"There is a perception that money can immunise you against mental-health problems when actually, I believe that wealth can make you – and the people closest to you – much more susceptible to them.... Too many of my clients want to indulge their children so 'they never have to suffer what I had to suffer' while growing up.... An over-indulged child develops into an entitled adult who has low self-confidence, low self-esteem, and a complete lack of grit.... There are few people in the world to whom they can actually relate, which of course leads to a lack of empathy.... When one leads a life without consequences (for being rude to a waiter or cruel to a sibling, for example) there really is no reason to not do these things. After a while, it becomes normalised and accepted. Living a life without rules isn’t good for anyone.... I was raised in a small town in rural Kentucky, solidly in the middle class. And it can be very difficult to watch these individuals struggle with the toxicity of excess, isolation and deep mistrust. Succession is a dramatised version of the world they operate in – it is made for television and part of its purpose is to give audiences the pleasure of watching the wealthy struggle. But for someone who has worked with them, I know that their challenges are real and profound."
I don't watch "Succession," and I don't think I would, even if I still had HBO, but I looked at a trailer for Season 3. Rich people and their problems. It's fiction, so of course the characters have problems. You invent characters and you load them with problems.
But what I read between the lines at The Guardian is: Go ahead. Tax the hell out of the rich. You'll be doing them a favor.
Our observation. They are just like everyone else. Collectively, no better, no worse...
...but most of us can't relate- all of them struggle with their wealth when it comes to their children. What to tell their young kids about how much they have, how to teach them about the responsibilities of wealth, how much to leave them, are big questions.
Most interesting: Some of the kids are making their own money and have said they want none of it.
"But for someone who has worked with them, I know that their challenges are real and profound."
But not as real and profound as the challenges of the non-wealthy.
"Low levels of household income are associated with several lifetime mental disorders and suicide attempts, and a reduction in household income is associated with increased risk for incident mental disorders."
"A growing body of evidence, mainly from high-income countries, has shown that there is a strong socioeconomic gradient in mental health, with people of lower socioeconomic status having a higher likelihood of developing and experiencing mental health problems."
I am looking at the video, thinking "what the heck does Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa have to do with anything in this article"?
And then I see it's the "I still love you" scene, and I'm even more confused.
I click play out of desperation and then realize you've linked to the middle of the scene. Before Bogart says anything, I finally get it, "go ahead and shoot. You'll be doing me a favor."
Any post with a scene from Casablanca is a good one. Thanks, Professor.
It's a selective process, and those who can handle it create sustaining generational wealth, and those who can't, have kids working in retail by the second following generation.
Seems like, they're Not saying that Making money is bad, but that inheriting it is bad
But! if you're Not going spend your money on your kids (or, leave it to your grandkids) What is the point of Making money?
And encouraging people to Not make money, means encouraging people Not to create If it weren't for Billionaires, there's a lot of things that would never have been created
"Go ahead. Tax the hell out of the rich. You'll be doing them a favor."
You'll be doing the severely undertaxed American poor and middle class an even bigger favor by taxing them more, following the example of the superior Europeans. For the sake of solidarity, personal responsibility, shared sacrifice for the common good. Plus their own mental health, of course. Too much money is a dangerous thing; let the wealthy suffer for the rest of us.
Money is a tool. It can be a very useful tool if used properly and a very destructive tool if used improperly. It all depends on how you view the wealth and opportunity your money brings. For the super rich, it's about power, and money is ow you keep score. Which is not conducive to mental health.
The first 2 seasons of Succession were like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous meets the world's worst family. The lavishness was visually stunning. Season 3 is just the world's worst family sitting in a room saying "fuck you!" to each other. It's barely watchable.
An anecdote: In the latter half of the 1970s in Jacksonville, FL, I worked summers between college as a cashier in a restaurant serving the general public, (a steakhouse called BREWMASTERS). One of the waitresses there worked lunch shifts at the Yacht Club downtown whose membership/clientele were the city's wealthy. She told me once that all the adults she served there were drunks and their kids (teens and older) were fucked up on drugs. She described one dowager in expensive finery who peed herself at the dining table...who did not excuse herself to tidy up in the bathroom, but who remained sitting in her urine-soaked clothing (and chair).
The really happy rich people don’t go to therapists any more than other happy people do. The miserable ones tend to have plenty of time on their hands.
Despite wearing “Tax the Rich” designer gowns and talking endlessly about rigged systems that favor millionaires and billionaires the current BBB bill that the House just passed has a huge giveaway to the ultra-rich who pay more than $10,000 in state and local taxes, exempting them from Federal taxes. This is exactly how Warren Buffet gets away with paying less taxes than his maid. There’s a cap on “soaking the rich,” and the two reasons the lying Democrats do it is to reverse yet another common sense reform implemented by Trump and because Democrats are beholden to the richest 1% to fund their robbery of the middle class. Every policy makes it harder on the middle class and easier for their well to do buddies.
