[Magdalen] Republicans push for a permanent aristocracy - The Washington ...

[Jim Guthrie]

Some people might posit the notion that the budding aristocratic elites are folk 
who still have (the ever-vanishing) defined benefit pension, 
contribution/deductible/co-pay-free plans and income high enough to salt away 
savings for retirement. And get tax breaks for everything from local taxes to 
home interest deductions (gotta be rich enough to afford a home for those) --  
not to mention a host of other tax deals only available to the 
elites/aristocracy  through America's Hidden "Welfare for the Moneyed" system.

And of course, there are the private enterprise subsidies -- someone rich enough 
to own an estate in three acre zoning territory pays the same KWH, cable fees 
and telephone as a low-income person living in a high rise, even though the 
utilities charge off billions to subsidize those power lines and cable lines and 
phone lines easily disrupted/destroyed in a storm, thus making sure low-income 
people subsidize the rich (or middle class, for that matter), without a peep 
from the crowd "concerned for the poor."

I think of the consternation in the Kerner Report (not) over the finding that 
family breakdown in Watts was a major factor in the riots there back in the 
1960s. And it turned out that one of the reasons for family breakdowns was that 
after the abandonment of the Pacific Electric in 1961 (LAMTA by then) -- a 30 
minute trip to downtown jobs (most Watts people were employed)  had turned into 
a family-wrenching two hour bus ride each way.

Well, what's the use of being in the aristocracy if you can’t say, "Let them eat 
cake."

Of course, that describes folk who think themselves merely "middle class" or 
even "poor" at an income level higher than most of the world's population.

The GOP version of it is merely the American Dream (or perhaps nightmare for 
those at the bottom).

Maybe we need to resuscitate "Poor people tourism" like Eleanor taking Franklin 
Roosevelt to visit to the Rivington Settlement House and nearby tenements. "I 
never realized people lived like that," said the future President.

I realize "Poor People Tourism"  long ago became frowned upon in some circles as 
demeaning to the poor.

One might ask, "How has that worked out?"

Cheers,
Jim