Another example of a different type of billionaire is my hero, Warren Buffett, who made his fortune without underpaying his employees and still lives in Omaha in the same home he grew up in. When he attended a fight event at a civic center, he sat in the back rows, not in the front rows reserved for celebrities.
Most billionaires still view themselves as a separate, regal class, but this two-tier perspective has been common throughout our history. There has always been an emphasis on privilege and subjugation in our past. It is deeply rooted in our religious beliefs, with ideas about God and humanity, dating back to biblical times with lords and kings, through the medieval era with nobility and peasants, to our history involving slave owners and slaves. This two-tier mindset is reinforced in subtle ways, such as at the Oscars, where all the elite celebrities sit in the front, while peasants sit in the balcony.
The fault, dear Brutus, lies not with them but with this history of royalty and peasants. Why does it exist, and from where did it come?
I can identify four conditions that led to this two-tier mentality. First, there was the conquest, involving a conqueror and the conquered. The second was the formation of a ruling class of kings versus the peasants; the third was the creation of owners versus workers; and the fourth was the belief that some members of our community deserve to be paid more.
The billionaires who bother me the most are those who are sociopaths. Many sociopaths are in our society, and quite a few are abusive to those they live with (such as abused wives, syndrome). A sociopath must have the right conditions to act out, and some of them are dominant because the situation does not exist. A billionaire sociopath can neglect the welfare of others, have no remorse for what they do, and ignore the social consequences of their actions. This combination worries me: a billionaire, a sociopathic person, and a situation where they can indulge in grandiose ideas. These are the three parts of a stool: 1) a billionaire, 2) a sociopath, and 3) a situation that lets them act out.
The first two conditions that led to the formation of our two-tier society are part of our history, but the last two are still present and active today. The first active condition is the widespread belief that certain positions in our society deserve to be paid large sums, while others do not. Implicit in our thinking is the idea that the winner is the best and that there can be only one winner, and never that the two teams generated a momentous occasion. We accept the fact that Michael Jordan was the best and should be paid a salary of $94 million, and that some professions, like doctors and lawyers, should be paid more. Conversely, others, such as teachers, should be paid less; this is never questioned and is consistently accepted. Having spent my life as a professional, I have always questioned my salary and kept it aligned with that of other working men in our society.
The second active condition is accepting the core principle of capitalist society: a free market provides the opportunity to achieve the American dream, and the profits from industry belong to the owner. The definition of capitalism is “an economic and political system in which private owners control a country's trade and industry for profit.”
Ask anyone what capitalism is, and they will tell you it is what made us great, not that all the profits generated by a business belong to its owners. Why? Why is that? Was anything else handed down to Moses besides the Ten Commandments?
There has been a successful, historic, widespread campaign to brainwash us into accepting and believing that “profit belongs to the owners” thinking. This campaign has been financed and encouraged by the business establishment. We are like the watchers in Plato's cave, looking at the shadows, and somehow, we believe that God handed down this “profit to the owners” for us to accept and follow.
Maybe the French Revolution was an attempt to correct the continuation of monarchical and papal rule. To quote historian Francois Aulard, “The Revolution consisted in the suppression of what was called the feudal system, in the emancipation of the individual, in greater division of landed property, the abolition of the privileges of noble birth, the establishment of equality, the simplification of life.... The French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity."
In conclusion, billionaires are a product of our misguided mentality, where we never examine our own beliefs or consider their validity.
I'm curious how this relates to the RFKJr article but I do agree that history and religion promulgate the viewpoint that there are hierarchies, whether owner or nobility based. I have often been very disturbed by the concentration of wealth which could and should be better distributed by those who accumulate it so that all participants, from janitor to CEO, share in the largesse. But there are many more examples of wealthy individuals financing and contributing to the benefit of others. We see that in libraries, museums, hospitals, foundations, and research, as well as billions in distributions made by individuals such as Melinda French Gates and Mackenzie Scott.
I’m grateful that Colette Delawalla is making it known how RFK Jr is going to kill people and worst of all infants and children with his pseudoscientific policies for public health. She explained quite clearly and I applaud her efforts to have unqualified people removed from jobs they aren’t qualified for.
Gatsby parties & massive tax cuts for the uber wealthy & austerity for the little people.
Why aren't you grateful? https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/trump-says-that-you-are-the-problem?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
Resist the fraudster authoritarians. #VoteBlue!
Have you ever met a billionaire?
Never in my long life have I met a billionaire. When I talk about billionaires, I mean all those multi-millionaires, CEOs, corporate executives, and business leaders of major companies.
The closest I came was when I visited Nantucket, where billionaires dock their yachts at a secure wharf with a gate and a security guard who told me they never sail on their boats. Instead, they tell their captain where to go, then fly there in their private jets. In Nantucket, there is also a ridge overlooking the harbor with enormous “trophy houses” owned by billionaires who visit these houses maybe two days a year.
Forbes reports that there are 2,781 billionaires worldwide, with a total wealth of $14.2 trillion, and that we have between 900 and 924 billionaires, excluding other millionaires.
Honestly, I have to admit I despise billionaires. I see them as abusers; I believe their existence is harmful, insulting, and subtly degrading to the average person. To me, their display of privilege is offensive. They can live among others, flaunt their wealth and status among less fortunate people, and feel justified in amassing their riches. By their mere presence, they create a two-tier society.
