Why socialists hate rich people: Neal Boortz reveals underlying envy, laziness infecting America

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Tuesday, December 17, 2002 | Neal Boortz

[JohnHuang2]

There's a dark little corner of the Internet where a gruesome assortment of leftists and socialists gather to post what passes for their "thoughts" on political issues. The site is called DemocraticUnderground.com, and it's certainly worth a quick stop the next time you go cruising. Several of my listeners keep a constant watch on this site and alert me to particularly interesting discussion threads.

I catch a lot of flak for my constant references to the Democratic Party as the Democratic Socialist Party. Maybe I can quell some of the dissension by telling you some of the postings I have read on Democratic Underground recently.

Last Thursday, a comment appeared with the title, "It's official, I'm a socialist at heart." This writer had visited a neighborhood of "multi-million dollars homes" that for the most part have only "two people (rich, old white couples) living in them." She wrote, "I really cannot stand rich, selfish people. I do believe in redistribution of wealth. Rich people do not get that way by themselves, they do it on the backs of others." Other Democratic Underground members chimed in with their responses. Among them:

• "And I couldn't agree more. Rich people don't earn their money."

• "In a land where continuous warfare is a national priority ? socialism has a great appeal."

• "Only misguided fools believe that the rich earned their spot as such."

• "Rich people got rich by screwing everyone else. Rich people stay rich by screwing everyone else even harder."

• "All liberals are socialists at heart. We know that socialism ? will end up being the only way."

That, my friends, is scary stuff, but it's nothing I haven't heard in 33 years of hosting talk-radio shows. There is burning envy – an envy that borders on outright hatred of the rich in this country. This envy is intense enough to consume the hearts and minds of many who call themselves "Democrats."

Where does this hatred come from? Why is it so important to so many people to believe that the evil rich got their money through anything but hard work?

To understand this, you need to imagine yourself struggling to make ends meet. You're renting an apartment and driving every day to a dead-end job that 's going nowhere. You work your 40-hour week, and have nothing to show for it but rent receipts and credit card bills. You hear about all of these people getting sick on cruise ships, and grouse that you don't have enough money to even get on the ship, let alone throw up on the poop deck.

So, just why aren't you rich? Why don't you have a fancy car? Why aren't you tossing your lunch on Caribbean cruises? Why do you make rent payments instead of mortgage payments?

The last thing you want to do is to admit that this all may be your fault. Your poverty couldn't possibly have anything to do with your decision to forego college for that great job at the mall. You're also convinced that your decision to hang out with your friends at night instead of getting some more education at the local community college was the right one. Hey! You work hard and deserve your fun, right?

And just why should you have to work more than 40 hours a week? That's what you're supposed to work, right? Forty hours, no more. After all, you're not a slave, are you? What about your huge car payments? Sure, you could be putting that money into an investment account, but you need that fancy car, right? And the rims? Hey! A guy's gotta be cool, you know what I'm saying?

So ? those rich people? Did they get that way doing the things you won't do? Working the 60-hour week, continuing with their education, buying cheap cars with ordinary wheels and investing the rest? Do they have the nice homes and the fancy cars because they make good choices and aren't afraid of taking a risk now and then?

No way! If a person could really get rich that way you would have done it already, right? No, that's now how they got their money. These people are rich because they exploited people. They got their money by climbing on the backs of working people like you! They were lucky! They inherited it! They didn't earn it. If it could be earned, you would have done it, right?

You have to protect yourself here, don't you? If you accept that the vast majority of those you call "rich" got there through hard work, then don't you have to ask yourself why you're not one of them? It's just so much easier to cast them as callous, selfish monsters and evil exploiters of the working class while preserving the mantle of goodness and righteousness for yourself. Hey, you may be poor, but at least you're a nice person, right?

[mrustow]

You are pathetic. I realize that constitutes a personal attack and is therefore frowned upon by this site, but I have no other way of characterizing your apparent hatred of success and that of the other socialist/marxists in the world. It is pathetic, simple-minded, and stupid. Furthermore, that midset is the fundamental opposite of what makes this country strong, and the opposite of anyone who is successful.

