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What Keeps A Billionaire Awake At Night: "Envy, Hatred, Social Warfare" And The "Destruction Of The Middle Class"
There is something morbidly ironic when one of the world's richest men, in this case South African Johann Rupert, who has made billions (his net worth is roughly $7.5 billion) peddling Cartier jewelry and Chloe fashion as founder and chairman of luxury conglomerate Richemont, whose 20 brands also include Vacheron Constantin and Montblanc, said tension between the rich and poor is set to escalate, that the "envy, hatred and the social warfare" may crush society, and that "we are destroying the middle classes at this stage and it will affect us."
According to Bloomberg, Rupert said that “we cannot have 0.1 percent of 0.1 percent taking all the spoils,” adding that “it’s unfair and it is not sustainable." Being among the 0.1% of said "0.1% of 0.1%" he should know.
“How is society going to cope with structural unemployment and the envy, hatred and the social warfare?” he said. “We are destroying the middle classes at this stage and it will affect us. It’s unfair. So that’s what keeps me awake at night.”
One other person who has been quite a fan of such as "fairness doctrine", at least as far as it does not directly affect his personal wealth, is none other than crony capitalist and railroad enthusiast #1, Obama's personal tax advisor and the world's third richest man: Warren Buffett, who for all his sage advice on income tax has had surprisingly little to say about taxation on financial assets/capital, esatate of carried interest tax. Or has, in any other way, provided any of his wealth for "fair" use among the destitute.
Which is why we skeptical of Rupert's preaching and motives, especially since he himself, unlike millions of other people, actually can do something about "unfair" social inequalty if he really feels the deep urge.
Furthermore, it is now much too late to do anything about the social issues which Rupert accurately lays out as the biggest problems facing the world. There was some hope in 2008 when resetting the "unfair" system was a distinct possibility, however it was if not Rupert, than his billionaire banker peers who hijacked the system once more, transferred some $50 trillion in wealth away from the global middle class to the "0.1% of 0.1%", and have virtually assured a revolution or war.
Which incidentally is precisely what another billionaire, Paul Tudor Jones, warned is coming. Recall from his mid-March TED talk:
"This gap between the 1 percent and the rest of America, and between the US and the rest of the world, cannot and will not persist... Historically, these kinds of gaps get closed in one of three ways: by revolution, higher taxes or wars."
Still, we must admit we have a sweet spot for Rupert. As Bloomberg describes the university dropout whose father made a fortune setting up Rembrandt Tobacco Corp. and selling it off, has in the past made other social critiques. Nicknamed ‘Rupert the Bear’ for his pessimistic views on the economy, the 65-year-old refers to himself as a “reformed prostitute,” having spent a decade as an investment banker. He said in 2008 that the collateral damage from the financial crisis was yet to come.
“We’re in for a huge change in society,” he said Monday. “Get used to it. And be prepared.”
Yet what is surprising is that instead of laying the blame squarely where it belongs, at the feet of the Mandarins inhabiting the Marriner Eccles building, and their equally clueless central banker peers around the globe, Rupert mostly accuses technology and... robots?!
[T]ension between the rich and poor is set to escalate as robots and artificial intelligence fuel mass unemployment.
The founder and chairman of Richemont... said he expects advances in technology to lead to job losses after having read books on the subject recently. Conflicts between social classes will make selling luxury goods more tricky as the rich will want to conceal their wealth, Rupert said in a speech Monday at the Financial Times Business of Luxury Summit in Monaco.
Don't worry Johann: by the time there is a robot for every job, the entire market will have taken itself private thanks to the unseen "cost-savings" as the companies of the S&P500 fire everyone except the executive suite. And for that is just one automaton you have to thank: whichever banker puppet is currently in charge of the Federal Reserve, the ECB, the BOJ, the PBOC or the SNB.
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Then get to work fixxin' it, or ya better start sleeping with a gun under yer pillow, pal.
Suddenly every body is Captain Obvious!
Indeed!
