{"id":11664,"date":"2008-04-03T09:09:57","date_gmt":"2008-04-03T15:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=11664"},"modified":"2008-04-03T09:09:57","modified_gmt":"2008-04-03T15:09:57","slug":"the-super-rich-threaten-american-values-or-not-karl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/?p=11664","title":{"rendered":"The super-rich threaten American values. Or not. [Karl]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slate’s Daniel Gross<\/a> argues that the “culture of affluence” endangers America and its values more than the “culture of poverty”:<\/p>\n

In the underclass, unmarried, young fathers don’t take responsibility for their children. In the overclass, twice-married, middle-aged Wall Street daddies don’t own up to the consequences of their insane financial miscues. Wall Street titans are almost incapable of seeing the problem with taking nine-figure payouts in years in which their stocks plummet. “There’s just a total disconnect between the compensation and the responsibility for their actions,” says William Cohan, a former Lazard banker turned author.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

There are important differences between the underclass and the overclass, notes Susan Mayer, dean of the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy Studies. The overclass is better connected, and it can cause more damage. “Poor inner-city kids selling drugs to suburban kids can harm people,” Mayer says. “But financial markets can bring thousands and thousands of people to ruin.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Much could be written about the presumptions packed into Mayer’s quotes; I’ll leave that for commenters.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Instead, I want to note — as the Gross piece does — that Gross “is the author of Pop! Why Bubbles Are Great for the Economy<\/em><\/a>.”\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 As summarized by\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Publisher’s Weekly:<\/p>\n

Three cheers for “exuberant, foolish, mad overinvestment!” Slate<\/em> columnist Gross takes a counterintuitive look at economic bubbles\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dthose once-in-a-generation crazes that everyone knows can’t last, and don’t. With each one, we lament having gotten in too late, and then not having gotten out soon enough, and finally shake our heads at the inevitable bankruptcies and lost jobs and general financial wreckage. The pattern is all too familiar, which is why Gross’s argument is so intriguing: that these bubbles, with their hype and madness and overenthusiasm, are not to be feared\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u009dthey’re actually a primary engine of “America’s remarkable record of economic growth and innovation”…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, that view is so<\/em> 2007.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 What happened?\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Did the book not sell, or is Gross just in election-year mode?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slate’s Daniel Gross argues that the “culture of affluence” endangers America and its values more than the “culture of poverty”: In the underclass, unmarried, young fathers don’t take responsibility for their children. In the overclass, twice-married, middle-aged Wall Street daddies don’t own up to the consequences of their insane financial miscues. Wall Street titans are almost incapable of seeing the problem with taking nine-figure payouts in years in which their<\/p>\n

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