I don’t want to get into a lengthy response to the Bloomberg article about Wall Streeters whose reduced bonuses mean they have to limit the three-bedroom vacation rental to one month rather than four, or who can’t ski Aspen this winter. Nor do I want to go point by point through Megan McArdle’s reply (“Are the Rich Completely Undeserving of Sympathy?”). I just want to talk about this comment from an attorney that’s appended to McArdle’s post:
Another factor I’ve noticed with my bankruptcy clients is that a very rich person whose income takes a sudden precipitous drop to a still-pretty-good income can actually wind up in more financial trouble, faster, than a very poor person whose income drops to zero. If you were making $300k a year and spending $200k of it on fixed expenses, and your household income drops to $125k a year, unless you have substantial liquid savings or are able to sell your house and your car and your boat yank your kids out of private school REALLY fast, you’re going to wind up in bankruptcy in a fairly short space of time….
I guess what I want to ask is: why don’t these people have “substantial liquid savings”? Why don’t they have a plan for a possible calamitous economic downturn? Isn’t understanding the volatile nature of financial markets their freaking job?
Aren’t they supposed to comprehend this kind of risk much, much better than the rest of us? And, by the way, isn’t risk the reason they and their Masters of the Universe superiors supposedly deserve the big bucks in the first place? Isn’t that the heroic myth of big-time capitalism — that, unlike us paper-pushing, ditch-digging, wage-slave drones, they accept the potential for tremendous harm to their own economic well-being in order to be the Randian heroes who keep our economic engine chugging along?
I’m not even getting into the fact that they and their bosses and colleagues actually caused the damn downturn in the first place. That’s reason enough to withhold sympathy. But even those not directly involved should know they’re in a risky business. Instead, just the same way they want profits privatized and losses socialized, they want to corner the market on praise and then demand a socialist redistribution of sympathy.
(X-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.)
I can’t handle this. I am struggling like a lot of people and I am not able to feel any compassion for these fools.
what’s funny is that I don’t resent them for their income. But I increasingly want to steal everything they own. And then, I don’t know, burn it all in front of their sobbing eyes?
Is that class envy?
I’m fine with people who have money. What gets me angry are the ones that they lord it over the rest of us and look down their noses at us.
I want the fools to live in poverty.
LOL…you crazy.
I just love it that Megan hauls out the “Think about the kids” defense.
Yes, having to change schools mid-year is difficult, but tens of thousands of kids do it every single year. And the spawn of the privileged have to leave their private schools to attend class with my kid?
Lucky for them.
What pissed me off about that guy’s comment was the part you left out. The part where he says the person making 18K can just move in with parents until a job materializes. Most people, most poor people do not have that luxury. We all don’t have a room or basement waiting back at mom and dad’s.
I can’t even be bothered with this garbage.
This discussion has been going on for thousands of years. Probably these Wall Street types never really thought about it before, but everybody else has. Let’s listen in on one of these conversations right now:
http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/1579114
Couldn’t help laughing at the article and the comments. Especially liked the commenter who asked “is this The Onion?” describes my reaction to that article, how can someone be in that income bracket and not have the concept of saving $? what are they spending their $ on?
Keeping up with the Joneses?
Leveraged debt baby, that’s like uncut columbian snow ahhhh.
And, by the way, isn’t risk the reason they and their Masters of the Universe superiors supposedly deserve the big bucks in the first place?
Yes, and it’s always been clear to anyone who noticed the golden parachutes and stuff that it was utter horseshit. I guess there was the risk of losing decades of future $100,000,000/yr salary and bonuses for a mere $300M parachute, but it’s hard to see that as much of a risk if you aren’t, well, a greedhead.
my violin is so small, a flea couldn’t find it.
you have a nano violin? and the perfect occasion for it!