An American Lion

When your family leaves you money, it’s not because of anything you did right or wrong. It’s either a blessing or a curse, depending on which side of the political spectrum you have aligned yourself.

I hear a lot of talk about how Democrats are the “progressive” party that eschews wealth. And yet, the sole reason why we are not getting any health care reform to speak of is because of the millions of dollars in campaign contributions that have flowed to key Democrat politicians. So, let me get this straight—Democrats don’t care about money, and Democrats want to help people live a better life, and yet we aren’t getting that because Democrats are taking money from drug companies and insurance companies? Can you run that by me again, please?

This is just navel-gazing, by the way. Self-centered, vacuous, overly-introspective navel-gazing:

“Those of us with wealth and progressive values resist the privilege and actually deny it because of this inequality that exists in society,” said [Burke] Stansbury, who has spent his time since college working for a nonprofit organization devoted to labor issues in Latin America.

“We’re not going to accept that form of privilege,” he said. “But when it comes to [my son’s] health care, we’re not going to mess around. You’re going to take advantage of [the money]. It’s a real blessing, but it’s not fair.”

The dinner in Adams Morgan was held at the home of a private school teacher who inherited $1.5 million. It was a rare chance for members of the Resource Generation, a nonprofit group whose 35-and-younger members devote themselves to philanthropic work for social justice, to talk about their guilt and their views on social inequalities without fear of eye-rolling from people who might view them as spoiled rich kids playing at helping the downtrodden.

“Can I share something on my mind?” asked Liz Goldberg, 25, a nonprofit development associate whose father is a partner at the consulting firm KPMG. “I have epilepsy, and I require certain things over the year. Most recently, it was an MRI, and I can’t afford it on my own, so I am forced to rely on my parents. I think of myself as independent, but I am not able to reconcile that payment.”

Janelle Treibitz, 28, a part-time waitress who performs with the Puppet Underground performance group, which raises money for grass-roots organizations, could relate.

“In Vermont [this year], I broke my finger and didn’t have insurance,” said Treibitz, whose father is chief executive of a Colorado company that designs visual presentations for court trials. “I got my X-ray and gave [the hospital] a fake name and walked out. Is that okay that I am doing that — taking up resources because I am refusing to take money from my parents?”

The problem with all of these people—and, no, I’m not going let the hilarity of someone whose admits in public that their career is to be a part of an underground puppet troupe pass me by—is that they have no idea how real people have to live their lives. Wealth has created opportunities for them to express some very noble and selfless ideals—and we should applaud them for giving something back. We veer into the ridiculous when someone fails to understand that real people don’t have the option of doing volunteer work, sticking their fist inside of a puppet, or stealing health care. Real people have to actually work for a living, and live without a safety net. Just because you want to be morally superior to everyone else doesn’t mean you can go do your puppet show and then turn around and give out a fake name and steal health care and get sympathy from a rich kids support group and not end up being mocked by a 65 year-old man who has a fabulous blog, miss.

One of the ancient poets had this to say about privileged kids and their over-indulgent sense of self-entitlement:

 

Very astute, and no navel-gazing there.