Shop at Walmart and then get mad that the owner of Walmart is a billionaire. Lordy, I can't figure that one out.
Maybe government can step in and help...give more subsidies to Walmart.
Poor defenseless innocent billionaires are the real victim.
The Australian, all female, crew on his 195ft 'yacht' will comfort him,Have no fear.
In the end, education is the key. Sell something overpriced to that guy, and lots of it!
To me, it looks like the yacht will need a staff of over 200 just to counter the ballast & prevent it from tipping over & sinking.
All the silicone serves as a floatation device.
Well, it is sorta obvious what they do, have done, and will continue to do, but there is one major problem with their program...
The unexpected... (That's where the masses "Get wise")
http://galeinnes.blogspot.com/2015/06/the-fraud-quadrant.html
http://rt.com/usa/265528-darpa-robotics-challenge-winners/
Maybe soon robots can peddle luxury goods also. I am sure every robot would love to avoid 'servo/back' breaking work if possible also.
Horse and carriage deja vu is the more likely outcome than robots and AI.
Go long goats and donkeys too.
Sounds like he is playing us. Automation has been increasing forever, and the number of jobs has increased with it. Of course, central banking, fiat, ZIRP, QE, cronyism, and fractional reserves are forcing more people into the kinds of jobs that could disappear with automation. This is also at the root of what is wrong with the people, and yet, for some reason, he didn't mention that.
It is almost as if he were trying to misdirect us ...
At least he knows that when TSHTF he'll hang mighty high, possibly from the mast of his own 'yacht'...
No mast, but it does have six full sized marble bathrooms.
Roughing it is hard.
The crew is very pretty, obviously not chosen for their seawomanship.
Make that the flag pole then. He does have a flag somewhere on his property, doesn't he ?
one day soon they will be
It's going to take a long time - perhaps too long - for people to figure out that it is our purchases that are enslaving us. Every time we ring the cash register for these behemoth corporations, we participate in our own degradation.
Things are accelerating, though. My kids live in a relative backwater. This gives me small comfort, but something. The cities are going to be very dangerous moving forward.
What is astounding is how so few people are even remotely capable of understanding that government is, and has always been, the problem.
They just can't blame the root cause: government.
I met Rupert at the Richemont HQ in Geneva. He's a very decent, humble man, a real entrepreneur, which admitedly is exceptional for a billionaire.
Yeah, whatever. Show me some evidence that he is keeping employees and/or raising wages. Talk is fucking cheap.
Rupert or Ruprecht?
Slow clap good! ! ! ! !
All this on the watch of the incompetent divisive arrogant narcissistic illegal indonesian kenyan alien muslim sociopathic pathological liar fudgepacker..... what a shocker....
Enlightened self-interest
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong), ultimately serve their own self-interest.
It has often been simply expressed by the belief that an individual, group, or even a commercial entity will "do well by doing good".
Which is just another definition of social harmony. My favorite version comes from the Japanese, "Imagine how clean the world would be if everyone swept their own doorstep."
Perhaps. I like the enlightened self-interest ideal as a way of promoting individual liberty and social harmony, without the need to resort to hierarchy or coercion.
the asian model. a socialist culture by nature. if i am concerned for you and you are concerned for me all of our needs will be fulfilled. country first, employer(shogun) second, community third, family 4th and the individual last.
As the NWO runs out of funds to support control of the US military they will go after the billionaires. That's what should keep them up at night.
religious 'funds' and property are what will be pillaged next
... don't hold your breath.
He is right ... about the robots, I mean.
I waiting for the one that makes wives obsolete.
Prepare to be up voted!
I read about a $7,500 Japanese talking sex robot. I am waiting for one to come out that doesn't talk.
I am waiting for one to come out that doesn't talk.
That sir, was the funniest line I have read in ages.
How about hatred of government?
I can ignore overpriced snob products.
The tax collector, not so much.
Speaking of over priced snob products - I think I have a really valuable watch - the idiots misspelled it Carter on the face.
That fat bastard probably won't live to see the grand finale.
