If there was ever an article that perfectly summed up the times we live in, it’d have to be the one published yesterday at The Guardian titled, At LA Airport’s New Private Terminal, the Rich Can Watch Normal People Suffer.
Here are a few excerpts:
The guiltiest pleasure at Los Angeles international airport’s (LAX) new private terminal for the mega-rich is not the plush, hushed privacy, or the beds with comforters, or the massages, or the coriander-scented soap, or the Willie Wonka-style array of chocolates and jelly beans, or the Napa Valley cabernet.
It is the iPad that sits on a counter at the entrance, with a typed little note: “Here is a glimpse of what you’re missing over at the main terminal right now.”
The screen shows travelers hauling bags through packed terminals, queuing in long lines, looking harassed and being swallowed into pushing, shoving paparazzi scrums – routine hazards for the 80 million people who pass through LAX each year.
“There they process thousands of people at a time, they’re barking. It’s loud. Here it’s very, very lovely,” said Gavin de Becker, who runs the new terminal, called Private Suite.
He wasn’t wrong. The $22m facility, the first of its kind in the US, opens on Monday, giving the 1% a whole new way to separate themselves from everyone else’s reality.
Instead of battling the traffic jams that clog LAX you reach Private Suite via the Imperial Highway, leading to a discreet turn-off where an armed guard checks your identity and pushes a button. Tall grey gates open and you enter the haven.
It is pricey. In addition to annual membership of $7,500, you pay $2,700 per domestic flight and $3,000 per international flight. The cost covers a group of up to four people. If you aren’t a member, you pay $3,500 for a domestic flight and $4,000 for international flight for a group of up to three people.
The fact that the super rich and powerful have it so much better than everyone else is nothing new. It’s been that way in pretty much every society you can think of, whether capitalist or communist. The real sickening thing is that the geniuses behind this terminal thought it’d be a nice touch to add a screen from which oligarchs can watch and jeer at the unwashed masses. The idea clearly being that this would add to the experience and provide additional entertainment for the mega-rich. This speaks to a special type of demented self-satisfaction that is not representative of a healthy society.
That said, it doesn’t really surprise me, because as I noted in the recent post, Student Loans and Healthcare – Two Issues that Will Define American Politics Going Forward:
I have absolutely no problem with wealth differences within a society, even large discrepancies are fine as long as the general population benefits substantially from overall growth trends. This is not the case in today’s economy.
I support a real free market economy where barriers to entry are low, and in which small business and competition thrives. Unfortunately, this is not the case in today’s economy. Rather, America has largely become a neo-feudal society where a mass of debt slaves are lorded over by government protected, monopolistic, rent-seeking oligarchs and racketeers.
Societies work when people think the system is fair enough and have genuine opportunity for success and standard of living improvement. Societies work when the people who become fabulously wealthy are individuals who have created a product or service that benefits society at large. In contrast, people shouldn’t become wealthy by preying on their fellow citizens and driving them into destitution and debt bondage, but that’s precisely what is happening in many industries today. Our society rewards the worst sort of behavior, and as we observed in the aftermath of the financial crisis, protects and further empowers white collar criminals for destroying the global economy.
How long before they bring back the Colosseum?
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Michael Krieger
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“Then let them eat cake!” Ya, that worked out really well. Expect sooner or later there is going to be a backlash and my guess is that it’s going to be a very big one.
Except for the fact that “let them eat cakes” is fake infowar example. Said by different person, at different time, with different words and actually easened life of poor Parisienes. But that is exactly why that law had to be misquoted and demonised.
That’s why they purchased a billion hollow point bullets and thousands of AK47’s.
pdj, It’s not AK-47’s. It’s M-16’s and MP-5’s. The tons of hollow point ammo that can’t be used legally in warfare your right about though.
A person has lost their spirit when they are happy to watch the suffering of others. Nothing says an empty life more than this.
Encouraging people to devolve, to have no empathy for others, makes them perfect slaves for those even more powerful than themselves. When the time comes, they will be willing slaves.
This is something any person should stop doing. To destroy one’s own spirit is to destroy one’s very being. It strips meaning from one’s life to do this.
Joy in life comes from caring about others. They truly do not understand what living a good life means. That others cater to this pathetic and cruel impulse is itself repulsive. Once a person has experienced real caring for others, they won’t be manageable by the oligarchy. These people will be perfect zombies. Stop such madness!
Well said Jill. Many years ago I spoke to someone who regularly dealt with rich and powerful people. She told me that they were almost without exception some of the most unhappy people that she ever met.
Jill, You are indeed very ‘wealthy’ in your understanding of one of life’s greatest purposes.
“How long before they bring back the collesium?”
Michael: It’s already here. They call them stadiums.
Panem et circenses.
Tom, agreed. To include blood sport as in football.
Rocketman and BRF, I thought one of the best movies about this was Elysium.
