How can we know how to thank our Galtian overlords when we know so little about them?
“When we study the poor, it’s relatively easy,” said Sudhir Venkatesh, a professor of sociology at Columbia and the author of Gang Leader For a Day. “The poor don’t have the power to say no. Elites don’t grant us interviews. They don’t let us hang out at their country clubs.”
But Dorian Warren, an assistant professor of political science at Columbia, said the increasing concentration of wealth, moving from the top 10 percent of Americans to the top 1 percent, has made this the right time to look more closely at the group. “We have to understand what’s going on at the top,” Mr. Warren said.
Haha, “Gang Leader For a Day.” Good luck becoming “Goldman Sachs chairman of the day.” (You will be shot seventy-two times by private security.)
I think we should all just assume they’re all working hard all the time, to be on the safe side. Otherwise, we’ll never win any elections.
Spaghetti Lee
Well, there’s priests to interpret the will of every god that every was. Why not a few priests to carry from on high the words of the superior race? Just think-the Oracle of Omaha can have his own oracle!
Adam Lang
When was the last time we won an election? (And by ‘we’ I mean ‘people who aren’t firmly committed to maintaining Wall Street profits at the expense of anything else that gets in the way?’)
Jim, Foolish Literalist
This reminds me: Last week I drove past small roadwork project at an intersection, the town had hired a large local company to do the work, they do a lot of municipal work. I don’t know if it was stimulus money, but a lot of Recovery Act projects have ginned up in October, post-tourist season. On the largest of the three trucks at this site, five or six guys working, was a “Who is John Galt?” bumper sticker. I laughed so hard I almost ran off the road.
Hunter Gathers
Free enterprise comes before voting, so be thankful that our gaultian overlords let us have the privilege of voting. I say we go back to what the founders wanted, and only allow white male landowners vote. Perhaps that will get teabaggers and Sully to shut the fuck up.
Rock
They’re obviously working hard all the time; if they weren’t they wouldn’t have so much money. How hard is that for us liberals to understand?
I do have to say, from a sociological perspective, it appears that the “elite” and the gang members that Venkatesh studied apparently share a deep concern over getting “respect”. Kind of interesting…
Mark S.
I don’t know, why don’t they just read the NY Times? It seems like every other day the paper is writing about $200,000 aquariums and the difficulties inherent in finding good servants these days.
And if they want to know what these elites’ dicks taste like, they can just ask David Brooks or Andrew Sullivan.
Violet
I wish someone would study them. Like the SEC, the FBI, Attorneys General of various states.
liberal
I assume you’re referring to our Galtian overlords, not the researchers.
Anyway, the issue isn’t how hard they work. The issue is that they’re rent collectors, aka parasites.
I’m sure there are many career criminals (of the blue collar variety) that work hard, too. Doesn’t mean their takings are in return for a meaningful contribution to production.
beltane
Come on. Anyone who hangs out in the right spots in Manhattan, and who is not averse to spying and eavesdropping, can get a pretty good idea of how these people live. Americans are a docile people, meaning the upper .01% gets to enjoy an unparalleled freedom of movement.
Borrow someone’s kid, hang out in an Upper East Side playground, and listen in on the nannies’ conversations; you’ll learn a lot.
Roger Moore
@Rock:
FTFY. With the salaries those guys are pulling down, it’s amazing they can find anything left to buy.
Brachiator
This would be the interesting chart over time, say from 1870 to the present.
Is
available on Netflix? Otherwise, you just have to depend on Tattler, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Style sections, etc.
meh
for the carnivores among us:
Omaha Steaks – Customer Service
10909 John Galt Blvd
P.O. Box 3300
Omaha, NE 68103
MarkJ
Gee, if they’re so virtuous, hard working, innovative, and benevolent wouldn’t they want the rest of us to know it? Why all the secrecy?
Face
Easiest. Thesis. Evah.
Shinobi
Come on now guys, playing a 18 holes is a lot of work. Plus managing the staff and making sure you’re wife doesn’t find out about your mistress. Can you imagine how tiring that must be? The guys have clearly earned their money.
MarkJ
@Violet: Indeed.
B-town
@meh:
On a cross-country road trip I actually stayed near John Galt Boulevard. Fittingly, it was smack dab in the middle of an Exurban hellscape (but with easy access to I-80!).
meander
A slightly funny look behind the curtain of the blog ad machine: just below this post on my browser was an ad for Singapore Airlines non-stop all business class flights from NY or LA to Singapore, which are probably some pretty pricey tickets (generally charged to the corporate account, of course).
Could it be that the blog ad machine sees “John Galt” and pulls up the very expensive luxury airline ad? Are posts about John Galt generally correlated with people who are likely to fly business class to Singapore?