It's pretty obvious that all these deluded Oligarchs are playing ~CYA 101~
I wonder how many natives were sacrificed in the making of (1) Patek Philippe & Co. watch?
He made his filthy money in jewellery and fashion...gag me with a freakin' spoon!!!
;-D
Well, at least he cultivated willing customers- unlike some others we know who conjure their fortunes from the ether.
Purveyors of jewellery and fashion are panderers to vanity and greed. Really? They charge unconscionable amounts for stuff that will be gauche in a few cycles. I wouldn't pleasure a jeweller or a fashionista with someone else's private parts...ripoff artists!!!!
;-D
So, we agree then? I wear a wedding ring, and my wardrobe consists of t-shirts and blue jeans.
I'm just saying that he learned to take advantage of the largesse of the spawn of the privileged class.
Would I do that? In a word- NO.
Still, I recognize this fuckhead is not my illness, he is merely a symptom.
Yeah, we're good,,,
;-D
Zion likes to sheer the Goy, then send them off to become mutton on a battlefield or two. That way the Goy won't discover who is really behind their predicament, and then turn and bite the hand that sheers them.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
Do you think Pat Tillman figured that out before the friendly bullets passed through his head.
According to his family, he did.
Never volunteer for a Bush, Clinton, or the next Hebrew National President.
One never "volunteers" anything to government, but merely gives it to them before they steal it.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
Question your beliefs because there are no second chances.
I volunteered for Reagan, but was unaware at the time that it was Bush who tried to kill him in order to get to the throne.
Too much Disney World and John Wayne movies fucked the man's head up.
Patriotism is a control in the hands of international terrorists (bankers).
Ah the Tillman thing. Sad, quite sad.
I remember feeling sadness when he did what he did because I knew that he was going to one day suffer a very rude awakening. That they would have him murdered didn't even occur to me.
So sad, and what a waste.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..
All the world is Zion's stage, and all the Goy merely cannon fodder in it.
Friendly bullets shot at a very close range according to an Army doctor in country who refused to play games with the autopsy.
Socialism is not sustainable and eventually must give way to a more totalitarian form of government which is generally Communism or Fascism. None of this crap makes any sense and only a Psychopath or Sociopath would dream of it.
Sad day when credit is exhausted, and there's no debt left to be had.
I actually dreamed last night about explaining the debt money system to people in the hood who were about to riot. The "money is debt" portion drew blank stares, but they understood the gold part perfectly well.
The problem with government is that eventually you run out of other people's shit to steal.
Liberty is a demand. Tryanny is submission..
Really? Interesting how Norway, Sweden, Holland, have proved you wrong for decades. Thats what happens when you mix your terminology. You mean Corporitism isn't sustanable, NOT Socialism.
Go back to Tumblr. The influx of immigrants is already destroying Sweden. Like he said, socialism isn't sustainable.
As if money has intrinsic value. It is just paper. Thatcher knew better, she also knew that you don't know better.
Enjoy being played?
What happened after the Soviet Union collapsed is that the wealthy decided that there was no reason to treat workers well or have a middle class since communism appeared to have failed. Without that check on greed.... well, the years since have spoken. Loud and clear.
The oligarchs today see that the slow simmering revolutions in places like Columbia or Mexico as manageable and of little consequence to them. And they are. For now.
History rhymes, of course. The French revolution. The Russian revolution. Technology works for both sides. The results should be interesting.
Organized crime moved into the boardroom.
US is following the Soviets, not Japan.
Cost for private physical security going up.
Time to start a new business?
Haven't we stuck a fork in it already?
I said somewhere on ZH (probably in some crazy rant) back in '09 that deflation was already baked into the cake in the coming decade(s), that Bernanke was painting himself into a corner with the coming ZIRP, that there was no way out with QE, and I laughed at AEP for his lamenting back then that money multipliers were collapsing everywhere (M2 is still in the shitter - hahahahA), and that the CBs would race to the bottom - there would be no aggregate demand inflation with monetary inflation when there was global EXCESS CAPACITY!!!!
