"Don't you feel a sense of foreboding?"
My host laughed. "What a 19th-century thing to say," he replied.
Clearly the rich were worried -- but about what?
"I hope not," he replied. "The economy is society's heart. It contracts and expands because it's alive. If it stopped it would be dead."
"Can I quote you on this?"
"No," said my host. "Pretend you figured it out for yourself."
Is is possible to look at a recession, not as a calamity, but as the economy's living, beating heart? Yes. All you need is to be (a) rich and (b) diversified. Then, it's a breeze.
Their end game isn't to make you a harder-working and better person, it's to avoid having to show you any respect. They don't respect you and they don't want to have to pretend they do. They want you to show them deference and they know you won't do that if you feel like a free person in a free society who doesn't have to take crap from some petty tyrant who thinks you should feel honored to kiss his ring. Republicans are pissed off because it's so hard to get good help these days -- help that knows they are just the help, that knows their place, that uses the servants' entrance and calls them "sir" and doesn't question them. A strong middle class -- that is, a secure workforce -- gets bolshy and tells abusive employers to bugger off, and the ruling class doesn't like that.