If someone builds a better mousetrap (and markets and sells it) they deserve to be rewarded. If that makes them rich, great. Anyone who wishes to change that fundamental dynamic in the American system is an enemy of this country's principles and an enemy of mine.

You are illiterate. The nice lady reading this to you needs to call Literacy Volunteers of America. They can help you, but you have to work really, really hard. Now, go back to sleep.

[mrustow]

As bitter as the serpent's tooth/
To have a Thankless child

(King Lear)

Thankless for what? Thanklessness presupposes that one has been given something. Poor Shakespeare! Little minds abuse him, so that they might feel like great spirits. Lots of Nazis used to be able to quote Goethe, too.

[nopardons]

It isn't obvious.:-)

[mrustow]

Shakespeare had a nice line about nothing being more like a serpant's tooth, like an ungrateful child. :-)

Oh, so you're the one who started the abuse of Shakespeare. Keep it up, and you'll go blind. And take another look at your sentence -- do you insist on shanghaiing Shakespeare on your linguistic misadventures, or are you willing to take responsibility for your own poor English?

"ungrateful adj. without gratitude."

"gratitude n. a feeling of appreciation for a kindness or favor received."

New Webster's Dictionary and Thesaurus of the English Language (Danbury, CT: Lexicon, 1992).

In the absence of a prior kindness or favor, one cannot honestly call anyone "ungrateful."

[mrustow]

I don't know anyone in the country that works 80 hours and donesn't make spit unless they don't speak english and dream about a green card.

You don't know enough people.

[nopardons]

Yes, I started it and your remarks about your father, engendered it.

It's blantantly obvious, the more your post, that your father hasn't given you enough ( anything ? ) and that is the cause of your bitterness. It doesn't speak particularly well of you, that you feel so free to condemn him, repeatedly here. That's ingratitude, dear. I suppose that now you're going to tell me that you don't owe him any. Has he been that bad a father, or just not forthcoming enough to suit you ?

[mrustow]

I have no beef with you; you've worked like a dog, sacrificed, and have a cumulative technical expertise that I reckon is matched by only five to ten percent of the population (of American citizens, at any rate).

However, I disagree with you on whether Boortz is talking about you. That's not how I read him. With all due respect, in today's economy you're not rich, or even upper-middle class. And it should be obvious, that my post wasn't about you.

If my wife knew I was wasting so much precious time arguing with some cretins on this thread, she'd introduce the back of my head to a frying pan. But Neal Boortz notwithstanding, there are quite a few illiterate drunks on barstools right here on this thread, and I have a bad habit of arguing with illiterate drunks (including some with Ph.D.s) on bar stools and on "chairs."

[Henrietta]

Money makes money; money helps money; money marries money.

While the above may be true, it does not mean that it takes money to make money. It takes hard work to make money. You might be interested to know that the majority of people on the list of Forbes Magazine's most wealthy did not inherit their wealth.

I think that people DO get rich from virtue...from working hard, saving, investing, forgoing immediate gratification, and by giving their clients and customers what they want. Rich people don't get rich by stealing money from others; rather they are very good at giving other people the goods and the services that others want to pay money for.

I gather from your comments that you are not rich, no?

[mrustow]

I think you REALLY misunderstood this article. Mr. Boortz is mouthing the DU socialism line to make a point.

Well, I may not be the brightest light, but I just re-read the article, and I still see his point differently than you do. So, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

[Henrietta]

Nice post. Sounds like YOU made some decisions that affected YOU, and now you aren't happy about them. Tough darts.

Want some cheese with your "whine?"

[mrustow]

I guess you are just one of the lucky winners in lifes' lottery.... ;)

Luck had nothing to do with it! Can't you distinguish between luck and effort. Besides, he didn't win any lottery, even figuratively speaking.

[spodefly]

You are illiterate. The nice lady reading this to you needs to call Literacy Volunteers of America. They can help you, but you have to work really, really hard. Now, go back to sleep.

