do u mean RICY sir?
thx
James Arifin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Market Watch: Remember Richie Rich?
6/14/2007 5:24:27 PM
Stock markets ended higher today, Thursday, June 14, 2007
by Alan Hall
Richie Rich was the sweet little rich kid that appeared in comic books from
the 1950's through the 1980's, and later in an animated TV series. Despite
being the richest kid in the world, Richie was not conceited, and his family
and friends were the most important things in his life. He was wholesomely;
appealingly rich, and he affected the attitudes of a generation of children.
Compare that vision of the rich with 1906, when the top 1 percent of Americans
owned as much as 60 percent of all U.S. wealth. The heyday of Rockefeller and
Morgan yielded to Teddy Roosevelt, who said the only kinds of rich were the
criminal rich and the foolish rich. By 1912 rich was something you tried to
hide.
In 1920, a bomb exploded outside J.P. Morgan's bank killing 38 and wounding
200. That was terrorism on U.S. soil, directed at the rich.
The roaring 20's smoothed the wealth gap somewhat, until the 1929 crash
exposed the fraud that comes with financial mania. Then came some of the worst
riots in U.S. history, gold was confiscated and tax rates for the richest rose
above 90 percent. Most people don't remember that these rates lasted through
the 1960's.
A certain level of wealth disparity in any society seems to trigger backlash
against the wealthy, because the middle and lower income people suffer more
than the rich in a downturn.
This doesn't happen overnight. The progress from reverence to revilement has
stages and leading indicators. First comes ridicule, a waning of society's
respect for and emulation of the rich. The hatred is later.
An article in the New York Times last week reviewed a new book, "Richistan,"
which describes how the rich are dealing with the chronic shortage of trained
butlers to perform the perfectly synchronized "Ballet of Service," a deft dance
while juggling silver platters.
Butler Boot Camp teaches aspiring butlers how to, "
iron a pair of French
cuffs in seconds flat. They learn how to clip a 1926 Pardona cigar, how to dust
a de Kooning canvas and whether to pair an oaky chardonnay with roasted
free-range game hen. They learn how long it takes to clean a 45,000-square-foot
mansion (20 to 30 hours depending on the art and antiques), where to find
1,020-thread-count sheets, and how to design a "stationery wardrobe" --
envelopes and letterhead specially designed to reflect the owner's wealth and
social standing. They will be taught that sable stoles should never be stored
in a cedar closet (it dries them out), and that Bentleys should never, ever be
run through the car wash." (New York Times)
At the same time the article celebrates our emulation and envy of the rich, it
sounds undertones of ridicule of excess.
You can see a mixture of attitudes toward the rich in articles about shortages
of trained yacht crew, CNBC's new "High Net Worth" program that "speaks to the
ultra-affluent," and Steven Colbert's new segment, "Colbert Platinum," in which
he heaps sarcastic praise on the very rich. There is still a mix of feelings
out there, but the point is
the leading indicator.
When the media ceases to portray the rich as worthy of envy and emulation and
begins in earnest to show them as foolish and ridiculous, what comes next?
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