Guess what?
There''s still EXCESS CAPACITY!!! The depression started for many in the middle class back then and it continues....taxing the whatever-percenters 100% ain't gonna change aggregate demand a whole lot...blah, blah,blah
great comment and all...now see if you can sqaure excess capacity with overpopulation -- incompatable concepts? irony of the highest order? central planner hubris?
my answer is the latter, with the former two inevtiable and subsequent of hubris' effects.
janus
He did with the CB comment. Otherwise over production wouldn't exist long term as demand used to be limited by the savings of the population.
i don't think that's necessarily implicit in the CB comment; rather, the opposite is more the case, especially in light of the M2 comment (understanding that M3 is no longer reported). it seemed to me he was explicitly saying that central planners assumed such a robust population would be prodded to spending with the electrified charge of QEs, and that the population's size would suffice the overproduction problem if the 'animal spirits' were loosed from their dens...in other words, "overproduction" was never such until it suddenly was/is; and it necessarily follows that overpopulation would not be a problem if not for 'overproduction', since it cannot be reconciled to the population's size. all plans premised on projected long-term demand, articulated without consideration of the cultural differences amongst the constituent components of the planning, are doomed to fail.
and it also depends on whether we're looking backwards or forwards with respect to long term demand. from the past we can extract data and identify trends; and then from those trends we project into the future. the future was by central planners a place wherein all humans behaved according to occidental mores and customs, and that two generations in the classroom and copious rations of doritos and pepsi were enough to reorient 6000 years of tradition. for example, some cultures place an emphasis on cooperative effort and long-term planning; others are only looking to make a quick score and skeedaddle with their stash.
it is additionally the case that 'overproduction' per se isn't a solid-state concept; at least not when analyzed from a purely economic standpoint (if, that is, economics and commerce are still in any way related). 'overproduction' is just the excess of a crappy product. there is never overproduction of anything people actually want. it may be shocking for china to discover this in their imperial adventures, but even dull-eyed trogledytesn and peasants prefer quality craftmanship and design.
for many out there (peter shiff, et al), there was this assumption that someday the brain-trust in beijing would just flip a switch and jump-start their domestic economy. well, chinese spending/investing & consuming habits are not conducive to this plan. i said then, and i still say today, that it's more a matter of turning china off.
and if we're talking overpopulation and its relationship to overproduction, we're talking china. and now, all of a sudden, the demographic magic is quickly turning against them...funny how central planners never considered the fact that people age, weaken, retire, siphon resources and then slowly die -- all that in a culture which reveres the elderly.
but i may be wrong.
janus
Yup. We overproduce ['we" not referring to "us", but the collective] credit, which necessarily results in overproduction of currency, which results in overproduction of the energy required to provide enormous amounts of foodstuffs which in turn, causes an overproduction of humanity.
Then there's overshoot [there's always overshoot], but mostly only in non-essentials (we humans are becoming non-essential at an alarming rate) and ya' wind up where we are today.
You can look at any earthly problem, and ultimately it traces its roots back to the same place.
Shit, now I've gone full-circle and forgotten what I started out to say! I hate it when that happens!
die mother fucker
So at least this lard ass billionaire can't say that he didn't know what was happening or that he tried to do anything about it.
Obozo signs his executive orders with Mont Blanc.
Only the best for AB Negative tyrants.
MAYBE you have "problems" with this billionaire. But his basic premise is correct.
* The Middle Class is being gutted, and that is a VERY bad thing for the world. Why? Basically because the Middle Class is a bunch of "pretty nice people" who are just working their butts off, trying to raise a family, and trying to keep the world ... "good for families". So when you lose those people, what do you have left?
* YES - we are moving into a new Feudal System - that is the new economic model.
* YES - we are headed towards MORE WARS. Absolutely Guaranteed!
* NO - this is NOT simply a repeat of previous hisorical cycles. Why? Because the NUMBER of people who will die in these new wars in the 21'st century - is enormously bigger than our planet has ever seen before.
