The MSM have put such a focus on money in entertainment that the American people have lost all perspective on wealth.
The poor in America have a standard of living that is better than 90% of the world, but the entertainment media focuses attention on the Paris Hiltons and Donald Trumps and TV shows like Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The former leads people to believe the wealthy didn’t *earn* their wealth and the latter to believe even average people can simply be *given* the good life, with work involved.
Fifty years ago, people didn’t see the ultra-rich often enough to think of them as ordinary people. The assumption was that those people must be very special to have gained such wealth. The media today shows only the foibles of those people but not the virtues that created their wealth.
There was an interesting point made on a Fox Business program last week. They pointed out that Paris Hilton, as ridiculous as it may seem, made $7M in 2006 from modeling, commercials, and endorsements. So she isn’t necessarily “spending her inheritance”. Standing around posing for 12 hour photo shoots doesn’t sound like work to most people, but she didn’t NEED to do anything at all. I’ve never seen the MSM report something like that — only her pecadillos and an implied statement that she simply spends money she never earned, never that she has earnings of her own.
The envy this fosters is very unhealthy. People cannot be happy with their modest lives if they are bombarded with images of the ultra-rich.
I wouldn’t use Paris Hilton to prove any kind of point . Poor choice there