Better we have these discussions here rather than during all those family dinners.
Education, Intelligence and the Aristocracy
Street Smart
12/26/2011 7:04:53 PM
It's interesting to chart the role of education and native intelligence in one's rise to the aristocracy via the corporate vs. the political route. Intelligence is highly prized on Wall Street and that tends to correlate with achievement at top schools. I think it's pretty vital to rising to the top of most Fortune 500 corporations, too.
Where education and intelligence seem to be active liabilities is in the political arena, where even the smallest whiff of elitism seems to brand one un-electable. It will be interesting to see if this race turns out to be Obama vs. Romney, since both are very bright but not very folksy guys.
Gentlemen: Start droppin' those g's!
Hide your money now
impactnow
12/26/2011 5:58:21 PM
Too true money equals power and influence and in our time this is the ruling class, we see it every day with the decisions that are made that do nothing to influence widespread unemployment and the failed housing market. Until there is some kind of power demonstrated by the have nots through effective organization this will not change the direction. We will see more like Corzine and those who came before him.
Wow, we have some rip-roaring discussions going on here for the holiday season: Robber Barons, Tea Partiers, Occupy Wall Streeters, Goldman Sachs, Jon Corzine... the whole deal!
Makes it hard to digest all those holiday meals.
Politicians and corporate or Wall Street executives don't just find each other after everyone has been elected or risen to the top. Often there are school, social and financial ties that have a lot to do with friends helping friends rise to positions of power.
Friends hold fundraisers for friends seeking political office. Friends serve on friends' boards of directors. Friends donate to each other's charities, and to friends whose friends are seeking political office.
More than any other firm I have ever seen (with the possible exception of the late Bear Stearns), Goldman Sachs creates a culture of "friends and family" among its employees. It's about smart people engaged in problem solving and public service, and it transcends political party. Believe me when I tell you that Goldman Sachs would have been equally prominent in the cabinet that John McCain would have chosen had he been elected.
Which leaves us with...oxymoron alert...an equal-opportunity aristocracy?!
The Aristocracy extends beyond Congress to include prominent members of certain financial corporations. Goldman Sachs is a prime example -
Source: Stephanie Herman, Geke.us
Well Street Smart, I'm not sure what else there is to say.
Re: Plutocracy
AskAsa
12/26/2011 10:36:45 AM
"they want it to have both money AND power"
Exactly, @Street Smart!
The more history I read, the more I come to believe that our founding fathers were a plutocracy. Sure, Massachusetts had some rabble-rousers and we wrapped ourselves in the cloak of religious freedom, but there was a lot of wealth and status quo to protect from those tax-and-grab British, even back before the Revolutionary War days. Preserving land wealth and slaves as human capital were very much the root causes of the Civil War, too of course. So, in that respect, I don't think anything has changed at all. Don't forget that our Constitution is as inclusive as it is today because of hard-won amendments, not because of the founding fathers' egalitarian vision!
What's interesting I think is how we tend to view politicians who are already wealthy as having purer motives. "Why would a Kennedy or a Rockefeller or a Bush--or a Romney or a Bloomberg want the job of (fill in the blank) if not for pure motives," we ask ourselves?
Well, they want it to have both money AND power is the age-old answer.
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