Nasty Men, Nasty Motives

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/jaime-oneill/56379/nasty-men-nasty-motives

“Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men, for the nastiest of motives, will somehow work for the benefit of all.”

Nasty Men, Nasty Motives
by Jaime O'Neill | June 13, 2014 - 9:45am

John Maynard Keynes, the economist, made that observation a long time ago, and it’s hard to read it these days without some familiar faces and names popping to mind. First among those “nastiest of men,” of course, are the Koch brothers, two ruthless inheritors of enormous quantities of the nation’s resources who presume to buy our democracy, along with many other things they’ve already bought, like the integrity of lots of politicians, big and small, local and national. They are, without equivocation or doubt, the nastiest of men, and they seem motivated only by the nastiest of motives. The planet be damned, the future generations be damned, so long as they continue to get richer and control more power.

But there are other nasty men who spring to mind in this context, and you can hardly go a day in America without seeing their faces or hearing their names. There’s Sheldon Adelson, for instance, the casino tycoon who gets his butt kissed by every ambitious Republican political wannabe, the guy who gives millions to subvert the political process and buy himself a charm bracelet of responsive legislative toadies.

No membership list for the Nastiest of Men Club would be complete without the double Donalds of Dastardliness—Trump and Sterling. Donald Trump, bless his heart, has dedicated his life to demonstrating that you don’t have to be smart to get rich, and Donald Sterling, who was until recently the owner of the LA Clippers has done similar duty in his efforts to dispel the stereotype that rich Jewish guys are, ipso facto, intelligent.

It ain’t just a guy thing, either. Younger readers won’t remember Leona Helmsley, once known as the “Queen of Mean,” a really nasty rich bitch who thought her money put her well above “the little people.” She never encountered a nasty motive she didn’t embrace.