The accusation of being “elite” is just another front in the culture war. I did fly last year (for a parent’s funeral), I read more than two books per year, and I have a college degree. But I will never be a homeowner nor am I likely ever to retire. I rarely eat out and I never travel for pleasure. People who did not go to college, who do not read books, but worked hard and were in the right place at the right time may own franchises of major chains, have large homes and boats or RVs, eat regularly in nice restaurants, and retire by their sixties. I don’t begrudge them the lifestyle they’ve earned (if they’ve earned it), but if one of us is elite, they are. As long as I have to work for a living and pay rent every month, I refuse to call myself anything but working class.
As you note the entire critique of "cultural elites" that the right in particular likes to engage in is a farce in a world where PhD adjunct professors are living in their cars and trying to organize unions while being smeared as elites.
When I talk about what the lower tier of academics make, my friends, people close to me, on the left, are usually in disbelief. One problem is few in academia who are in positions of power talk about that, because this system perpetuates their relatively cushy status. Many are barely aware of it, especially if they were hired 40 years ago when things were very different. And others feel like they've earned it, whereas I know from personal experience that every step of the way, what grad school you get into, what grants you receive, what jobs you get, is just like any other job: largely a function of who you know and where you went to school. Sure, they earned it, but they also had a tremendous amount of help to get there.
There are community colleges near me that pay <$30k per year. They usually will hire an MS, but prefer a PhD-holder - and usually find one. A $15/hour wage translated annually is $31k. Imagine getting a decade of education and making less than my local McDonald's starts people at.
There is a massively uneven hierarchy, in terms of not just salary, but also job security (tenure vs non-tenure). And this barely scratches the surface because there's an even bigger divide between the faculty at most universities, and the faculty in Med, Law, and B schools, which make extraordinarily more, because we're told that 'they could earn more on the free market.' Of course, so could most academics, but that doesn't seem to be a consideration when they create yet another heavy teaching load NTT position.
In my definition elites are those who lives are not financially precarious. I think the shame we feel about our material circumstance is assuaged by attaching ourselves to moral movements that don't move the needle much for the general good but assure us of our moral superiority.
Rishi Sunak, the former Prime Minister of the UK and one of the wealthiest people in Parliament, once tried to pass himself off as one of the plebs by staging a bunch of photos and clips of him doing ordinary things, and one of these scenarios was him trying and failing to pay for petrol with his card. We've had contactless card payments for years now, and we'd had them for years back then, and yet he was seemingly mystified by the mechanics of exchanging money for the things he'd purchased. Like, dude, you have more money than God and you don't know physically how you spend it in the real world?? *That's* how out of touch these people are.
And thing is, when I see someone at the gas pump getting gas, my first reaction isn't "HEY! That guy's JUST like ME! My reaction is "there is a guy getting gas...
I am educated (state school) and have a paid-off (very cheap) house. But I write for a living, and if got a job at Taco Bell, I’d make quite a bit more money. My career was in newspapers, and they’re all dead now.
I never managed to earn the median income.
I’m not employable at any corporate job — I finally gave up trying. That’s why I write! My subject is economic inequality.
I’m 60 and will never be able to retire or to have any security. I live in a frugal manner and cross my fingers that I won’t get sick.
Not typically one to comment here, but was surprised to not see it in the comments so far: while I appreciate the piece overall, the pole vault analogy midway through seemed gratuitously ableist. For a publication usually quite conscientious of word choice, I'd hope for that to be adjusted going forward.
It's true that there is some Alien vs Predator, let-them-fight energy to a conservative-coded vs. liberal-coded rich person showdown like that, and yes, they both are insulated from true penury in a way that is uncommon and enviable and disconnecting from a true popular experience. Still, though- one of these people lives in a world that the other one can buy. Mr. Conehead there simply cannot screw up enough to face material consequences for his actions. His fortune is large enough to steer additional credit towards it along with enough expertise and legal chicanery to functionally let it steer itself. The magnitude of his material success is enough to surround him with a breed of approval that views his insights as self-evidently worthwhile because they are attached to so much money. The highest flying magazine editor can still just say something stupid and lose his job and put his savings in something dumb and lose them and generally is still in the business of having to care what people think about him (for better or worse) for his life to have the shape he wants. Conehead left that realm a long time ago.
