2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Do you know a really rich person? [View all]ismnotwasm
(41,992 posts)I know a few.
But, When I was a new nurse I worked in LTC in a very affluent neighborhood. Now, we are talking upper middle class mostly--well within the "millionaire" group of people. I took care of politicians parents, the patents of quasi-famous authors, people like that
Now, the point of view I had at the time was colored, as are all anecdotal stories, by my own personal experience--one of of extreme poverty. I literally thought rich people were different on a very basic level. What I found out was they are not. They love, or don't love, their parents. They suffer from classic "dysfunctional" families, they suffer when they lose loved ones. Theu might have healthy, happy families. They care, or don't care--about other human beings. They give to their communities, or don't give. They worked an appropriate amount, were workaholics. Or didn't work at all. They were happy or depressed They can be activists or assholes. I found they weren't much different than anyone else, except they had far more leisure time, and money to indulge. Of course the shared experience of a dying relative is an enormous equalizer.
Hillary Clinton is winning because of the type of campaign she is running. She is using a lot of outreach. She is meeting people. She does understand because she is listening. She's taking the time to listen. She always has.
The kind of poverty I come from would put Sanders right in the 1% with the rest of them, it's all relative you see. To me, a few hundred thousand is as far away as a few million.