I can only imagine what it's like to have billions of dollars at your disposal. I wonder what motivates them to keep trying to grow their wealth. What will they do with their money? If they have children, they can leave their fortune to them. My experience with “trust fund children” is that they often face serious issues due to a lack of direction. For example, when my family rented a cottage in Nantucket, a young psychiatrist rented the one next to ours. We spent time together on the lawn and became friends. One day, I noticed he seemed upset and asked if I could help. He said he always knew he wanted to be a psychiatrist. He did well in college, excelled in medical school, enjoyed his psychiatry residency, and worked to establish his private practice in Boston. Yesterday, his father, who was wealthy and, in his eighties, told him and his brother that he was reducing his assets and giving each of them $50 million. Now, he had nothing to work for; he didn't have to work, and he felt completely disoriented, as if his world had been turned upside down.
As a psychologist, I try to understand how they can deny the harsh reality when faced with the suffering of their less fortunate neighbors in their country and around the world. They often resort to widespread denial and create their own illusion of grandeur. They deny the obvious, reject the world around them, and remain in some form of cocoon-like thinking. They reinforce the idea that they are superior and deserve their billions; they stay isolated from the public, living in secure private facilities and associating only with other billionaires and multi-millionaires.
I do not believe they are all the same. Some billionaires have donated large sums to public institutions such as hospitals and schools (Ken Langone, CEO of Home Depot, donated to the NYU hospital). Another example of a different type of billionaire is my hero, Warren Buffett, who made his fortune without underpaying his employees and still lives in Omaha in the same home he grew up in. When he attended a fight event at a civic center, he sat in the back rows, not in the front rows reserved for celebrities.
Most billionaires still view themselves as a separate, regal class, but this two-tier perspective has been common throughout our history. There has always been an emphasis on privilege and subjugation in our past. It is deeply rooted in our religious beliefs, with ideas about God and humanity, dating back to biblical times with lords and kings, through the medieval era with nobility and peasants, to our history involving slave owners and slaves. This two-tier mindset is reinforced in subtle ways, such as at the Oscars, where all the elite celebrities sit in the front, while peasants sit in the balcony.
The fault, dear Brutus, lies not with them but with this history of royalty and peasants. Why does it exist, and from where did it come?
I can identify four conditions that led to this two-tier mentality. First, there was the conquest, involving a conqueror and the conquered. The second was the formation of a ruling class of kings versus the peasants; the third was the creation of owners versus workers; and the fourth was the belief that some members of our community deserve to be paid more.
The billionaires who bother me the most are those who are sociopaths. Many sociopaths are in our society, and quite a few are abusive to those they live with (such as abused wives, syndrome). A sociopath must have the right conditions to act out, and some of them are dominant because the situation does not exist. A billionaire sociopath can neglect the welfare of others, have no remorse for what they do, and ignore the social consequences of their actions. This combination worries me: a billionaire, a sociopathic person, and a situation where they can indulge in grandiose ideas. These are the three parts of a stool: 1) a billionaire, 2) a sociopath, and 3) a situation that lets them act out.
The first two conditions that led to the formation of our two-tier society are part of our history, but the last two are still present and active today. The first active condition is the widespread belief that certain positions in our society deserve to be paid large sums, while others do not. Implicit in our thinking is the idea that the winner is the best and that there can be only one winner, and never that the two teams generated a momentous occasion. We accept the fact that Michael Jordan was the best and should be paid a salary of $94 million, and that some professions, like doctors and lawyers, should be paid more. Conversely, others, such as teachers, should be paid less; this is never questioned and is consistently accepted. Having spent my life as a professional, I have always questioned my salary and kept it aligned with that of other working men in our society.
The second active condition is accepting the core principle of capitalist society: a free market provides the opportunity to achieve the American dream, and the profits from industry belong to the owner. The definition of capitalism is “an economic and political system in which private owners control a country's trade and industry for profit.”
Ask anyone what capitalism is, and they will tell you it is what made us great, not that all the profits generated by a business belong to its owners. Why? Why is that? Was anything else handed down to Moses besides the Ten Commandments?
There has been a successful, historic, widespread campaign to brainwash us into accepting and believing that “profit belongs to the owners” thinking. This campaign has been financed and encouraged by the business establishment. We are like the watchers in Plato's cave, looking at the shadows, and somehow, we believe that God handed down this “profit to the owners” for us to accept and follow.
Maybe the French Revolution was an attempt to correct the continuation of monarchical and papal rule. To quote historian Francois Aulard, “The Revolution consisted in the suppression of what was called the feudal system, in the emancipation of the individual, in greater division of landed property, the abolition of the privileges of noble birth, the establishment of equality, the simplification of life.... The French Revolution differed from other revolutions in being not merely national, for it aimed at benefiting all humanity."
In conclusion, billionaires are a product of our misguided mentality, where we never examine our own beliefs or consider their validity.
I'm curious how this relates to the RFKJr article but I do agree that history and religion promulgate the viewpoint that there are hierarchies, whether owner or nobility based. I have often been very disturbed by the concentration of wealth which could and should be better distributed by those who accumulate it so that all participants, from janitor to CEO, share in the largesse. But there are many more examples of wealthy individuals financing and contributing to the benefit of others. We see that in libraries, museums, hospitals, foundations, and research, as well as billions in distributions made by individuals such as Melinda French Gates and Mackenzie Scott.