Ain't LIFE grand?!
Protocol # 16
Keep the masses in poverty and perpetual labor.
I will betcha, if anything keeps him awake, then it is fear ... and fear and ego are the things that keep him where is. What good is being rich if everyone is rich or if you had to act morally, ethically or in a way that benefits all of humanity.
To someone, such as what's-his-name above (too lazy to look back) it really does not matter. What's-his-name is most likely very happy with his place on this rock, wearing his meat-sack and indulging in what the planet has to offer. Most likely he wants to stay here as long as he can and come back to the same thing over and over again.
For many of the rest of us, coming back as one of Satan's slaves, even a very well taken care of "slaver", such as what's-his-name is not what we want to do. When our opportunity comes, we want to leave and never look back.
Yes, it is true.
America's next President will be its last under this Constitution.
Obozo Caesar still has over a year left.
I'll bet Rupert has a nice flat in London and a well stocked bunker in the Australian outback.
I'm sure the guy is nice, but it's a little too late for the pot to be calling the kettle black. The guy hails from South Africa...
I vote for #1!
“We are destroying the middle classes at this stage and it will affect us. It’s unfair...."
One of the first lessons I learned as an adult: Life isn't fair!
What happens next is arguably more "fair".
Yesterday, a ZH poster gave me a link to a blog from 2006 that was written about Argentina's fiscal and economic crisis. A nice historical background was written to introduce the blog and comments. I read this thumbnail history with great interest.
Back at the turn of the 1800's into the 20th century, Argentia had built a solid economic model based on. Large land owners, and large land lords. Huge estates that controlled the land that was farmed, grazed, or logged and mined. Each land owner had his own way to extract wealth from their land holdings. Tpyically a large farm for cereal grains, or grazing for sheep and cattle. Basically a 1% owned the lands and controlled government. The landowners were happy because their exports to Europe made them rich. Export was raw, no value added. Wool for example was exported totally raw and cleaned and spun in Europe. So Argentina did not build a manufacturing base, but the 1% grew rich on commodities alone. The people without land had to seek employment by landowners. The large estates employed people, but did not even pay them cash, they paid them company script, good only at the estate's warehouses for consumer goods and food. Pay was so low that outbreaks of violence built in cycles, the government reacted when landowners needed help. "The people would revolt every few years, and the government troops would come in and shoot them all. The landowners hired new people. This it how Argentina entered the 20th century.
The end result for Argentina was a growing communist party and socialism. The communists went to war with the 1% and their government. It got very ugly, but the government won, by again, killing all the opposition. The dirty war of the 80's was the last case of "the government coming in and shooting everybody!"
I smell a whisper of the coming future in this past of Argentina. Our 1% and the corporations [who stand in for land lords of old] and a government increasingly preparing to repress with violence the revolts. The more I look around, I see wealth so fabulous, it never existed in the 70's when I was young. The divide grows and grows. Old time Argentina happily went along for more than a century on a 1% model, with poverty handled by government repression when it revolted.
A giant divide between the 1% owners of assets [whom the fed favors every day] and the work force, increasingly pushed into poverty. Government policy officially favors the 1%, fiscal policy has made them wealthy, in many cases "without work" "without wealth creation" Simply owning assets has made them richer and richer, as they did no wealth creation at all, simply asset appreciation gorwth.
Argentina is a lesson. A model. America can become that distopian world, we are working on it! When repression begins "shooting everybody" then communism will rise again. And social war will be ugly.
There's one glaring difference between Argentina and the United States: the private ownership of guns and the stockpiling of guns in by former-middle class in the USA guarantees a much bloodier outcome. Maybe it won't be different, but a lot of the .1% and the 1% will get theirs during it.
+1 Jack. They worry not because they care, but because they are smart enough to know, that there will be no where to run and hide from the 99% when the shooting and looting starts.
Except Singapore.
Seems USA has been getting produce from Caribbean, Central American and South America for 150 years and using military to support the businesses.
