Where do I begin? I suppose that saying that the rich do not think like normal people is good, and that the wealthier they are, the more estranged they are from people who make minimum wage or lower, and in many cases, more contemptuous of those whom they perceive as being ‘beneath’ or 'not equal to them. Their thought processes revolve around wealth and the need to accumulate it.
At the last I heard, Bill Gates was worth over 40 billion. 10% of that donated to charity would be 4 billion – which would probably provide a fix for Social Security, or enable over 12 million of the nations 40 million poor and starving to get food stamps for years or low income housing or
medical care. ** BUT** that 4 billion is his** and, as such, he probably would rather part with his left hand than give it away. (Even if he could get a massive tax write-off for it.)
I had the ‘misfortune’ of working for several members of the rich-rich some years back, when I was younger, idealistic and actually thought there was a lot of good in people and that most politicians were actually honest. (Yeah! THAT long ago.) I was paid a then pretty good wage to help them in their homes and those were SOME homes, in exclusive communities. One place I worked in, the living room was round, with all corridors of the place entering it, and each with a door and a garden in the center surrounded by Grecian columns – the roof opened up like a missile silo to let in sunlight! There were servants quarters – unused but fully equipped, that made my small, cheap apartment look like shit. The older man and wife ate off of gold plated silverware. I had to park my little Hornet off to the side, AWAY from the front of the house so it could not be seen. The place was spotless – kept so by a cleaning service. Three of my family homes could have fit easily in it and the lawn was huge! The couple decided to move, for various reasons, and among things they decided to get rid of were works of art, expensive medical equipment and other valuable odds and ends – but I was not allowed any of it. They gave it to friends who did not actually need it and their occasional day maid managed to get a couple of paintings worth a few grand. I was politely talked down to, and when I left, they did not even give me a $2 tip after months of good service. They would give thousands to their clubs and ‘in’ charities – like saving the whales, donations to the local museum – which was built on the land of the wealthy area and visited mainly by the wealthy – but nothing to the real poor. They talked condescendingly about their yard man, their ‘help,’ their ‘Realtor’ (who came out of retirement to scoop the sale of their home from his employees – and the couple thought that charming, forgetting that his percentage of the sale would be nearly a million). and other hired help.
I worked for others who would spend several thousand dollars decorating their homes for holidays in their multimillion dollar community and give the local rich children expensive treats but considered the homeless as people who should be in jail and would spend $100,000 on their clubhouse but not give a cent to food for the poor.
One man lived on the beach in a massive house and I had to be by him daily as he called up his employee managers, swear at them, threaten them with their jobs, pull them away from their families on their vacations and holidays and unconcernedly order the firing of people like swatting bugs. I had to park in the under the house garage, so my old Olds could not be seen. Then I had to be around as he and his wife bitched about the new people down the block who only paid a million for their home and how they were not their kind of people and should move elsewhere. ( I got fired from that job because I just could not kiss his ass and fawn all over him. That was the only such job I ever was fired from and I was glad.)
I worked with people who married each other to combine their wealth and obviously were NOT in love with each other, but ‘affectionate.’ Some considered welfare, food for the poor, homeless shelters and free medical help for the impoverished as pointless and a HUGE tax drain. Those who lived on the beach absolutely hated having to allow the common people on the government owned sands and tried to get a small, open air beach submarine shop – which had been there long before them – shut down because the kids and young adults gathered there to eat and played loud music. One guy I worked for was disabled and his wife and his apartment cost more than two of my homes, and he drove a late model caddy that was in show room condition and wanted to get a new car. None of the dealers would give him what he wanted for it, so he bought another with cash. That left him the car. I worked there on weekends and drove a battered Ford Courier, his week day ‘girl’ drove a crappy Chevy. She had invited them for Christmas, made a fuss over them and they loved her to pieces. He decided to give his old car to his millionaire son, who did not want it at all. It never dawned on him to give the car to his beloved day girl or, unlikely, to me.
The 1970s meltdown did not even cause him to blink an eye because his investments had not been affected. I would drive them to their club on Sundays for lunch, then got to sit in the car, across the street, facing the club, so as to know when they came out so I could drive up and pick them up. I was not welcome in the sacred halls of wealth. They would pay $2,000 to have their pocket sized kitchen ‘redecorated’ (that meant this lady came in, changed the wall paper – about all 10 square feet of it – took a small brush and highlighted the raised edging along their cabinet doors, put in some small curtains, change the pastel color of the 10 square feet of painted walls to another pastel that looked remarkably like the original color and toss a few doilys around. (I could have done it for $400). After working for them for a year, I resigned and though they professed mightily that they thought highly of me, the old man gave me a $5 tip!
I worked in a community that if one moved into it, one had to have a guaranteed income of over a couple of million a year. The cheapest ‘mansion’ started at a million, along with small apartments (used seasonally) and, if, say, the main income was from the husband and he died and the wife’s income fell below the designated amount per year – the community kicked them out! They would buy back the house, and tell the widow to leave!! It was in the purchase agreement!
These people would drop $1000 on a dinner with a few friends, but absolutely refuse to give any donations to food for the poor, though they would give thousands for the preservation of some dead famous millionaires writings or for the reconstruction of his mansion, thousands for the preservation of art, (last I knew, one cannot eat art), or thousands to buy cement golf cart paths through their extensive, local golf course.) I used to take some shopping in the city, where they always hit the moderately priced grocery stores, and they would be contemptuous of the regular people walking in and out. Some family, obviously poor, would drive by in a battered smoker and they would mumble about getting inspections back to get such wrecks off of the road – even if the owners could not pay for repairs.
Some took over a local beach area, put down expensive homes and highly priced stores – designed to look like those in California – ($2.00 for a small bottle of apple juice, in one. On the mainland, in a 7-11, similar apple juice cost 50 cents.) Then they managed to get the local police to heavily patrol the area and night and one got stopped and questioned if one did not have an expensive car and wandered over there. (They stopped me when I drove a 4 year old Pontiac in great shape and asked me why I was there.) Then, they managed to get the city to rezone the shore and built it up so denly that the public had problems accessing the public beaches --except in small, designated areas. It took
