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Author
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Topic: eat the elite
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otter
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 12062
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posted 22 February 2006 03:58 PM
I was going to reply to Auntie.com's post on 'elite' then decided that a separate thread was necessary A merriam-webster definition of elite:
the best of a class
This conjurs up memories of the Barbara Walters interview with Conrad Hilton. At one point Walters said to Hilton "it is rumoured that you make as much as one million dollars a day!". Walters appeared impressed by this amount of income. Hilton replied with a snort that he "could not live on a mere million a day!".
How many truck loads of trees from our dwindling forests does that represent, or boatloads of fish, or polluted landscapes does that income represent? Imagine one person comsuming - nay demanding - the resources for themselves that could sustain as many as 10,000 people in relative comfort or even 1,000 people in relative luxury? Conversely, how many of these arrogant billionaires are there in the world plundering the planets ever scarcer resources so that they can maintain their obscene lifestlyes?
From: agent provocateur inc. | Registered: Feb 2006
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Mr. Magoo
guilty-pleasure
Babbler # 3469
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posted 22 February 2006 04:23 PM
Assuming he was even accurate in claiming he could spend a million dollars a day, I would doubt that he's buying a million dollars worth of unrecycled paper products, or a million dollars worth of petroleum to burn, or what have you.More likely: a million dollar painting, a million dollars worth of stocks, etc. I've no doubt that a billionaire's "ecological footprint" is greater than most of ours, but not to the scale that this could erroneously suggest.
From: ĝ¤°`°¤ĝ,¸_¸,ĝ¤°`°¤ĝ,¸_¸,ĝ¤°°¤ĝ,¸_¸,ĝ¤°°¤ĝ, | Registered: Dec 2002
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Topic Closed