Also there were dirty wars all through countries called the Cone of South American shortly after the influence of Ford Foundation Training of university level Economists called the "Chicago Boys". University of Chicago was involved teaching neoliberel economics.
What I read was that after the period of Haciendas, most countries had Revolutions and won Independence like 100 years ago. By the 1960 it was clear a Middle Class was emerging in much of South America due to factories and manufacturing. One policy was protectionism, tariffs, to protect newly formed industries.
That was when the Chicago Boys appeared and Military Juntas after training supported by the Ford Foundation. This began the era of Dirty Wars and disrupted or collapsed the emerging middle class and many people simply disappeared, were kidnaps, killed by troops, thrown out of helicopters.
Obvious lots of these countries have done well since the end of the Dirty Wars.
Interestingly the USA has now had Dirty Wars in the ME & SWA. And now we have Militarized Police, training in military tactics which involve quick use of guns and shoot suspects. Could be we have isolated detention centers set up as our security industry spending ramps up.
I'm just saying.
Fuck Buffett and Rupert.
F**k both Ruperts. fixed it for ya ;-)
I'm sure the thought of those keep him up at night. Banging his latest mistress like a drum because of how hard it gets him.
Or does he have in mind the results of destroying the white middle class in South Africa? Can he not leave the house without an armed bodyguard even in broad daylight? The time to be worried about that was before South Africa was sold to the ANC, not after.
Say there billy billionaire, what about this idea? You and I get ourselves a couple motorcycles. We'll get you one of those big comfy ones with a V6 engine and air conditioning. Then you and I will ride around the world, checking out all our favourite locals, whispering phrases like decentralization, self-reliance, and self governance. We can hang out with the locals who like terms such as these, teach em a few tricks, maybe build them a couple things. Then move on, we shan't stay long as there is plenty to be done else where. If you get tired you can head home for a rest, I'll carry on because I would never get tired during a trip like this.
Then when your time has come, I'll be there to lower you into the ground, and see the profoundly happy face of a man who helped save the world.
Now how does that sound?
Republicans silent on their genital enhancements.
Doctors say they are not 'safe'.
- Doctor warns of risky new trend for 'genital enhancements'...
Jamie Dimon weighs in and states 100% successful in performed properly.
S/ LOL
I HAVE MADE A DECISION...I WILL ONLY VOTE IF A CAN OF TOMATO SOUP IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT...WHY YOU ASK...BECAUSE I FIGURE A CAN OF SOUP CAN DO ATLEAST AS GOOD A JOB AT FUCKING SHIT UP AS THE DEMOCRAPS OR THE RETARDICANS...AND BECAUSE YES...WE CAN!!! WE GOT DEFECTIVE CANS!!!! SAY'ITH THE JERK.
It's been long time past to kill the exceedingly rich.
The emergence and collapse of the middle class was orchestrated by the 1%. Greater entitlements were given to the working classes in the early 1900s as the 1% did not wish to see a repeat of the French or Russian revolutions. A century later, with trade agreements, we have free international movement of goods, labor, services, copyrights and financial wealth. The rights of corporations and the 1% take precedence over statehood, and the entitlements of the middle class are eroded in favor of low cost labor markets in emerging economies. The 1% is now insulated because their wealth base is now international, not national, thus they don't lie awake at night worrying about local domestic strife. And, any passion for revolution in G7 countries is lost amoung the masses of aging and realtively wealthy baby boomers focused on medicare and retirement. Sh#t happens in the Middle East because their population charts look like the G7 countries in the 1950's with a high birth rate and significant population of young people, but in their case, the youth have no jobs and no future. That contagen may still spread to Turkey and Pakistan and beyond, each of which have similar demographics. The media focuses on ethnic or religious as the cause of war, but inequitible distributin of international wealth and greed has been and continues to be the root cause. Unfortunately free trade agreements and the TPP are designed to protect and centralize wealth, whereas the aim should be to share wealth and improve standards of living.
http://www.scoop.it/t/concentration-of-wealth-existential-risk