Adam Carolla isn’t buying into the class warfare schtick of the Democrats. Here’s a snippet from the NRO article about him:
He hates the fact that the rich have to pretend they’re not wealthy. “We’ve turned our world into some kind of prison yard, and if somebody finds out you’ve got a couple of cartons of cigarettes stuffed down your pants, you’re going to get torn apart [on] the handball courts.”
Given the contributions rich families such as the Carnegies and the Rockefellers have made to the arts, Carolla finds it “weird” to equate rich with evil. If the rich are evil, “why are you sitting in their library? Why are you sitting in their hall? Why did I just listen to a whole show on orangutans with no commercials that they paid for?”
When asked about the hullaballoo over Mitt Romney’s tax returns, Carolla adds, “I don’t know who is sending mosquito nets over trying to cure malaria in Africa, but last time I checked it was Bill Gates. Is Bill Gates evil? Are all rich guys evil or just guys with nice hair?”
Contributions Rockefellers have made??????
Are you talking about the ones like, the Illuminati or trilateral commission. These people are crooks that steel your money, and if they pass some trinkets back to the poor its, I’m ok jack. Make no mistake the ultra-rich got there by corruption and theft. They should never be looked up to, but investigated and arrested, tried on treason. But that would involve another corrupt organization the government to do the right thing.
Peter, two Questions:
Which evil corporations Tinfoil do you use to make your Hat?
Do you use the evil Bill Gates or corrupt Steve Jobs operating systems to post your brain dead commentary?
Really, Peter?
While it is true that the robber-barons of old got great wealth from their enterprises, the didn’t get that wealth stealing it but from using close association with the civil powers to protect monopolies or favourable legal environments. With the exception of Ford and other manufacturing entrepreneurs, the truly wealthy got that way by rent-seeking.
If those wealthy old boys did steal it was enabled by the governments of the day picking winners in the marketplace and protecting their ideological fellow-travellers. Much the same could be said of the GM or GE of today, or of the watermelon envirofascists of
Sierra Club, or of CUPE, or Teachers (Ontario Teachers Pension Fund); all are favourites of the elites, and all leverage their close association to their own benefit.
The big difference between the two groups of rent-seekers, in my opinion, is that the latter group is entirely self-interested, and isn’t building new public venues nor supporting the improvement of the human condition; indeed, if anything, these modern “robbers” detract from the whole without a collateral benefit.
But they are your idols, your enablers, and you couldn’t see past the bread and circus they offer while you play useful idiot for them. Have a nice conspiracy.
Pete the intellectual:
The rich got there by getting up earlier than you…and going to sleep later than you…six days a week.
Pisses me off too, but I don’t hate ’em for it.
Yes, Bill Gates is evil, and all he is trying to do is buy (emphasis on *buy*) himself a good entry in future history books.
Gates’ “philanthropy” is just another billionaire purchase, no different than a jet, or a huge mansion. He is a hypocrite, who like so many super-wealthy leans left when it suits his interests.
It is generally impossible to get fantastically wealthy like Gates when operating in a truly open, free market. Usually some crooking of the system is involved in order to kill off your competitors, and in Gate’s case he himself knows this. Rarely in history has someone made such staggering sums of money producing such utterly crappy products. It can only happen if you play outside of the rules of a free and open market, and it is a very bad thing when it happens.
TJ:
So, if you know how every detail of the game works, is there any reason you’re not a player?
Yes,there is corruption and nastiness in the world of business,so what?
Work your ass off,like the founders of today’s Big Giant Corporations did many years ago, and you can be rich too. We have the opportunity here,under a capitalist system,something womb-seeking socialists will never understand.
I’ve met dozens,maybe hundreds of millionaires,in my work as a forestry officer. They are the logging business entrepreneurs,and are a damned decent bunch. Most could be trusted with a handshake deal. And believe me,they earned every damned cent of their wealth.
I know an old fellow who owns an electrical contractor company.He employs about thirty people. He’s a millionaire,and he still visits the jobsites every day to check on the progress and see if there are any problems. The young guys in his company think very highly of him. Is he evil?
There are thousands of these guys around,in every business you can think of,are they evil too,because they worked harder and smarter to achieve their success?
Obama and the rest of his ilk love to target the “inherited wealth” sector because it seems they have it so easy and don’t really deserve their wealth. They’re an easy but unrealistic target.
The Paris Hiltons of this world are a miniscule proportion of the rich,and the rest,who busted their butts for years,shouldn’t be judged the same way.
God,I’ll be glad when socialism in out of fashion,which I doubt. As long as there are lazy people around,there will always be socialists.
“So, if you know how every detail of the game works, is there any reason you’re not a player?”