(there might also be a cookie effect here, as I bought a discounted ticket on Singapore Airlines a little while ago for a vacation and there could be a cookie intact)
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet:FTW
Marmot
That just isn’t going to do it. We have to “internalize” the fact that they work harder than poor people, in proportion to their relative incomes.
Barb (formerly gex)
@Hunter Gathers:
Libertarian laments women’s suffrage
Some of them don’t even bother with code like Sully and his reader.
TooManyJens
Given that Melissa Harris-Perry (formerly Harris-Lacewell) said that two of these researchers are friends of hers, I strongly doubt they’re in it to fellate the rich.
TooManyJens
@Barb (formerly gex):
Shorter Peter Thiel: Libertarianism doesn’t work out too well for the poor or women. This could not possibly indicate any problems with libertarianism, and only proves that there is something wrong with the poor and women.
Barb (formerly gex)
@B-town: In Omaha? That’s where ES&S is based out of. They just make election equipment. Nothing to feel hinky about, move along.
Violet
@Barb (formerly gex):
Several years ago I remember hearing Limbaugh say that the country had gone downhill every since women had been given the right to vote.
Barb (formerly gex)
@TooManyJens: I’m sure Sully also misses the fact that going back to how the Founding Fathers did things is code for rich white men also. I’m sure if you are rich enough and boot lick enough, the’ll overlook teh ghey.
Todd
Did anyone notice that the books in the background of the picture of the scholars are organized by color?
Is that a coincidence of it being from some series of books that is intentionally color coded or did the photographer do that for aesthetic reasons?
They don’t appear to be regular in terms of size/shape so I think it must be a PR thing…
Jack Bauer
@Hunter Gathers:
Sully is really pissing me off with this shit. No-one is arguing against free-enterprise. Asshole. That readers comment is such self wankery it beggars belief. I wonder what his view on upping the marginal tax rate is?
He’s really revealing just how limited his economic views are.
Uloborus
@Adam Lang:
2008. Ask anyone on Wall Street. Next question.
@Mark S.: To be fair, for Sullivan isn’t this a feature, not a bug?
kommrade reproductive vigor
O Rly?
There’s always tranquilizer darts and radio collars.
What a creepy-assed person.
freelancer
@meh:
In defense of my city, the street is named after the Scottish novelist.
Thank FSM.
Mark S.
@TooManyJens:
With proper editing, he makes a valid point:
And I encourage more libertarians to emigrate to outer space or the bottom of the ocean. Though they would quickly figure out why private enterprise has mostly left these two frontiers alone: it’s really fucking expensive.
TooManyJens
@Todd: Some people like to arrange their books by color. Some do it for aesthetic reasons, some because that’s how they can find the books. I used to work in a library and would frequently get questions from patrons who didn’t remember the title or author of a book, but it was about drugs and it had a yellow cover…
On Arranging Books by Color
Well, it’s red
arguingwithsignposts
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
I was thinking the same thing.
I know quite a few poor folks who would say ‘no,’ with the “power” of a loaded shotgun to back them up. What a prick.
R-Jud
@Todd:
It’s entirely possible the photographer didn’t do it. I’ve been renovating my house for the last 10 months or so, and a lot of the interior design/ “shelter” blogs I’ve visited seem to have a thing for arranging books by color rather than by size or topic.
edit: Bah, TooManyJens is faster on the draw.
fasteddie9318
__
And thank them. For FSM’s sake, don’t ever stop thanking them, or else it will get bloody.
Mark S.
Sully’s dipshit reader:
I would argue that most advances in civilization (irrigation, city walls, aqueducts, roads, etc.) took place because societies made an investment in public goods. I’ve have a very hard time believing any society following purely libertarian principles would have ever gotten very far.
goblue72
@fasteddie9318: This arranging by color “meme” seems to have taken off around the time artist Chris Cobb did a temporary installation at Adobe Books in San Francisco where he re-arranged all the books in an entire indie bookstore by spine color:
http://www.kqed.org/arts/programs/spark/profile.jsp?essid=4286
Ash Can
It depends. The people themselves? Who cares? Their money, and what they’re doing with it? Potentially much more interesting. Parties and fast cars? BFD. Politicians and news outlets? Now you’re talking. That’s the kind of thing we need to know about.
Beauzeaux
Despite the awful title, Gang Leader for a Day is a stunningly good book. The publisher should be flogged for coming up with such a lame title when the book is truly excellent. I’m sure it cost a lot of sales.
4jkb4ia
Good for DougJ for picking that up. The story was outstanding Sirota bait, especially with the participants admitting that they would fight for educational advantages for their own kids because it was not really taking from someone else’s.
(Jon Miller: “This is a very tentative Yankees crowd, not loud at all.”)
