I came across this wonderful piece on Gawker, ripping into an insensitive Toronto douche who whined about how his annual income, which places him in Canada's top 1 percent, isn't really all that much when one considers his expenses. Sheesh.
I think of this "poor me" myopia every morning on my way to work. I drive by a house at the intersection of Stuart, Waverly, and Ward streets in Newton, MA. On their front lawn, the owners have a sign that boldly states, "We are the 99 Percent!" What a laughable concept. The city assessor's database lists the value of this house at $891,000. I looked up its owners. Both are comfortable professors at Boston College. She is a self-promoter whose personal website makes it clear that she is not, in any sense perhaps other than spirit, remotely close to falling out of the top 1 percent. Surely this sort of hypocrisy (lack of self-knowledge?) is one of the things people outside the top 1 percent dislike so profoundly about those firmly inside it -- especially those who portray themselves as in solidarity with the proletariat and opposed to conspicuous consumption.
