A Fish-Eye View

The circus playing out on Capitol Hill today around the million-dollar bonuses doled out at AIG does illustrate one useful commonality between our fiercely fractionated political parties: No one likes the rich, not even the rich themselves.



Here, in a nutshell, is what is happening in America, as we speak:

*Rich people (those with assets of $1 million or more, and annual income of $250K or more) are nervous about losing their entitlements. They know they cannot expect public sympathy, but they sure hope their politician friends, of whatever ideological stripe, since all politicians are "green" when it comes to the smell of money, will offer them relief from the prospect that they may have to sell off the house in the Hamptons, discontinue the Limo service, or opt their kids out of private school.

*The Super Rich, like Donald Trump, are buying up property at fire sale prices These types of rich always get richer. Trump is on a buying spree in Washington, D.C., among other places.

*The so-called "middle class," which included most of the rest of us until recently, are in shock. We are simply frozen in disbelief. We are losing our jobs, some of us are losing our homes, our cars, and -- if we had any -- our savings. We can't afford health insurance even if we can get access to it. We are depressed and sinking lower in that depression. There will be suicides, there will be violence, there will be crime from this class quite soon. I also predict mass demonstrations that inevitably turn into riots this coming summer.

*The working poor and the poor are on the verge of desperation. I know many of these folks, by virtue of where I live, my habit of striking up conversations with anyone I encounter on the street, and by having actual eyes that really see (something most politicians lost a long time ago.) These guys are already experiencing a wave of petty crime, and in some cases indulging in it themselves. Shoplifting is on the rise around here; laptop thefts are common, cars are broken into (one neighbor said her car has been ransacked twice in the past few months -- the would-be thief took nothing because she keeps nothing of value in her car) but broke her windows in the process.) Someone tried to force his way into a house around the corner earlier this week. Three neighbors have been held up at gunpoint recently; one as shot and wounded. Unintelligible violence spontaneously breaks out from formerly peaceful households or over minor traffic incidents.



I may be just one small minnow in a very large pond, but this is what I see around me. Batten down the hatches, folks, it's going to get rocky...

-30-