Sunday, June 07, 2009

When the rich only cares for themselves............

Yesterday I met up with a group of people in a meeting who I consider them to be rich as they live in a very posh condominium in a posh neighbourhood in the capital city. This group of people has been making complains to the local authorities on a certain project, saying that the project has not adhered to the proper procedures and by-laws.

Yesterday was the opportunity for them to air their grievances to the local authorities and to the office of the project manager. And so they did exactly that. They came in ready to fire their bullets, maybe, with the hope that the office of the local authorities, project manager and the owner of the project will let down and `surrender’ the project/stop work altogether and cancel the project, leaving their serene high class neigbourhood the way it should be, and not be spoilt by projects that will bring down the standard of their neighbourhood.

You see, the project that they are so against, or have been complaining about so much, is a project for the poor, for the disadvantaged, for the left fortunate, for the people who others no longer want. It is a half-way house for the old folks, abused children and young girls. It is their (the disadvantaged people) last place in a hope for them to find love. It is their last place for them before they die. It is not a project where high class condos or huge bungalows will be built, instead, the highest structure is only 4 storeys high, in the form of a dormitory, but which will be fully handicapped accessible. It is just a place to wait until it is ‘time to go’. It is a project where no one wants to be your neighbour.

This group of people listed down complains after complains, of which the office of the project manager and the owner, fortunately, were able to answer, as every complain that was put forth were either already been taken care of/looked into, or were in the midst of being taken care of.

When almost all the complains that they put forth could no longer be considered relevant, and they could no longer come up with any more complains against the existence of the project, they started `whining’ and sounding like spoilt rich people who only cares about themselves.

They complain that the project is making them lose sleep because of work going on at night (there is no work going on at night at this project site. The contractor has been instructed not to do any kind of work that is noisy at night).

They complain that there has been a lot of banging at night. It disturbs their beauty sleep. This project has not reached the stage where it needs to do a lot of banging, especially at night. It has not started any piling work yet that needs to be done 24 hours. Work stops at 5.00pm each day.

Whatever noise that they are probably hearing must be coming from the two other projects nearby. Why not complain against the other two projects? Could it be because the other two projects are to build more high cost condominiums and huge bungalows, and, maybe, in their rich heads, projects of this nature can make as much noise as they can because they are meant for the rich and famous?

This project (to build condos and bungalows) will further make their neighbourhood more elite and will push further the price of their condos. But, projects for the poor are not allowed to make noise. It is a sin to make noise when you are poor. Projects for the poor will only bring down the price of their condos. Project for the poor is an eye sore to their eyes which can only see beautiful things.

They complain that since the construction started, the roads are now dusty and dirty. When in actually fact, the roads were already dusty and dirty when the project started some 5 months ago, due to lorries from the other two projects that have been plying the roads for the past 1 year. Why complain now, when a project for the poor are just about to be constructed? Because it is a project for the poor and disadvantaged, and so, they are not allowed to create dusts.

Which project does not emit dust and dirt? But the office of the project manager has closely monitored the project to ensure that dust and dirt are kept to a minimum, but, it can only do so much. The rest of the dust and dirt comes from the other two projects. Why complain about this project alone, but not the other two? Why the double standard?

When their condos were being built, it was also emitting dust, dirt and noise pollution, and probably was also disturbing the residents of the existing condos, but, NO, because their condos are elite and posh, they are allowed to emit as mush noise, dirt and dust, because they are for the rich and famous, or so they seem to think

Did they care that the construction of their condos some years ago was also disturbing the peace and quiet of the residents of the existing halfway house then? As if they care! The poor can be disturbed. They pay no taxes. They don’t deserve to have peace and quiet. But, they, the rich people, they pay taxes, they bring in the money into the country, and so, they deserved to be treated like kings and queens. They deserve to have some peace and quiet at night so that they can have their beauty sleep in order for them to wake up fresh the next day to make more money for the country!

What do the poor do, but to create nuisance to the country, that must be what is in their rich heads! I am fed up of people with this kind of attitude. They only think of themselves. They have no heart. They say that they are not opposed to charity, and willingly donate, but, whenever they want to do any charity work, they call the media. The whole world must know that they are giving to charity. Is that how charity works?

People like this make me sick in the heart. It troubles me that we have people who only cares about themselves, and their rich kinds. I felt troubled all day after the meeting yesterday. I felt restless and initially couldn’t figure out why I felt that way. Even when I woke up this morning, I was still feeling sick in the heart, and find it hard to believe that such people exist, and so happen that I even know two of them very closely. One was my former classmate, and the other, a former senior officer at my department.

What is becoming to our so called CARING SOCIETY? It is only something you watch on TV, but, in reality, they are nothing more than spoilt rich people who only care about themselves? *sigh*

Please, before people think that I am generalizing the rich as the same as this group of people, please know that I am not. I have met many other nice rich people who genuinely cares for the poor, the disadvantaged and the less fortunate, but this group of heartless people I met yesterday just simply got to me and made me sick all day……..

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This depression is going to get a lot worse for most of us. Millions will go cold and hungry. It didn't have to be this way. Greed ruins everything. Its true. Ask any professor of economics.

"As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption; mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery. Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped."

Marriner Eccles, FDR's Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank - 1959

In other words, the first Great Depression was caused by greed. The rich couldn't settle for reasonable pay. They had to have more and more and more. That caused a giant shift in buying power from the majority to the rich. When the majority lost their buying power, they lost their ability to support the economy. Einstein said basically the same thing in 1949.

Its even worse now. Ordinary people havn't only lost their relative buying power. They have also lost their savings, home values, pensions, and benefits. Meanwhile, the rich have become super incredibly rich. The richest 500 Americans are worth about 2 trillion dollars. More than the bottom 40% of American housholds combined. The richest 1 percent are worth about 18 trillion dollars. More than the bottom 98% of American households combined. Thats just insane. I don't care how much work for humanity the rich claim to do. Its nothing but a cover for their own greed. We don't need anymore rich people to create jobs or make donations for charity. We need them to get reasonable about how much money and assets they keep for themselves.

Don't believe their excuse about paying more income taxes. They don't pay enough. For every tax the rich pay, they get an obscene profit, bailout, contract, or kickback from our government to cover it. We had a progressive tax system that worked for over 40 years. It prevented too much wealth from being concentrated. In 1976, the middle 80% owned about 2/3 of America's total wealth. Reagan lowered taxes for the rich. Bush lowered them again. Now, the richest 5% own about 2/3 of America's total wealth. The lower 95% own about 1/3. America's wealth has been transfered from poor to rich again. Now, we have another depression.

Don't believe it when the rich claim to be getting poorer. Property values have gone down for everyone. Thats because of the concentration of wealth and income. When the economy slows down, property values tank. So when rich people complain about lower net worth, its a trick. They still have the same buying power on average.

Too much wealth has already been taken away from the majority and concentrated into the private vaults of rich people. The same ones on TV telling us how much they want to help the world. Its a big lie. Just another way to promote their own names. Rich people don't want to help the world. They want to own it.

Now, the economy is ruined. Obama can't fix it because the rich won't let him raise their taxes. There will be no bailout for the people because the rich won't let it happen. The rich always want more. The same thing has been happening in other economies around the world. The world's rich have been getting richer. Now, we have a global recession. Its going to get a lot worse. It didn't have to be this way. Greed ruins everything.

Please copy and spread the word.

Natrah Norlin said...

yang kaya semakin kaya...yang miskin...jauh ketinggalan..

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