What's with the growing sense of entitlement and self importance among...

[FormerRepublican]

...the elites in the US? The scorn of the "little people" appears to be growing, while the sense that everything belongs to them is growing. I know there's always been some tension among rich vs. poor in this country, but this was always mitigated in the past by the generally democratic principles we believe in. This seems to be changing.

It almost seems as if the rhetoric that had been used in the past against "welfare queens" and the "lazy poor" is now being used against Americans as a whole, while the only people who are now "acceptable" are the elites. Classism on a grand scale, which is something the US has always avoided before.

What do you think is going on among the elites?

[Jim Sagle]

1. They're getting ready to toss us, all of us, over the side.

They don't believe they need a middle class anymore, and so they are going about the business of eradicating it.

[acmejack]

2. We're turning into Brazil

Armed guards atop the walls of the enclaves of the rich, they increasingly live in their own "gated communities".

[Warpy]

5. That's the middle class, those gated enclaves

Trust me, ordinary folks rarely see the truly rich. Their places are solitary and hidden behind hedges and winding roads. They use private airports, shopping pretty much comes to them, and they're stashed in VIP wings of big city hospitals when they get sick enough for hospital care. They have little contact with the world you and I inhabit and the few I've met have exhibited very little curiosity about it, beyond an idle wonder why we don't just tap into our trust funds or sell a few stocks when we get laid off.

Those gated enclaves are for people who have made money in the various professions and are all too aware of how starved the rest of us are.

[midnight]

14. Wow.

I can imagine that this is how it must be. The poor are the ones in the Malls, grocery stores and banks. I suppose if you watched Fun with Dick and Jane. You saw that the rich even bank in seclusion. I heard that the elite want separate freeway systems that will separate the haves from the have nits.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. I don't know what's going on with them

but they are greedy bastards, no doubt. We read this morning about some CEO whose company is being bought out, and he's being given an $85 million severance package and an amazing quantity of stocks, plus use of the company jet, a full-time secretary and a bunch of other stuff. To me, these people are causing far more damage to the economy than a bunch of poor immigrants coming into the US trying to feed their families. Concentration of all the money in the hands of a few makes slaves of all of us "normal" folks.

[monarch]

4. Reagan effect!!

"Greed is good!"

[DBoon]

13. The Reagan generation has come of age

nt

[GeorgeGist]

6. GREED and POWER and...

ironically, SELF-LOATHING; they seem intent on destroying the very people who make them rich and powerful.

[glitch]

7. They have to de-humanize us, otherwise they can't make us slaves or fodder

even elites have a core of humanity somewhere that must be suppressed.

Plus they may actually believe we elected these criminals, and deserve to be treated like fools.
They're half-right, since we were foolish, or trusting, enough to allow them to steal our vote and thus our country, and even still deny the evidence.

[misternormal]

8. Another step on the way to revolution my friends...

The french did it, and so did the Bolsheveks... The loss of the middle class, and the widening gap between the haves and the have nots, is setting this into motion.

Hopefully it can be diverted, or at least delayed until after the 2008 election.

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. If we were slaves

they would resent us for having to buy food rations.

[salin]

10. It's 1870 again... welcome to the rhetoric of the Robber Barons.

[earth mom]

11. Not to mention-some people think they are rich because they drive $$$ SUVs

have Louis Vuitton handbags and live in a McMansion. These people have delusions of grandeur and major superiority attitudes. I see it all the time at my childs public school which in recent years has become surrounded by McMansions priced a half million on up. The thing is, most of these idiots are in debt up to their eyeballs and are in for a very RUDE awakening in when it all comes crashing down-which it no doubt will.

[DBoon]

12. I've heard people argue about eliminating public universities

on the grounds that if you don't have the money to go to college, you don't deserve it.


(and that giant sucking sound is technical jobs being siphoned off to countries with government finded university educations)