If anyone could say: "Let them eat cake" with sheer elitism and distain for the small people, it would be "Dog on top of car, I'm unemployed too" Willard "mittens" Rawmoney.

That is to say, there is no amount of damage he could do to this country's economy that would ever affect him. If he ever became president, and did 10 times the damage that Bush The Dumber did, he would still have all the economic security he could ever need. And so would all of his friends.

Of course, it's not going to be 100% different, but significant tendencies have been coded, from experience, differently from how lots of other people think about things.

Last edited Thu Jul 12, 2012, 08:29 PM - Edit history (1)

He has no idea what that feels like because he has never had to worry about such trivial matters in his entire life. Ever.

I bet most of the people in this country have worried about that at one time or another. I sure know I have.

How can he relate to the average American citizen even on the most basic terms never having experienced that? I don't think he can.

Don

who has never looked at his or her bank account and gone "Oh, shit."

(I would watch the hell out of a reality show that took a rich kid and dumped him or her into the middle of a big city with $3,000 and challenged the kid to get through the next six months.)

I am not kidding here.

Don

I like that.

Don

He get teary eyed when the movie shows we get poor and really feels our pain for about a minute or two. Then he pops some popcorn in his mouth.

it was 78/79 so it does not alter your point at all, in fact it enhances it. Kareem was on that team, paid less than a million.

Thank you for the correction.

And thanks for the extra sports trivia included too.



Don

Nixon grew up poor and had no empathy. I don't think just having money is the end all and be all to if people develop and maintain empathy or not. Some people grow up with money at that time and became Al Gore, some became George W. Bush and Mitt Romney. I have no idea what the answer is...

Romney was and is a pampered and sheltered bully who was never really taught the difference between right from wrong.

Losing a water ski is about the most traumatic thing that ever happened to him.

Don

because Republicans used that logic to attack JFK, FDR and recently John Kerry. The rich "out of touch" democrats that can't understand you the common man.

Mitt Romney has now lost both his parents, hell his wife has MS. He grew up a member of a minority religion not welcomed by a lot of Americans. I imagine these things were traumatic things in his life. Richard Nixon was born poor and watched his brother die of TB and yet was a heartless bastard. I think Romney is just a heartless bastard.

I think upbringing has something to do with if you have Empathy or not and possibly wealth is a handicap, but deep down in side I think Romney is just an *hole. He would have been a *hole no matter what. One Reagan's sons is a decent guy, one is a total *hole. Sometimes that's just how it goes in families.

Last edited Thu Jul 12, 2012, 09:45 PM - Edit history (1)

There is nothing like being thrown pennyless into the world and learning to forge a life. You learn so much that you can't learn any other way.

When and how to ask for help. When and how to give help. What is important and what is not.

And you can always tell who went through Life's Boot Camp and who did not.

Cardboard caricatures. Whiny small children who never do grow up. The Republican Party of Mitt Rmoney.

It's technically not my apartment anymore because the rent hasn't been paid. I'd written a check to the family I was sharing it with, but they've vanished and cashed my check in a distant city. Go Greyhound!

I have six dollars and change. I'm irritated with them, but I don't hate them. I'm single, I'm mobile, I can sleep anywhere and my friend manages a fast food restaurant and gives me food that's timed out and would otherwise go in the trash. The family I was sharing the apartment with, they had no place else to go. All my stuff is in the car. If anyone knocks on the door and I don't know 'em then I'm gonna jump out the window with my knapsack and sleeping bag.

And that's what happened. I ended up living in my car in a church parking lot. No money for gas.

I'll bet Romney has never done that.

That's not even my most extreme story. I had a few experiences as a kid too. My crazy parents always framed it as action-adventure hero stuff. Today we're eating wild berries and state subsidized bread! By candlelight!

I've never been poor without hope, but I've got a pretty good idea what it must be like.

Our nation is supposed to be wealthy. Everyone should have a safe place to live, good food to eat, decent medical care, good schools and near-universal literacy. If we can't achieve that, then what's the point? Without those we're simply the cogs in yet another loathsome plutocracy.