From the LUSENET 'anarchy' forum:

A Note of Appreciation from the Rich:

Let's be honest: you'll never win the lottery. On the other hand, the chances are pretty good that you'll slave away at some miserable job the rest of your life. That's because you were in all likelihood born into the wrong social class. Let's face it - you're a member of the working caste. Sorry!

As a result, you don't have the education, upbringing, connections, manners, appearance, and good taste to ever become one of us. In fact, you'd probably need a book the size of the yellow pages to list all the unfair advantages we have over you. That's why we're so relieved to know that you still continue to believe all those silly fairy tales about "justice" and "equal opportunity" in America. (*or Canada)

Of course, in a hierarchical social system like ours, there's never been much room at the top to begin with. Besides, it's already occupied by us - and we like it up here so much that we intend to keep it that way. But at least there's usually someone lower in the social hierarchy you can feel superior to and kick in the teeth once in a while. Even a lowly dishwasher can easily find some poor slob further down in the pecking order to sneer and spit at. So be thankful for migrant workers, prostitutes, and home less street people.

Always remember that if everyone like you were economically secure and socially privileged like us, there would be no one left to fill all those boring, dangerous, low-paid jobs in our economy. And no one to fight our wars for us, or blindly follow orders in our totalitarian corporate institutions. And certainly no one to meekly go to their grave without having lived a full and creative life. So please, keep up the good work!

You also probably don't have the same greedy, compulsive drive to possess wealth, power, and prestige that we have. And even though you may sincerely want to change the way you live, you're also afraid of the very change you desire, thus keeping you and others like you in a nervous state of limbo. So you go through life mechanically playing your assigned social role, terrified what others would think should you ever dare to "break out of the mold."

Naturally, we try to play you off against each other whenever it suits our purposes: high-waged workers against low-waged, unionized against non-unionized, Black against White, male against female, American workers against Japanese against Mexican against..... We continually push your wages down by invoking "foreign competition," "the law of supply and demand," "national security," or "the bloated federal deficit." We throw you on the unemployed scrap heap if you step out of line or jeopardize our profits. And to give you an occasional break from the monotony of our daily economic blackmail, we allow you to participate in our stage- managed electoral shell games, better known to you ordinary folks as "elections." Happily, you haven't a clue as to what's really happening - instead, you blame "Aliens," "Tree-hugging Environmentalists," "Niggers," "Jews," "Welfare Queens," and countless others for your troubled situation.

We're also very pleased that many of you still embrace the "work ethic," even though most jobs in our economy degrade the environment, undermine your physical and emotional health, and basically suck your one and only life right out of you. We obviously don't know much about work, but we're sure glad you do!

Of course, life could be different. Society could be intelligently organised to meet the real needs of the general population. You and others like you could collectively fight to free yourselves from our domination. But you don't know that. In fact, you can't even imagine that another way of life is possible. And that's probably the greatest, most significant achievement of our system-robbing you of your imagination, your creativity, your ability to think and act for yourself.

So we'd truly like to thank you from the bottom of our heartless hearts. Your loyal sacrifice makes possible our corrupt luxury; your work makes our system work. Thanks so much for "knowing your place" - without even knowing it!

Rich $cum of America

He who hath the gold makes all the rules

Please make copies and share with other members of your caste!

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), March 15, 2000

Answers

I make $60,000, my boyfriend makes $110,000. We have no kids, so the money we don't sock away, we spend on our house, trips, travel, ourselves. It's a great life. So how come WE weren't consulted on this thing?

-- Interesting... (geekgrrl@makesmoney.com), March 15, 2000.

Hallyx,

Interesting story, but it reads like sour grapes and envy to me.

-- Uncle Deedah (unkeed@yahoo.com), March 15, 2000.

Intersting,

Because you ain't rich. The paltry <200K you gross between the two of you is a pittance. Besides, you WORK for your money; you'll never be rich. Why do people with less than a million or so identify with the elite. I notice that around here, much to my amusement.

Unk,

See me in about ten years when my grapes have ripened and oil producttion has peaked. I'll laugh up my shroud at you.

Hallyx

"And we alone shall feed them...." the Inquisitor continues, "Oh, never,never can they feed themselves without us! No science will give them bread so long as they remain free. In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet, and say to us, 'Make us your slaves, but feed us.'" (Dostoevsky)

-- (Hallyx@aol.com), March 16, 2000.

yes but huge wealth cannot all be materialised into goods, there are just so many houses, cars, wives etc you can have

so what if someone owns a factory, stocks etc

NB wish I made a paltry $200,000 whats that in real # (envy envy)

-- richard (richard.dale@onion.com), March 16, 2000.

