Once they were called civil servants, but after the barrage of taxpayer-funded bailouts, they may be more properly seen as “civil masters.”
David Brooks, writing today in the New York Times, aptly describes the phenomenon without–in typically Brooksian fashion–making any harsh judgments about it:
For those who don’t know, Ward Three is a section of Northwest Washington, D.C., where many Democratic staffers, regulators, journalists, lawyers, Obama aides and senior civil servants live. Thanks to recent and coming bailouts and interventions, the people in Ward Three run the banks and many major industries. Through this power, they get to insert themselves into the intricacies of upscale life, influencing when private jets can be flown, when friends can lend each other their limousines and at what golf resorts corporate learning retreats can be held.
(snip)
Nonetheless, many people in Ward Three do have certain resentments toward those with means, which those of you in the decamillionaire-to-billionaire wealth brackets should be aware of.
In the first place, many people in Ward Three suffer from Sublimated Liquidity Rage. As lawyers, TV producers and senior civil servants, they make decent salaries, but 60 percent of their disposable income goes to private school tuition and study abroad trips. They have little left over to spend on themselves, which generates deep and unacknowledged self-pity.
Second, they suffer from what has been called Status-Income Disequilibrium. At work they are flattered and feared. But they still have to go home and clean out the gutters because they can’t afford full-time household help.
Third, they suffer the status rivalries endemic to the upper-middle class. As law school grads, they resent B-school grads. As Washingtonians, they resent New Yorkers. As policy wonks, they resent people with good bone structure.
In short, people in Ward Three disdain three things: cleavage, hunting and dumb people who are richer than they are. Rich people have to learn to adapt to the new power structure if they hope to survive.
Brooks should also acknowledge that pockets of what I will call “Ward 3 mentality” exists in Cambridge, Mass., Manhattan, Los Angeles’ West Side and the suburbs of many university towns from Berkley and Boulder to Madison and Ithaca. The resentful hate the “greedy”–and that animus is the source of too much of our politics today. “Hope and change” is simply the sweet coating on this bitter pill.
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4 Comments
1. JIm South:Unfortunately, you are exactly right. My wife’s first evaluation of Obama was ‘another Jimmy Carter only 10 times worse.’ I think it was and is accurate
Feb 4, 2009 - 5:17 am 2. Ritchie Emmons:I grew up in Ward 3!! I remember a mayorial election in which Marion Barry. Naturally he won. Now this sounds almost impossible when I think about it and I wonder if my memory is faulty, but I seem to recall that Barry received only 8 votes from Ward 3. Anyway, after the election was over, Barry had something to say to the citizens of Ward 3 – “Get over it.” HAHAHA!!! What a statesman!! I was always embarrassed that I lived in a city that consistently elected someone like Marion Barry. I now live in Boston. I’m not too impressed with my elected officials here either though.
Feb 5, 2009 - 7:14 pm 3. David Thomson:“Once they were called civil servants, but after the barrage of taxpayer-funded bailouts, they may be more properly seen as “civil masters.”
These individuals are the intellectual whores who graduated from Harvard, Yale, Columbia and other of our so-called elite universities. They could care less about what is either true or false. It is simply a matter of placing their wet finger into the air to see which way the wind is blowing. The most important existential question dominating their life is this one: “Will it look good on my resume?” In back of their minds, they help those within their inner circle while expecting the same in return. These fools were behind the ridiculous politically correct policy of forcing lending institutions to provide mortgages to minorities possessing poor credit histories. Most of our national economic troubles are due to their shenanigans. Never forget that the shallow, poorly read and arrogant Barack Obama received his law degree from Harvard. What more do you need to know?
What is Keynesian economics? This is merely a subtle way of claiming that the “benevolent and well educated elites” should be running things. They are to be our masters for own alleged good. And these disgusting folks will do everything possible to destroy those who dare get in their way.
Feb 6, 2009 - 10:32 pm 4. Evan:I’m quite disappointed in the subjectivity of this Times article. Despite it being placed in the OPED section, it is more of a joke than an actual message evaluating Washington’s shortcomings.
Evan
Mar 24, 2009 - 12:47 pmhttp://www.beoyondrace.com