I think it should always be brought up that Marc Andreessen hired an inexperienced White man to work at his firm because he publicly killed a Black man. He's a White Supremacist through and through and belongs to one of the eugenicist cults that make up the TESCREAL movement.
Descriptors like "out-of-touch" and also "evil" are serious understatements for him.
Highly insightful writing as we have come to expect which inspired two thoughts. With regards to Elites not only does the threshold need to be much higher than $1m, the “in touch with reality” goal should be different - assuming we want the captains if industry to be anything other than the predators they have become. My mother taught me to always “put yourself in the other guys shoes” - have some empathy in other words. As you rightly point out having a ton of money makes it impossible to be “in touch” with the masses who depend on a paycheck. But a decent human being can have empathy and actually listen, learn and act in ways that don’t mostly take advantage of said non-elites. Unfortunately, as we hurtle towards a take everything you can and consequences be damned society, empathy is another casualty.
Secondly the $1m threshold is a sensible cutoff line for anyone below who is pretty much living a life of insecurity. But just getting to $1 or $2m isn’t what it used to be. I know people who maxed out their company 401k contributions and maybe got a lump sum when said company pulled the plug on their pension plans but really didn’t have any other windfalls. While that sounds like a lot and would probably make anyone without that choke on their McDonalds soda, all it really provides is a little breathing room and some level of “choice.” In reality it’s nearly impossible to live a remotely comfortable life on less than $50k annually and even that subsistence level is rapidly escalating as costs for basics keep rising. I have always encouraged my kids (now in their 30’s) to make decisions that gave them the ability to have choices but that seems increasingly unattainable - which of course our politicians and elites could give a damn about.
I understand things just fine thanks. $1m is an arbitrary amount of personal wealth that used to mean you were pretty well off - elite even at least financially. What I am saying is that while today a person can live comfortable that is diminishing quickly (especially as we live longer) and in the not distant future will not gaurantee much. But worse is for our kids who will not have anywhere close to the chance to achieve that level via traditional work roles
Me, I'd just like to have a beer with George W. Bush. This was a dream of many for those old enough to remember. He's also a rancher from Texas, not from fancy pants Connecticut!
Good ol’ US media — all it took was a couple photo ops of him “clearing brush” in Texas for that to be his persona forevermore, rather than having being a Yale legacy brat and skull & bones member who summered at the family compound in Maine.
Enough money means so much less risk - the lack of forced prioritization and the self discipline that comes with it shows up quickly and worsens, endlessly unless you are a person of outstanding, rare character and empathy.
Let’s be clear here. When most people are talking about elites they mean not your average millionaire, but those with so much money that they can pour millions into political races that distort politics to their own advantage negatively impacting everyone else. And we are all being impacted by those “elites,” and not in a good way.
I’m one of the working elites you describe so well. A few mil in investments, don’t really need for much, and make more in one year than most Americans have in life savings. But I’m still required to work and save. Let’s say I quit to become a gardener, which would be a dream. And then let’s say me or one of my family members gets sick. Poof. Safety net gone. Millions in savings gone. I’ve seen it happen to wealthy sole proprietors, like a few solo lawyers I know.
So while my day to day struggles are not the same as most Americans, my potential to be bankrupted by forced out of my control still exist. It does however make me pull that D lever on Election Day to try and help all of us get better gov services and healthcare, even if it costs me more in taxes (it should, US taxes are the lowest by far in the world).
A few mil? Not feeling your attempt here to show any sense of solidarity with the working class. Also not feeling the connection to anxiety to forces beyond your control if you’re assuaging that fear by pulling ‘that D lever’ for better services; the
Ds are in lockstep with their capitalist donors/owners every bit as much as the Rs.
The accusation of being “elite” is just another front in the culture war. I did fly last year (for a parent’s funeral), I read more than two books per year, and I have a college degree. But I will never be a homeowner nor am I likely ever to retire. I rarely eat out and I never travel for pleasure. People who did not go to college, who do not read books, but worked hard and were in the right place at the right time may own franchises of major chains, have large homes and boats or RVs, eat regularly in nice restaurants, and retire by their sixties. I don’t begrudge them the lifestyle they’ve earned (if they’ve earned it), but if one of us is elite, they are. As long as I have to work for a living and pay rent every month, I refuse to call myself anything but working class.
