I look at all the news, and it’s basically the same stories over and over and over again. Suffering Palestinians, Suffering Iraqis, Economic Catastrophe, Injustice, Psychopathy, Natural Disasters, Man-Made Disasters, Useless Leaders.
After following the news closely for a few years, I notice that there are lulls. I feel like we’re in a lull right now. There’s a lot of news, but it’s all variations on a theme…the theme of unstoppable destruction…Chinese Water Torture. Drip drip drip. The acid drips onto the good things of the world, dissolving them. Once in a while the acid erodes the world just so, and a big chunk falls off.
What do the wealthy do at times like this? In fact, what are they ever doing? Their wealth frees them from the burdens of daily life: grocery shopping, commuting, working, holiday preparations. And there are so many of them. What do they talk about amongst themselves? How do they keep from getting bored? They must have hobbies, like figuring out more ways to make and spend money. Figuring out how to control more and more of the world’s resources. Figuring out how to become invisible to the rest of us.
The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003. The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the bottom 166 million Americans, analysis of the report showed.
I’m just wondering. What the hell are they doing while we’re busy?
