CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria has a reputation as being what some might consider the Thinking Man’s Pundit.
It doesn’t really match up with his record, which is something more like the Wealthy Man’s Pundit–as in 2010, when he wrote a column defending Goldman Sachs, which the Washington Post helpfully headlined “Cool the Goldman Rage.”
Zakaria dedicated a portion of his October 13 CNN show to a discussion of income inequality and the second anniversary of Occupy Wall Street, with, wouldn’t you know it, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein.
As Zakaria noted, the segment was actually part of a discussion he moderated at the Clinton Global Initiative. In addition to Blankfein, Zakaria also spoke to Jim Rogers, the soon-to-be-retiring CEO of Duke Energy, and Denis O’Brien, who owns a company called Digicel.
Zakaria previewed the discussion by saying, “How did we get so unequal and what responsibility do corporations have to fix the problem?” Blankfein unsurprisingly comes out against the idea of “income redistribution” as a fix to inequality; presumably he prefers to continue the way income is currently being redistributed–upward.
O’Brien, an Irish telecom billionaire, expresses some sympathy for Occupy–“I think we should be listening to some of the things that these people are saying.” It’s a somewhat odd message from someone who apparently changed his official residence to Malta for tax purposes (Village, 12/14/11).
In any event, the juxtaposition was certainly odd–listening to three people who benefit greatly from the upward redistribution of income musing about what should be done to combat the problem. But perhaps it’s not a huge surprise; back in 2010, Zakaria hosted a special titled Restoring the American Dream. The guests? Four CEOs.
He is just showing us why the current system – Vulture Capitalism – is broke. The same reason that Pure Communism or any other system based on Monetary gains will never work for long; Pure and Simple Greed. The current Corporate leaders are so deathly afraid that someone else might actually make a dime they can’t steal, they would rather see the earth a burning cinder and all life extinguished than allow that to happen.
So it’s good we have folks like Zakaria showing us who the enemy really is; even though he thought he was showing us something different. Rule of thumb from the military; if your enemy is so stupid as to give away their plans and secrets, let them.
The right wingers have done a great job brainwashing a large portion of the American citizenry. A lot of people I talk to parrot people like Lush Rimjob and have been conditioned to think in ways that are actually against their own benefit. Ironically, a lot of these CEO types have made millions off the government they love to say is the problem. It’s all just bad theater and too many are buying the tickets.
I saw the GPS show referred to and what is missing
from your analysis was the mocking expressions
on Blankfein’s face when discussing OWS demands:
“There are so many of them” (paraphrased) . He demeanor
the entire time was one of disdain for anyone not a CEO.
Forget them ,lets go right to the top.I say that every president who panders to this crap on income inequality shall sign a pledge.And here it is…..I shall allow the disbursement of 50% of all my wealth attained after serving as president(after taxes).This seems fair since he could “never of gotten there by himself”.It is wholly the result of OUR vote.Mr Clinton that would mean roughly 100 million for you son, going into the redistribution vat.Mr Obama bet you will earn a ton.Looking forward to emptying your purse.Yeah right………next thing you will tell me is the President and his legislative arm will live under Obama care like the rest of us.