As you note the entire critique of "cultural elites" that the right in particular likes to engage in is a farce in a world where PhD adjunct professors are living in their cars and trying to organize unions while being smeared as elites.
When I talk about what the lower tier of academics make, my friends, people close to me, on the left, are usually in disbelief. One problem is few in academia who are in positions of power talk about that, because this system perpetuates their relatively cushy status. Many are barely aware of it, especially if they were hired 40 years ago when things were very different. And others feel like they've earned it, whereas I know from personal experience that every step of the way, what grad school you get into, what grants you receive, what jobs you get, is just like any other job: largely a function of who you know and where you went to school. Sure, they earned it, but they also had a tremendous amount of help to get there.
There are community colleges near me that pay <$30k per year. They usually will hire an MS, but prefer a PhD-holder - and usually find one. A $15/hour wage translated annually is $31k. Imagine getting a decade of education and making less than my local McDonald's starts people at.
There is a massively uneven hierarchy, in terms of not just salary, but also job security (tenure vs non-tenure). And this barely scratches the surface because there's an even bigger divide between the faculty at most universities, and the faculty in Med, Law, and B schools, which make extraordinarily more, because we're told that 'they could earn more on the free market.' Of course, so could most academics, but that doesn't seem to be a consideration when they create yet another heavy teaching load NTT position.
In my definition elites are those who lives are not financially precarious. I think the shame we feel about our material circumstance is assuaged by attaching ourselves to moral movements that don't move the needle much for the general good but assure us of our moral superiority.
Very important point.
Rishi Sunak, the former Prime Minister of the UK and one of the wealthiest people in Parliament, once tried to pass himself off as one of the plebs by staging a bunch of photos and clips of him doing ordinary things, and one of these scenarios was him trying and failing to pay for petrol with his card. We've had contactless card payments for years now, and we'd had them for years back then, and yet he was seemingly mystified by the mechanics of exchanging money for the things he'd purchased. Like, dude, you have more money than God and you don't know physically how you spend it in the real world?? *That's* how out of touch these people are.
haha!
perfect!
And thing is, when I see someone at the gas pump getting gas, my first reaction isn't "HEY! That guy's JUST like ME! My reaction is "there is a guy getting gas...
I am educated (state school) and have a paid-off (very cheap) house. But I write for a living, and if got a job at Taco Bell, I’d make quite a bit more money. My career was in newspapers, and they’re all dead now.
I never managed to earn the median income.
I’m not employable at any corporate job — I finally gave up trying. That’s why I write! My subject is economic inequality.
I’m 60 and will never be able to retire or to have any security. I live in a frugal manner and cross my fingers that I won’t get sick.
Not typically one to comment here, but was surprised to not see it in the comments so far: while I appreciate the piece overall, the pole vault analogy midway through seemed gratuitously ableist. For a publication usually quite conscientious of word choice, I'd hope for that to be adjusted going forward.
This also struck me as off. I appreciate you bringing it up.
Even if the analogy were uniquely perfect... Nope.
It's true that there is some Alien vs Predator, let-them-fight energy to a conservative-coded vs. liberal-coded rich person showdown like that, and yes, they both are insulated from true penury in a way that is uncommon and enviable and disconnecting from a true popular experience. Still, though- one of these people lives in a world that the other one can buy. Mr. Conehead there simply cannot screw up enough to face material consequences for his actions. His fortune is large enough to steer additional credit towards it along with enough expertise and legal chicanery to functionally let it steer itself. The magnitude of his material success is enough to surround him with a breed of approval that views his insights as self-evidently worthwhile because they are attached to so much money. The highest flying magazine editor can still just say something stupid and lose his job and put his savings in something dumb and lose them and generally is still in the business of having to care what people think about him (for better or worse) for his life to have the shape he wants. Conehead left that realm a long time ago.
“You are free in a way that they are not and never will be.” Making this statement untrue is the whole project.
Tech billionaire: elite is when you have toilet paper stocked.
Me: elite is when you have a yacht that doubles as a warship.
