Aug 29, 2008

Are the Rich Really This Piggy and Clueless?

Read on Yahoo news today:

Sean "Diddy" Combs complained about the "... too high" price of gas and pleaded for free oil from his "Saudi Arabia brothers and sisters" in a YouTube video posted Wednesday. The hip-hop mogul said he is now flying on commercial airlines instead of in private jets, which Combs said had previously cost him $200,000 and up for a roundtrip between New York and Los Angeles.

"I'm actually flying commercial," Diddy said before walking onto an airplane, sitting in a first-class seat and flashing his boarding pass to the camera. "That's how high gas prices are. I'm at the gate right now. This is really happening, proof gas prices are too high. Tell whoever the next president is we need to bring gas prices down."

Please, someone tell Sean Diddy Combs that he's a spoiled brat jackass. For those individuals, like my two Lost Boys from the Sudan, who make minimum wage and who must borrow great sums to attend college, these astronomical stratospheric gas prices have been nothing but devastating. For them it is not a choice between a first class seat and a private jet, but on prioritizing the necessities in life.

HEAR THIS DIDDY: When a young man without family or country earns around $8/hour, $50 for a tank of gas means he cannot send money to his family in a refugee camp. It means he must choose between clothes and school books, or food in his belly.

GROW UP, DIDDY. And it's not just your kind (self made, but who has turned his back on his past) who shows their ignorance. John McCain, whose hoity toity millionare wife won't reveal her income tax returns, who owns 7 houses, and who remarks that the salary of a rich person starts around $5 million is as out of tune with reality as you are. Did you mean, hopeful Pres Candidate John, that someone who earns $3 or $4 million is not rich? I hope to God that was a slip of the tongue.

Question to John McCain: What class does the poor Lost Boy who earns $15,000 per year and sends half his money to his family in a refugee camp belong to? The abject poor? Would you cut taxes for him as your party has for special oil interests and Wal*Mart, his employer who barely pays him a subsistence wage. Huh? Would you? Sadly, I think not.

For shame you callous, rich, and avaricious people. For shame. You no longer have an idea of how appallingly unfeeling and greedy you sound.

Read this Article for confirmation about this tipsy topsy world: Living Paycheck to Paycheck on $100,000

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What the hell were you thinking? You're supposed to think it, not say it outloud, now people know how really stupid you are. The last time I was on a plane was 23 years ago, on my honeymoon, thas how bad gas prices and everything else is for the normal people out here. Get a grip, your an asshole!

Big Fella said...

Mr. Combs is a master of "branding" himself as the epitome of a life style that is neither redeeming in any meaningful way nor exemplary of anything but mindless consumerism. What is really tragic, though, is that he is just one example of how the greedy marketers play to the base values of the masses via popular media in this country, sending the message of total, unequivocal consumerism without any thought to the price that will eventually need to be paid.

Anonymous said...

While I agree with you regarding conspicuous consumption, I will remind you that if everyone in the U.S.A. gave up half of their yearly income, the poor would still be poor. Children would still starve. Wars would still be fought. Women in third world countries would still be having eight, ten, twelve children. The wealth of our country is a beacon and a symbol of how to succeed.

Vic said...

I agree with you anon. But that was not the point of my rant. The point is this: if you are privileged enough to be able to afford private jets and seven houses, please try to pretend to be gracious about your good fortune.

I'm not asking these people to redistribute their wealth, but to be more judicious in some of their public remarks. Some have no idea of how piggy and selfish they sound with these careless comments, or how hurtful they can be towards those who are genuinely struggling.

Noblesse oblige seems not to be a viable concept with these nouveau riches.

Anonymous said...

Your post was right on. People with that kind of money should keep in mind that, for example, the switch from private jet to first class is nothing compared to the switch for the rest of us---like pulling our kids out of college because we can't afford it, getting a second or third job to keep from losing our one house, saying no to visiting relatives across the country because we can't afford the gas and hoping they'll all live another year......

And, no, that's not being melodramatic. That's plain ole truth.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you. I try to keep in mind that even though I don't have to really worry about things (at least not yet!), there are those who are already having to choose between necessities.