I have no interest in being a player. My point is that if markets are truly free, then it becomes very hard to obtain extremely high wealth. The wealth disparity that all the pinkos are whining about could be fixed by ensuring markets are free, and that equal opportunity exists for anyone who wants to get it and take a shot at making a product and earning some money. Neither the Republicans or the Dems seem to have a clue about this.
Look at Soros, there’s another hypocrite who pretends he likes free markets, but in reality far prefers rigged markets.
The entertainment industry is another hater of free markets, far preferring a rigged system so that they can make obscene profits.
I don’t begrudge people getting rich for hard work, not one bit. I’m all for it. But I’m also for free and fair markets. Also today’s patent system, which government has been painfully slow to modernize, is also buggering up the free market – that’s another topic!
People I admire are not blatant hypocritical crooks like Gates, but rather people like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who produced outstanding products and competed to sell them in a totally free market. James Dyson is another person I admire for similar reasons. We need far more people like that, and far less Gates, Soros, Gore, Hollywood, etc. etc.
Sorry for the rant.
speaking of “crooked”, it is only a matter of “scale” and intent
most lefties think that a billionare has a savings account with a billion dollars in it
they don’t realize that most of that money is at “work” making more money AND creating more jobs in the process
Peter: There is a shortage of CEO’s in this country. If you push a broom and don’t like your wages apply to be a CEO. If you can make the company more they will pay you the big bucks. Or shut your lazy mouth and do your overpaid job better. The problem is not that the CEO’s are paid too much, it’s that the workers make away to much money for what they produce.
Posted by: TJ at January 28, 2012 1:12 PM
“Rarely in history has someone made such staggering sums of money producing such utterly crappy products”
Opra comes to mind.
No need to apologize for your rant TJ. Forums like these are most useful in exposing delusional paranoid thinking. Please get yourself some help, before you hurt yourself or someone else. Contact any of my followers in your area, they will be more than willing to help.
My point is that if markets are truly free, then it becomes very hard to obtain extremely high wealth
Care to define your terms more exactly? What do you mean by “truly free” markets? And why, necessarily, does a free market make it “very hard” to obtain any arbitrary level of wealth?
Let me provide one example, and then you can show me how your ideas apply: James Watt, asked to repair a Newcomen steam engine, saw that it was inefficient, and came up with the idea of a separate condenser. This resulted in tremendous increases in efficiency, and (in partnership with Boulton) Watt took advantage of this by not charging a fixed price for his machines, but rather a license fee based on fuel saved. This made Watt very rich. Markets were free – mine owners could use any engine they wanted to pump water. Please discuss.
Good humor.
Don’t understand the part where it says that “….Carolla became a darling of the Right….”.
The guy has more sense in him than the politicians or the “journalists”.
Good thinking.
I’ll suggest one rather large point – the only bad rich people are Republicans or Conservatives in Canada.
Hollywood alone is full of narcissistic rich folk who but for their complete dedication to the Democratic cause would be burned in effigy by the left.
Mr Suzuki can be a multi-millionaire, own four homes and only travel in the most luxurious of comfort, but that’s fine as he is a liberal.
Bill Gates was evil incarnate right up until the point he left Microsoft and started bankrolling every liberal pet project.
Warren Buffet and George Soros are among the wealthiest, most vicious capitalists living and yet they receive no bad attention for one simple reason – they are liberals.
It’s not about wealth, it is about philosophy.
What avidus said.
Yes, I second what avidus said.
What Doc and avidus said.
As to these Billionaires proposing higher taxes, sure its fine for them, they are already Billionaires, they don’t have to face the prospect of losing 50++% of their income to the government.
People like me who have worked hard to get into the 50+% tax bracket but aren’t billionaires…yet, wonder why we’re being blamed for the rediculous mess of an unbalanced budget and bloated debt the country is facing? Taxes are the largest block of my expenses, what tax rate I wonder will make them happy?
I would also add to the Bill Gates and Soros types, that the Federal Income tax form has a donation to the treasury section which I challenge them to donate all of their wealth towards. See how well the government spends it… the fact that they all have their own private charities just reinforces my opinion that they are hippocrites who deep down inside trust the government as much as I do.
“I would also add to the Bill Gates and Soros types, that the Federal Income tax form has a donation to the treasury section which I challenge them to donate all of their wealth towards”
YES YES! Exactly!
I guess I’m your man Peter. I made more than enough and dealt with many like you in the process. As I worked my + 80 hours a week and the Peters of the world stood on the street corner and mocked the effort. In the end it all worked out for me.
I realized early in my career that carefull planning, hard work and judicious investment is rewarded. Sadly there is less of this going on as young people are ‘educated’ to expect more than they put in. They have been taught to be intimidated and not think things through.