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<div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jan 3, 2016 at 10:14 AM, albert
lundquist <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:agltucs1@gmail.com" target="_blank">agltucs1@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
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<h1 style="font-size:2rem;line-height:2.25rem;font-weight:500;margin:0px 0px 10px;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Privilege, Pathology and
Power</h1>
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<div style="float:left;margin-right:11px;width:45px;min-height:45px;margin-bottom:0px"><a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/paulkrugman/index.html" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,0,0)" target="_blank"><img src="http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/11/12/opinion/krugman-circular/krugman-circular-thumbLarge-v4.png" title="Paul Krugman" style="min-height:45px;max-width:100%;border:none;width:45px;margin-bottom:0px"></a></div>
<p style="margin:0px 15px 0px 0px;font-size:0.9375rem;line-height:0.9375rem;font-weight:700;font-family:franklin-normal-700,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;color:rgb(136,136,136);letter-spacing:0.02em;float:left;padding-top:15px"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/column/paul-krugman" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(0,0,0);text-transform:capitalize" target="_blank">Paul Krugman</a> <span style="font-size:0.6875rem;line-height:0.6875rem;font-weight:500;font-family:franklin-normal-500,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;margin-left:7px;color:rgb(0,0,0)">JAN.
1, 2016</span></p>
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<p>Wealth
can be bad for your soul. That’s not just a hoary
piece of folk wisdom; it’s a conclusion from <a href="http://healthland.time.com/2013/08/20/wealthy-selfies-how-being-rich-increases-narcissism/" style="color:rgb(50,104,145)" target="_blank">serious
social science</a>, confirmed by statistical
analysis and experiment. The affluent are, on average,
less likely to exhibit empathy, less likely to respect
norms and even laws, more likely to cheat, than those
occupying lower rungs on the economic ladder.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:1rem;line-height:1.4375rem">And
it’s obvious, even if we don’t have statistical
confirmation, that extreme wealth can do extreme
spiritual damage. Take someone whose personality
might have been merely disagreeable under normal
circumstances, and give him the kind of wealth that
lets him surround himself with sycophants and
usually get whatever he wants. It’s not hard to see
how he could become almost pathologically
self-regarding and unconcerned with others.</span>Wealth
can be bad for your soul. That’s not just a hoary
piece of folk wisdom; it’s a statistical analysis and
experiment. The affluent are, on average, less likely
to exhibit empathy, less likely to respect norms and
even laws, more likely to cheat, than those occupying
lower rungs on the economic ladder.</p>
<p>So
what happens to a nation that gives ever-growing
political power to the superrich?</p>
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<p>Modern
America is a society in which a growing share of
income and wealth is concentrated in the hands of a
small number of people, and these people have huge
political influence — in the early stages of the 2016
presidential campaign, around <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/11/us/politics/2016-presidential-election-super-pac-donors.html" style="color:rgb(50,104,145)" target="_blank">half
the contributions</a> came from fewer than 200
wealthy families. The usual concern about this march
toward oligarchy is that the interests and policy
preferences of the very rich are quite different from
those of the population at large, and that is surely
the biggest problem.</p>
<p>But
it’s also true that those empowered by money-driven
politics include a disproportionate number of spoiled
egomaniacs. Which brings me to the current election
cycle.</p>
<p>The
most obvious illustration of the point I’ve been
making is the man now leading the Republican field.
Donald Trump would probably have been a blowhard and a
bully whatever his social station. But his billions
have insulated him from the external checks that limit
most people’s ability to act out their narcissistic
tendencies; nobody has ever been in a position to tell
him, “You’re fired!” And the result is the face you
keep seeing on your TV.</p>
<p>But
Mr. Trump isn’t the only awesomely self-centered
billionaire playing an outsized role in the 2016
campaign.</p>
<p>There
have been some interesting news reports lately about
Sheldon Adelson, the Las Vegas gambling magnate. Mr.
Adelson has been involved in some fairly complex court
proceedings, which revolve around claims of misconduct
in his operations in Macau, including links to
organized crime and prostitution. Given his business,
this may not be all that surprising. What was
surprising was his <a href="http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/las-vegas/judge-adelson-lawsuit-subject-unusual-scrutiny-amid-review-journal-sale" style="color:rgb(50,104,145)" target="_blank">behavior
in court</a>, where he refused to answer routine
questions and argued with the judge, Elizabeth
Gonzales. That, as she rightly pointed out, isn’t
something witnesses get to do.</p>
<p>Then
Mr. Adelson bought Nevada’s largest newspaper. As the
sale was being finalized, reporters at the paper were
told to drop everything and start monitoring all
activity of three judges, including Ms. Gonzales. And
while the paper never published any results from that
investigation, an attack on Judge Gonzales, with what
looks like a fictitious byline, did appear in a small
Connecticut newspaper owned by one of Mr. Adelson’s
associates.</p>
<p>O.K.,
but why do we care? Because Mr. Adelson’s political
spending has made him a huge player in Republican
politics — so much so that reporters routinely talk
about the “<a href="https://www.yahoo.com/politics/millions-at-stake-the-adelson-primary-is-neck-125553624.html" style="color:rgb(50,104,145)" target="_blank">Adelson
primary</a>,” in which candidates trek to Las Vegas
to pay obeisance.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/01/opinion/privilege-pathology-and-power.html#story-continues-7" style="font-family:nyt-franklin,arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:0.6875rem;line-height:0.8125rem;text-transform:uppercase;width:1px;min-height:1px;padding:0px;border:0px;overflow:hidden;text-decoration:none;color:rgb(50,104,145)" target="_blank"><br>
</a>Are there other cases? Yes indeed, even if the
egomania doesn’t rise to Adelson levels. I find myself
thinking, for example, of the hedge-fund billionaire
Paul Singer, another big power in the G.O.P., who
published an investor’s letter <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/11/06/heres-the-latest-dumb-argument-from-a-billionaire-that-will-hurt-the-economy/" style="color:rgb(50,104,145)" target="_blank">declaring
that inflation was running rampant</a> — he could
tell from the prices of Hamptons real estate and
high-end art. Economists got some laughs out of the
incident, but think of the self-absorption required to
write something like that without realizing how it
would sound to non-billionaires.</p>
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<p>Or
think of <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/krugman-pathos-of-the-plutocrat.html" style="color:rgb(50,104,145)" target="_blank">the
various billionaires</a> who, a few years ago, were
declaring with straight faces, and no sign of
self-awareness, that President Obama was holding back
the economy by suggesting that some business people
had misbehaved. You see, he was hurting their
feelings.</p>
<p>Just
to be clear, the biggest reason to oppose the power of
money in politics is the way it lets the wealthy rig
the system and distort policy priorities. And the
biggest reason billionaires hate Mr. Obama is <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/31/upshot/thanks-obama-highest-earners-tax-rates-rose-sharply-in-2013.html" style="color:rgb(50,104,145)" target="_blank">what
he did to their taxes</a>, not their feelings. The
fact that some of those buying influence are also
horrible people is secondary.</p>
<p>But
it’s not trivial. Oligarchy, rule by the few, also
tends to become rule by the monstrously self-centered.
Narcisstocracy? Jerkigarchy? Anyway, it’s an ugly
spectacle, and it’s probably going to get even uglier
over the course of the year ahead.</p>
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