Those who are the affluent class are no better than anyone else.
Our culture routinely canonizes those who have reached the materialistic stratosphere of ultra-wealth and extrapolated celebrity, granting them a platform via mainstream media outlets for them to espouse there greatness, and 'grace' us with their 'insight' and 'charity'. However, they are not more intellectually endowed, more attractive, or being of greater genetic composition positing themselves as the prime echelon of our species.
Many of these cats ( if not almost all) had one particular condition which is not available to the majority of us, the proletariat.
Access.
On a June 2014 episode of Morgan Spurlock's Inside Man (entitled "Income Inequality"), he sat down with Oil and Gas magnate, entrepreneur, and attorney John W. Haughtaling, a native of New Orleans.
In the episode, Spurlock convened with Mr. Haughtaling at a fund raiser and dinner to raise money for a local employment assistance organization in the New Orleans area that provided a 'full service' role to locals seeking not only jobs, but job placement advancement, education / training opportunities and career matches, staying primarily focused on the impoverished and low-income population at no cost to them.
During Morgan's conversation with Mr. Haughtaling, the attorney/actor/ business tycoon conveyed the very nature of his success: he simply had access. Access to the right schooling, networking and opportunity at which he took full advantage. He acknowledged further it is not enough to simply 'work hard' and believe the mantras and delusions of 'the American Dream'. In order to attain even his level of success, there were viable and open avenues to resources and connections available to him many of us simply do not have. He capped this admission with a simple and accurate pronouncement.
"the playing field is not level for all."
James Papademetriou aka Jamie Dimon is the living example of the pervasive denial of connection between access and attainment of stratospheric financial wealth and success. In recent years he has allowed himelf to embellish, through the rose-colored blindness of his bully pulpit, to pontificate the lack of governmental drivers being championed by various administrations to allow 'better jobs' and 'expansion of businesses'
His latest manifestation of self-indulged idolatry of the mastodons of the banking realm who have often titled themselves 'masters of the universe' had this to say during an earnings call presser on July 14th 2017, in which he stated:
"...if this administration will make great moves in taxes and infrastructure reform, we have the most — one of the most bureaucratic, confusing, litigious societies in the planet — it’s almost an embarrassment being an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to the stupid shit we have to deal with in this country. And at one point, we have to get our act together.”
Context is important: he was referencing the current tax reform aimed at bringing American capital from oversees under a lower tax rate. Secondly, this came after it was announced that JP Morgan Chase absconded 7 billion dollars in profit this passing quarter alone. He concluded this pseudo-egalitarian diatribe with this gem
" "I was just in France, in Argentina, Israel, Ireland, we met with the Prime Minister of India and China. It’s amazing, to me, that every single one of those countries understands that practical policies to promote business growth is good for the average citizens of those countries for jobs and wages and somehow this great American free enterprise system, we no longer get it.”
Being the sucker that I am to get into it with any CEO from the financial sector when such spittle oozes from their orifices, I ran through google and obtained his direct corporate e-mail deciding to express my thoughts about his little dog and pony show he had for Bloomberg.
I wrote :
Mr. Dimon:
No offense, but fucking really?
You and your organization command such profit in the planet that if your institution would collapse suddenly, several nations would go with you. And you goddamn know it.
I am embarrassed of the U.S. for the same reasons you indicated, but to be truthful, I have more reason than you to fell (sic) this way.... I didn't just garner my company 7 billion in quarterly profits, then render some elitist, self-serving rant about the state of American politics (which I have been beneficiary of).
You have benefited greatly from the corporate policies of the last twenty years.
Full Stop.
If you are really that 'disappointed', then support living wage. Help create meaningful jobs and expansion rather than continue to make more insular your organization against 'profit loss'. Stop taking advantage of tax cuts designed for the affluent to needlessly retain more of their wealth. Invest in small businesses and start-ups NOT just in the financial and tech markets.....
When was the last time you sat through an elevator pitch from a dude who hadn't a cent , but created an idea for a business model to capture a unclaimed niche in the market being unfulfilled, all the while being evicted from his apartment and having his last source of income, his unemployment check, cut-off?
If I remember correctly , your from old- school Brooklyn. You were around when the Bronx was a war-zone, NYC was broke, and even Gerald R. Ford told NYC to go fuck itself.
Please stop making comments, and go do something meaningful with your ungodly wealth, other than just expanding it. If you really give a shit about "Our Nation' , you alone can make a strong difference in that regard.
Using the media as your sounding board isn't it. Neither is stopping by the White House to say 'hi' to an 'old friend' to expand favor towards yourself and industry qualify as such.
Respectfully,
KC Shoen
Not the best written e-mail on my behalf, but I wasn't attempting to emulate James Baldwin or create a correspondence chain as basis for the Great American Protest Novel. I wanted to see the outcome knowing full well that this message would never reach him.
It didn't.
What I received immediately was this:
Alas, my choice of language caused his security system to belch forth an instant message essentially asking for its removal..and to re-send it sans the vulgar expletives.
Essentially, I have to 'clean it up' for Big J: a man who has made a speaking career infusing foul language as part of his public speaking repertoire. He doesn't want it in his inbox , apparently.. and it would almost have a sense of logic if this were an e-mail from a direct report to his/her manager. Business partners are known to exchange e-mail communications laced with pejoratives, 'obscene' material and filthy jokes.
Contextually, however, I am none of these. I am a regular dude letting J know that if he has the compunction to make such overtures, he should tend to his own 'garden', shut his yap and put his money where his mouth is if he wants to see American economic greatness. Basically, stop being an egocentric little bitch and fucking 'move' some 'freight' other than his own weight and wealth. Give back through action, not the veneer and high gloss of charity events catering to his ever-expanding megalomania and self worship. That's all.