Omnes Omnibus
@arguingwithsignposts: I think the comment about the poor not having the power to say no is less objectionable than it seems. First, any poor person who is receiving public assistance is asked questions all the time and, if they refuse to answer them, their assistance is cut off. Second, if a poor person chooses not to answer questions asked by the cops, what happens? The end result of this is that many poor people feel that they do not have the power to say no when a person with apparent authority asks questions.
ChrisS
@Roger Moore:
“… it’s amazing they can find anything left to buy.”
Which is where bubbles come from. Too much money chasing the next incrementally better return.
maus
@arguingwithsignposts:
I believe it is an inartful way to state that information is collected on the poor and their lifestyle/habits, not that invasive interviews are conducted. Through privilege the top .1% manage to be traceless.
They never have need for social services, they barely pay taxes, and the companies they deal with do not sell their private information for mining.
kommrade reproductive vigor
I would argue that anyone making the “Based on My Understanding of History, Our Great to the 100th Grandparents Didn’t Do it That Way” argument about anything is a total tool.
Translation: The biggest bastard backed by the biggest bunch of bastards taking what he wanted.
An environment in which these douchenozzles would have a life expectancy of 3.5 seconds. So in a way its a pity there’s no way they can experience the good old days for 10 seconds.
[For the sake of clarity & peace: The commenter you quoted is the tool. And douchenozzle, also.]
maus
@ChrisS:
Very true, though these people create and hype, the rest of us chase.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Beauzeaux:
It sounded very interesting from what I read about it.
Cris
Jesse Ventura.
Omnes Omnibus
@kommrade reproductive vigor:
Few modern people would handle it well. I would last a little longer than the teahadists, solely because I know how unsuited for that life I am which means I would hide for a long as I could rather than wander into the village and expect to be treated as a lord.
gene108
@Beauzeaux: I agree the book was excellent. I liked the title…
Anyway, without reading any of Sudhir’s work, why have people decided he’s a prick?
I’m guessing from his experience, with getting information from Southside Chicago gangs, in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s (which his book is based on) and whatever direction his research has taken since, he finds it easier to interview the poor than the rich.
I guess you can walk up to a group of guys hanging out on the street corner, in the poor end of town and they don’t have the power to kick off the sidewalk for just wanting to talk to them, unless they were some crazy-ass thugs looking to be mean.
The rich can hide behind gated communities, country club security, etc. and they don’t usually hang out on street corners or other public places, where you can just walk up to them and say hi.
Roger Moore
@Todd:
Maybe it was the office decorator’s decision. Lots of people keep books around as much for decoration as for reading, so it makes as much sense to organize them for their aesthetics as to make it easy to find the book you’re looking for.
arguingwithsignposts
@Omnes Omnibus: @maus:
Thanks for the clarification. Inartful is a nice way of putting it.
kommrade reproductive vigor
@Omnes Omnibus: Not to mention you won’t waste time looking for a place to plug in your Hoveround Mobility Chair.
Brachiator
@Mark S.:
Sullivan and his peeps are just making shit up, arguing from philosophy, not history. Human beings are social by nature (as are most of our primate cousins). Human societies, even advanced societies, have not always been “efficient.” The idea of anything happening “organically” with respect to human civilization is delusional.
Also, too, voting or other types of formal and informal agreements are older than Sullivan releases. Even Vikings and 17th and 18th century pirates had agreements on how loot was to be shared.
Omnes Omnibus
@kommrade reproductive vigor: But what about my iPhone? I suppose it won’t really matter since ATT’s coverage sucks anyway.
Cain
@Mark S.:
You’ve been playing Civ 6 haven’t you?
cain
Mark S.
@Cain:
Well, I was trying to come up with ancient inventions that no self-respecting Galtian would ever waste their time on. Walls? To protect all those deadbeats? I’ll just build a twenty foot wall around my hut, fuck you very much!
Cat Lady
Shorter Venkatesh: follow the money.
Of course, all I know about that is what I learned from The Wire, Network and countless other movies. You end up dead. Forget it Sudhir, it’s Wall Street.
PWL
Anonymity is how these people have gotten away with what they’re doing for so long. They’ve worked very hard to keep their names out of the news. The motto of the Bosworths, one of the biggest landowners in California, is “The whale that never surfaces never gets harpooned.”
That’s how these people roll. They like working in secret. To them, true democracy is like bright sunlight is to mold and fungus.
El Cid
Perhaps the best scholar of America’s power structure, based in upper class domination, in the latter half of the 20th century.
G. William Domhoff’s website has a great review of the practices and institutions by which the super-rich have dominated our political and economic policies.
There are also references within to various scholars who have made studies of the behavior and culture of the uppermost classes, and on occasion this is done by actual upper class members themselves, allowing greater access.
Read how the super-rich have tended to dominate our nation and our lives before you choose to thank them for their grace and benevolence upon us.
Malixe
John Galt is a crybaby and a whiner.