Hi Hallyx, Welllll, I agree with the whole thing, and disagree with the whole thing. How's that for fence straddling?

As Thoreau said, men/people do "lead lives of quiet desperation." Actually we are comfortable, but I chafe at the unfair amount of income tax, and property tax we pay, compared to those wealthy enough to have tax breaks, to offset most taxes.

We are part of that vanishing, American middle class. The richer are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class is drinfting into the fringes of the poor.

My husband and I have both traveled a lot, but now we're retired and are enjoying our lives gardening, reading, and building as self-sufficient, sustainable, and easy maintenance home place as possible. Not everyone can even have this small security blanket.

But, we do have choices. One choice we should make as a people is to stand up on our hind legs and fight our bought politicians, corporations which are siphoning off weath at a faster rate than ever, and get educated about what is happening, rather than watching another episode of "Friends" NYPD, or that ilk that spams our brains and teaches us nothing.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), March 16, 2000.

damn gilda,

Your last paragraph matches my thinking exactly.

damn Unc,

I agree with you too. (Sorry Hallyx. But there's no way a rich person wrote that. They might think some of that as a fleeting thought, but they'd never put it in writing to taunt people.

Besides,...even the richest people I know are always afraid something's going to happen and they'll lose it all.

Nobody gets a free ride -- ever.

~*~

-- Laura (Ladylogic@...), March 16, 2000.

So glad that satire lives.

We are missing it in our modern literature. Where are today's Dickens, Twains', voltaire's, etc??

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), March 16, 2000.

"Where are today's Dickens, Twains', voltaire's, etc??"

Good question, Future Shock.

It seems to me that when I read Dicken's and Voltaire, I thought they must have lived in extreme poverty to write about it. I hated projecting myself into some of their stories. (Particularly, "Crime and Punishment".)

I don't know of course, but I think many of the great novels were written by men who lived lives of desperation and were very introspective.

Maybe today, someone with that kind of talent is busy writing movies. I just saw "American Beauty" and the last scene left me paralyzed.

Wow. I was just sitting here thinking about why I was so moved by the last scene and I realized it's because I related to it so much. (I volunteered at the M. E.'s office a couple of years ago.)

What makes a great writer, or novel, anyway? Man, that seems subjective to me. Maybe it's determined by how many Lit. teachers love it and include it in their curriculum?

~*~

-- Laura (Ladylogic@...), March 16, 2000.

Uh, Crime and Punishment, wasn't that Dostoyevsky ???

-- Konan the Librarian (summa@cum.lousy), March 16, 2000.

Well e--x --c-uuuuse me all to hell.

I felt the same way about Candide and confused some authors.

BFD

~*~

-- Laura (Ladylogic@...), March 16, 2000.

Seems she can't tell who anyone is.

~*~

-- I am you (you@re.me), March 16, 2000.

Your remarks have become increasingly pedestrian and boorish.

jerk

~*~

-- Laura (Ladylogic@...), March 16, 2000.

Your remarks have become increasingly pedestrian and boorish.

jerk

~*~

-- Laura (Ladylogic@...), March 16, 2000.

pe7des7tri7an -- adj.

-- Undistinguished; ordinary; Lacking wit or imagination.

boor7ish -- adj.

-- Resembling or characteristic of a boor; rude and clumsy in behavior; clownish; uncultured; unmannerly; ill-mannered and coarse and contemptible in behavior or appearance.

Yep! You would know! After all, I learned it from you!

~*~

-- Miss Manners (you@re.not), March 16, 2000.

Ha ha! Had to look them up, didn't you girlfriend?

~*~

-- Laura (Ladylogic@...), March 16, 2000.

Go away lisa.

cpr's calling you.

~*~

-- Laura (Ladylogic@...), March 16, 2000.

It really seems she can't tell who anyone is.

~*~

-- I am you (you@re.me), March 16, 2000.

"I am you (you@re.me)"

You may be right"

~*~

-- (me@nd.you), March 16, 2000.

Lest anyone misread that.

I meant lisa is MOST likely Ladylogic.

-- (me@nd.you), March 16, 2000.

Wow, Hal...what a great, provocative post. We've talked about this very subject for years in my house. The underlined fact however is not that the rich don't work, or didn't work...it is: they let money work for them...that is the only reason to acquire it seems to me. Most who "labor" (wage and salary slaves) will not be rich...and the bill of goods sold most people about "working hard and becoming rich" is just a carrot and stick routine chanted by those who have already crossed over the line (or the still deluded) to keep the "system" functioning so their "money" can "keep working".

My two cents, my "buck-three-eighty", and no sour grapes...happy with my life, thank you.

-She in the sheet, upon the hilltop,...returned after a long hiatus

-- Donna (moment@home.com), March 17, 2000.