You haven't been spanked enough on this thread? I for one am used to working very hard, and thus I do not envy people that have attained more success than me ... I just work harder and smarter if my goal is to attain similar success. I may be many things, but illiterate is not one of them. You, on the other hand, are a socialist punk with nothing to say other than that projected by your nuerosis. Your envy of those more successful than you and your ad hominems for anyone critical of you reeks of 'loser', professor or not.

[mrustow]

Our common ancestor didn't leave anyone a trust fund. My cousin's trust fund came from his mother. My most intimate knowledge of do-nothing millionaires comes from my father, who is a multimillionaire who has rarely worked, having been handed all his millions

This is the fault of capitalism and is cured by socialism [which you are determined to defend]?? The weight of the chip on your shoulder must be overbearing.

Do show where I defended socialism. (Actually, I wasn't aware that capitalism was fond of inherited privilege, either.)

I would be happy to share my collection of Thomas Sowell books with you. I won't "give" them to you 'cuz I worked hard to pay for them but you can borrow them since I'm compassionate.

Thanks, but I own about twenty pounds of prime Sowell, only half of which I've digested so far. Although I've had no direct contact with the man, about seven years ago, one of his researchers contacted me for help running down some sources. (I have no idea what use, if any, the information was put to.)

[mrustow]

I doubt that either socialism or pure free market capitalism is, alone, a worthwhile political system at this time. However, in all my years of reading comments on the Net, I have noticed that those people on the Net who makes comments totally supporting free market capitalism (and knocking socialism) are almost ALWAYS the lowest common demoninator with respect to general knowledge, diction, poise, debating tactics, and just about every other criterion I can think of.

My experience is limited to the past three years, and to FR, Salon, and the New York Times threads, but I have found that the hardcore ideologues left and right give each other a pretty good run for the money, when it comes to "the lowest common denominator."

[spodefly]

OK. You win. No one on this thread has presented a more healthy intelligent approach to the disparities of life than you. You are correct I am illiterate and this is just a nice old lady typing this for me. I'll go to sleep now big guy. You just keep on patting yourself on the back and hating everyone that doesn't carry around the chip you do.

[Porterville]

Liberals believe that they have a right to have anything they want, Conservatives believe that they have to earn their right.

[mrustow]

Interesting. Trust fund babies often, from my limited observation, end up in urban boutique lifestyles of galleries and publishing (this opinion from my own brief, starving years in publishing), etc. Sort of John Kennedy lite. They work hard, but use the clipped coupons to pay for the comfortable and safe apartments. What's your perspective? I don't worry about the idle inheritors...they won't last more than a generation, anyway, and a person has the right to leave his children money.

When I first came to New York, I saw quite a bit of those types in publishing. My personal experience, however, runs more to Martha's Vineyard -- up and down-island.

As a kid, I cleaned out their stables for pocket change and played with their golden retrievers and admired their sailboats. Horses, dogs, boats. Horses, dogs, boats. To a one, these were the passions of Old Money. They drove shaky old cars around their beautiful Middleburg estates, and seemed curiously without energy except for I horses/dogs/boats. Being strictly bourgeous, couldn't quite understand why such rich folks had such dark musty houses with such ratty faded oriental carpets. Had to be an adult for a while to appreciate such a cultural statement...(g)

Maybe you should write a sequel to David Brook's "Bobos in Paradise"!

Thanks for the suggestion, but I haven't been to the Vineyard (too many relatives there!) -- or to the apartments of kept kids in publishing -- in years. Besides, you appear to have the more ironic and knowing perspective required of a Bobos II.

FReegards,

[mrustow]

According to Boortz, no one ever spent years earning degrees, and then worked 60-80 hours a week, without making spit. This guy sounds like an illiterate drunk on a barstool.

You don't get rich by doing what most people can do.

Agreed, but figuring out the right thing ain't easy!

Remember what Mark Twain said; "The reason most people don't have any money is they are too busy working for a living." - Tom

LOL, that son-of-a-gun!