I think it should always be brought up that Marc Andreessen hired an inexperienced White man to work at his firm because he publicly killed a Black man. He's a White Supremacist through and through and belongs to one of the eugenicist cults that make up the TESCREAL movement.
Descriptors like "out-of-touch" and also "evil" are serious understatements for him.
“Elites … feel deep shame and guilt at their own unjustified position in the socioeconomic hierarchy[.]”
This is hilarious.
yeah, I don't think its 'shame and guilt' so much as them knowing they benefit from an unjust system and that WE know that they know as well
Highly insightful writing as we have come to expect which inspired two thoughts. With regards to Elites not only does the threshold need to be much higher than $1m, the “in touch with reality” goal should be different - assuming we want the captains if industry to be anything other than the predators they have become. My mother taught me to always “put yourself in the other guys shoes” - have some empathy in other words. As you rightly point out having a ton of money makes it impossible to be “in touch” with the masses who depend on a paycheck. But a decent human being can have empathy and actually listen, learn and act in ways that don’t mostly take advantage of said non-elites. Unfortunately, as we hurtle towards a take everything you can and consequences be damned society, empathy is another casualty.
Secondly the $1m threshold is a sensible cutoff line for anyone below who is pretty much living a life of insecurity. But just getting to $1 or $2m isn’t what it used to be. I know people who maxed out their company 401k contributions and maybe got a lump sum when said company pulled the plug on their pension plans but really didn’t have any other windfalls. While that sounds like a lot and would probably make anyone without that choke on their McDonalds soda, all it really provides is a little breathing room and some level of “choice.” In reality it’s nearly impossible to live a remotely comfortable life on less than $50k annually and even that subsistence level is rapidly escalating as costs for basics keep rising. I have always encouraged my kids (now in their 30’s) to make decisions that gave them the ability to have choices but that seems increasingly unattainable - which of course our politicians and elites could give a damn about.
You are not understanding things if you’re arguing that having a couple million isn’t that much.
I understand things just fine thanks. $1m is an arbitrary amount of personal wealth that used to mean you were pretty well off - elite even at least financially. What I am saying is that while today a person can live comfortable that is diminishing quickly (especially as we live longer) and in the not distant future will not gaurantee much. But worse is for our kids who will not have anywhere close to the chance to achieve that level via traditional work roles
It still means you are pretty well off.
Me, I'd just like to have a beer with George W. Bush. This was a dream of many for those old enough to remember. He's also a rancher from Texas, not from fancy pants Connecticut!
He’s about as elite as they come. And not in a good way.
Never misunderestimate GWB.
Good ol’ US media — all it took was a couple photo ops of him “clearing brush” in Texas for that to be his persona forevermore, rather than having being a Yale legacy brat and skull & bones member who summered at the family compound in Maine.
Enough money means so much less risk - the lack of forced prioritization and the self discipline that comes with it shows up quickly and worsens, endlessly unless you are a person of outstanding, rare character and empathy.
Let’s be clear here. When most people are talking about elites they mean not your average millionaire, but those with so much money that they can pour millions into political races that distort politics to their own advantage negatively impacting everyone else. And we are all being impacted by those “elites,” and not in a good way.
I’m one of the working elites you describe so well. A few mil in investments, don’t really need for much, and make more in one year than most Americans have in life savings. But I’m still required to work and save. Let’s say I quit to become a gardener, which would be a dream. And then let’s say me or one of my family members gets sick. Poof. Safety net gone. Millions in savings gone. I’ve seen it happen to wealthy sole proprietors, like a few solo lawyers I know.
So while my day to day struggles are not the same as most Americans, my potential to be bankrupted by forced out of my control still exist. It does however make me pull that D lever on Election Day to try and help all of us get better gov services and healthcare, even if it costs me more in taxes (it should, US taxes are the lowest by far in the world).
Can you send me $20,000 to help pay off my student loans? My DMs are open. Thanks!
A few mil? Not feeling your attempt here to show any sense of solidarity with the working class. Also not feeling the connection to anxiety to forces beyond your control if you’re assuaging that fear by pulling ‘that D lever’ for better services; the
Ds are in lockstep with their capitalist donors/owners every bit as much as the Rs.
I am also, happily, a class traitor.
I can’t be the only one who thought “Remulak!” upon seeing that picture?