The distinction between equality of opportunity Vs. outcome is lost on most people I’m afraid. We live in a ever more status-conscious, instant gratification, envious, and narcissistic society. Never will you hear, “Gee, I wish I had the opportunity and resources to build a great, successful business.” Instead it’s, “I wish I had me a ‘Benz and a big house!”
Thanks to the miracle of Financialization the trappings of success are indeed available right now — success not required. Or likely. And that’s one way the 1% profit off the rest. Not that I’m defending the raping and pillaging by the 1%, but we proles make their job a whole lot easier by buying into the celebrity-driven, bling culture. Projecting the appearance of a much higher station in life.
If you follow WolfStreet.com, he’s predicting a collapse of the automobile loan industry on the scale of the housing collapse a decade ago. So many sub-prime auto loans hanging out there, extended to so many who have no business taking on debt. And it’s a lot easier to repo a car than to foreclose on a house and recoup your losses.
” he’s predicting a collapse of the automobile loan industry on the scale of the housing collapse a decade ago” That’s going to be nothing compared to what is going to happen when the student loan debt crisis comes. Doug Casey likes to call the upcoming financial panic the “Greater Depression” and I think he’s right. Time to load up on gold and silver mining stocks people and pay attention because 95% of them in the market are nearly worthless.
Well, when the housing bubble burst people lost their (and I use the term “their” very loosely) homes. When the car bubble pops they will lose their way of getting to work. Hope they live on a bus line.
But who will be the loser when the student loan bubble collapses? I would think University, Inc. would be really nervous right now. How else can the average student afford $50k/yr. tuition & “fees”? So much for that new football stadium.
Unless of course they go after the defaulters themselves, force them into bankruptcy, and take their homes (if they were fortunate enough to find a job with their overpriced credentialization that paid enough to buy a house), or attach their wages (if they were lucky enough to find a job at all).
‘Member when the future was so bright we had to wear shades? Now we avert our eyes as it’s too painful to watch.
My comment was concerning the shear size of the student load debt which I believe I read somewhere was several times what the home moregage debt is going to be. And my comment concerning gold and silver mining has never been more important to safeguard what little the average person has..
You are correct to a certain extent but when the 1% make a conscious decision to deny wage increases to the working classes but extend credit…well I’m pretty sure you get the picture.
Yep, BRF. There’s a very old poker game saying that goes something like this… If you sit down to the table of a poker game where you don’t know any of the other players and play for fifteen minutes or so and can’t figure out who the sucker at the table is it’s because it’s you. The entire game is rigged from start to finish here in the USA and the best thing that you can do is to accept your losses and get up from the table and leave. That in a nutshell is my plan. I’m taking care of my invalid mother right now but at some point I won’t have that to worry about her any more and then I’m out of the USA. Probably either Chile or Paraguay.
“We live in a ever more status-conscious, instant gratification, envious, and narcissistic society.” Absolutely.
Like the frog in hot water, I suspect most westerners will resist rejection of our current corrupt, evil system to the last moment. Partially it’s FEAR of consequences, fear of any lose of “life style”.
Also, quite simply people can not IMAGINE what any alternative to a consumer life-style might be…our current western consumer society is 72 years old: it’s ALL most of us know….
Only a massive economic/environmental “hit” has a chance of wrecking (as PCR calls it) out insouciance.
The other issue is that the private firm is only paying $10,000/day to the airport. What about the logistical and personel costs associated with running a second terminal? Is the private firm also picking up the tab for that? My guess is that all costs for personel outside the converted hanger are picked up by LAX – at a loss.
They want to be the 21st aristocracy, which goes against the basic principles of the Untied States. I find it rather funny that they are freaking out over Trump’s election and Brexit. Their media propaganda isn’t working and people are getting bored with their faux protest groups over ridiculous issues. They use the same tactics Hitler and the Soviet Union used to control the masses. It didn’t work, because you can’t defeat individualism.
They live in fear when their globalization house of cards comes tumbling down.
Kay, you have to remember that those people are functionally insane. When confronted with facts and logic they NEVER back down. They only double down on their original ridiculous beliefs.
Well, didn’t the great Senator from Nevada, Baron Von Reid, once stated that, “..all tourists smell’?
Michael,
I suggest updating this post. The Guardian updated their article on May 16 to clarify the iPad was not a live feed, and if I understand correctly, was not a permanent feature. I know you strive not to intentionally mislead readers, but in my opinion, this post is misleading since the update from the source.
Travis
Well, if the 80-250 million of us stopped flying altogether, that would put a bee in the whole airline/financial/voyeur industry bonnet now wouldn’t it? Taken to another level, if we all stopped buying EVERYTHING and got by on necessities(water, food, shelter) then the rich wouldn’t be too rich for too long! Use your wallet/purse as a weapon against the tyranny!
Gavin de Becker? The guy who wrote books about serial killers??