Billionaire Tom Perkins has declared that the situation with todays 1% top earners is tantamount to the plight of the hapless Jews under Nazi oppression. Putting aside the fact that the Jews were in fact made destitute and powerless, which completely debunks his analogy, and taking into account his offhand comment that the watch he was wearing during the interview was worth a half dozen Rolexes (as though that somehow blunts the critical question of whether he really needs a Rolex), we can have a good laugh at his ludicrous analogy and move on. However, upon further reflection, and in the spirit of philosopher George Santayana who famously warned us that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, maybe there is something to be gleaned from Toms wrong-headed trip back into history. I propose that a more apt comparison lies in the history of the French Revolution. Now I am no history buff, and as an engineering major I had little time and even less appetite for the dry lifeless tomes of history (as I saw them then). However, on my first trip to Europe I visited Versailles, and suddenly I understood the French Revolution. Twenty foot tall drapes woven of the finest silk and embroidered in solid gold thread, Marie Antoinettes little village on the grounds, complete with authentic starving peasants so she could go play house there, the lavish balls where gardeners were forced to plant upwards of 150,000 flowers to harmonize with the stated color theme of the ball, and all the while the population (the 99%) had nothing and were being asked to do with even less. This, I believe, is a more appropriate comparison today, and if we learn the lesson from history it is that people will tolerate only so much inequality and then will figure out a way to balance the scales any way they can. In the case of the French Revolution, the scales were balanced with the heads of the nobility, something Tom might want to consider. We have a delicate Social Contract in this country, but it is not absolute. Folks our age only need to remember Watts and Detroit to realize that these things can happen here. I am by no means advocating a repeat of the French Revolution here. What I would hope is that Tom and his ilk can realize is that it is in his own enlightened best interests not to let the inequality get out of hand, for desperate people will take desperate measures to survive, and at that point, no mansion, no yacht, no private plane will be adequate refuge. cbsnews/news/capitalist-controversy-billionare-tom-perkins-compares-progressives-to-nazis/
Posted on: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 13:31:21 +0000
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