In the clueless rich boy department, this past week saw the release of video showing Presidential candidate Mitt Romney complaining to rich donors that 47% of Americans don’t pay any federal income tax. “My job is not to worry about those people””I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives,” Romney was further heard saying.
Clearly insinuating that the lack of personal responsibility is the reason why 47% of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes shows an extreme lack of economic sensitivity to the plights of millions.
But, it’s one thing for someone who grew up in the rarified air of affluent Bloomfield Hills to display his cluelessness about the economic situation of many Americans, it’s quite another for a man who grew up in the Macy Houses projects of Brooklyn to do the same.
In an interview with New York Times Style magazine, Jay-Z expressed little love for the now year old Occupy Wall Street movement.
“What’s the thing on the wall, what are you fighting for? I’m not going to a park and picnic, I have no idea what to do, I don’t know what the fight is about. What do we want, do you know?”
Jay-Z went on to further criticize the movement’s seemingly blanket demonization of the rich, explaining that many of the top 1% didn’t gain their riches by exploiting others, but by becoming entrepreneurs.
“Yeah, the 1 percent that’s robbing people, and deceiving people, these fixed mortgages and all these things, and then taking their home away from them, that’s criminal, that’s bad. Not being an entrepreneur. This is free enterprise. This is what America is built on.”
Hova’s comments have created quite the backlash, especially since Jay-Z’s Rocawear clothing line benefitted financially off the movement with it’s Occupy Wall Street themed clothing.
As many have asserted, Occupy Wall Street is not a blanket demonization of the rich, but a condemnation of the system that allows the very wealthy to influence the government to the detriment of the rest of us.
Close friend, Russell Simmons, went so far as to say the hip-hop mogul is “right 99 times, but this ain’t one.” On his website, the GlobalGrind, Simmons explained:
“So, Jay, here’s the deal. You’re rich and I’m rich. But, today it’s close to impossible to be you or me and get out of Marcy Projects or Hollis, Queens without changing our government to have our politicians work for the people who elect them and not the special interests and corporations that pay them. Because we know that these special interests are nothing special at all. In fact, they spend millions of dollars destroying the fabric of the black community and make billions of dollars in return
BMWK, Do you think Jay-Z is clueless about Occupy Wall Street, or does he have a valid point?