A thought to chase: The rich
Here is thought that I put here, because I have nowhere else to leave it, and I am not sure what can be done with it…
Throughout the ages, the rich in societies have been able to enhance their lives. In ages past, the rich have had superior access to those things that enhance life: education, literacy, cleanliness, health, food, medicine, even religion. But today, all such advantages are being spread to a much broader class, which includes the “middle class”, and it shall probably be this next decade that sees more than half the world’s population belonging to this group. A group that takes many of these advantages for granted.
But what do the rich have today? What advantage do they have that is not available to the middle class, or to some ambitious and talented poor person?
I wondered about “time” as an answer. But it seems to me as if the tables have turned. 100 years ago, the rich were the “leisure class”, and factory workers sweated from dark to dark every day. Now, labour unions have restricted the labourers working hours to shifts not often longer than 8 hours at a time, while their white collar bosses spend 12 hours a day or more in their chrome and glass offices – and that’s before they pack their laptops and PDAs into their briefcases and head for what they might call “home”. So, “time”, it is not.
I wondered about “entertainment”. The rich have always been able to pay enough to get the best entertainers. Today, though, we pay our best entertainers enough to be rich. And everyone can see them in action for a few dollars an hour. Bollywood makes more movies than Hollywood. And so it goes. No, entertainment is open to all.
What is it then, that the rich have today?
I keep thinking….
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For the rich, I think it still is “time” or wherewithal if you need to chose another word. Granted they may spend x amount of time working in the office but they have the choice to leave and continue their work elsewhere. Others do not have this choice, the worker bees are more tied to the grindstone. They can not take the grindstone with them.
I also think that less of the total time the rich spend working is actually constructive or productive hours than the worker bees spend. Admittedly this is harder to argue but I think it works out that way.
How about the pride in the knowledge of knowing you are rich. This has been a timeless aspect, the rich have always gotten off on knowing they are the elite. Added ot this is what Steve speaks of and choice – that the rich can choose where to put their effort and time. But even this is an illusion, because everyone has a choice where to put their time and effort … its to which means we choose.
See my later post on http://www.tmtd.biz/2006/01/04/the-tyranny-of-reason-logic/.
I wonder if the thing the rich of this era have is their ability to control corporate life. They are the (in decreasing order of importance): shareholders, directors, executives, managers, employees and (primary) stakeholders of the corporate world.
Multinational companies operate amorally. They wield tremendous influence – probably much more than politicans. In a world that values democracy, they are not elected. In a world that values transparency, they have to be legislatively forced to provide even a smidgeon of openness. In a world based on human connectedness, they remain impassively amoral, keenly self-obsessed. The have all the legal rights of real people, but without many of obligations.
In the movie, “The Corporation”, the question is asked, “If companies were people, what type of people would they be?” The answer: Pathological Sociopaths! Ouch.
And it is the rich who control these vehicles of modern warfare and wield their power across the world.