Yes, TV series often pile on ideas to push their message. It is a good reason in favor of older movies and TV series before the media started overloading programs with progressive ideas which aren't central to middle class America thinking.
This guy’s gimmick is that he will walk around Central Park and talk through your problems for $600 per session. Maybe he has a few billionaire clients, but this op-ed doesn’t read as very good marketing to that segment. It seems more likely that his target niche is children of the more moderately wealthy.
May I second the motion on Bergman's breathtaking beauty in Casablanca? I vividly remember the first time I saw that film, half a century ago, more than half a lifetime ago.
The stock market has been very, very good to me. I don't know what to do with the money now, I was not brought up that way. It's not so easy to change miserly habits of a lifetime. But I'll think of something.
None of this is news to anyone in human history. That said, Succession is a great show and you won't glean much from a Trailer of it without the context of knowing the characters. But we do know the characters.
They may be surnamed Roy, as in the fictional Succession family, or Kennedy, or Pelosi, or Getty, Pritzker, Sulzberger, Murdoch, but they all have that 'we-are-above-you-all-and-because-of-that-we-can-act-out-like-aliens-and-you-have-to-watch-it' sort of attitude. The difference is that so many of them have actually jumped into politics, when historically they used to just wield the power behind the politics.
BTW- I read that Nancy Pelosi just bought a $25million dollar 3rd or 4th home- this one on the Florida coast. Apparently not worrying about the rising seas, the lower taxes, the lack of mask mandates and lockdowns, or Gov. Ron DeSantis. And, Nancy's children have led interesting, well-connected lives. Interesting as in- "Hey...how'd she get to make that documentary when real documentary makers cannot get any backing?"
Succession is an absurdist comedy that some people (apparently including the guy who wrote it) think is scathing social commentary. I haven't seen the third season, but I did enjoy the first two as the usual stupid trash TV.
FTA: "When one leads a life without consequences (for being rude to a waiter or cruel to a sibling, for example) there really is no reason to not do these things. After a while, it becomes normalised and accepted. Living a life without rules isn’t good for anyone."
Very true. And it doesn't have anything to do with money. Some parents (rich and poor and middle class) allow their kids to be mean to each other without consequence. Some parents (rich and poor and middle class) are abusive to waiters and model crappy behavior to their kids.
Money is not dirty, shameful, guilty or fearful. People can be, though. All kinds of people.
In a system that lacks extensive and severe oversight against government corruption, taxing the rich is not a moral solution. Lots of reasons for this, but the relevant one for this post is that taxes fund the dissolution of politician's children. If struggle results in better character, we need to close the spigot of what politicians can use to get wealthy. The less money they control the less the other rich will feed their corruption and the better their families will be.
Think of the children,Althouse! It's too late for Hunter, but maybe there's hope for the wastrels of future politicians.
"BTW- I read that Nancy Pelosi just bought a $25million dollar 3rd or 4th home- this one on the Florida coast"
Pelosi is what real white supremacy looks like, her whole heritage and family is that, the evil of which causes the blame and spotlight to turn elsewhere while she not only continues in lavish privilege but does so while convincing POC to kill and segregate themselves for her lust for power. She feeds on their blood for her livelihood while acclaimed for her moral stands that lead to ever more suffering, like the worst of medieval popes.
Succession is not just about rich people problems. It is King Lear for a modern age. The money and power are there. But they have become proxies for love, affection and affirmation in a very dysfunctional family.
The themes are universal. A friend of mine (a Marquette student) had his trust and estates professor write the following equation on the black board on the first day of class: Family + Money = Litigation.
Of course, the same thing happens many families without billions. How many families have hard feelings after grandma left her Hummel collection to her favorite grandchild? How many divorces are unduly prolonged over issues of personal property? I am sure the right Westlaw search could come up with any number of reported appellate cases fought over comparatively worthless property.
But what I read between the lines at The Guardian is: Go ahead. Tax the hell out of the rich. You'll be doing them a favor.
Except, as I pointed out yesterday, BuildBackBetter provides a tax subsidy worth thousands of dollars that is maximally exploited by people with taxable income between $350,000 and $900,000. It was Donald Trump who eliminated the state and local tax (SALT) deductions and closed loopholes for the rich, resulting in the lowest taxes and best economy for people at the bottom of the economic ladder since World War II (if not even further back).
If I had a therapist (actually, I do, but he doesn't write editorials), and he wrote something like this, I'd drop him immediately. Even though he's speaking in generalizations, he's still discussing the private lives of those who entrust him with confidential information. Also, he gives a "when you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail" vibe. Maybe he attracts the kind of patients who fit this description. But I've known a few wealthy people in my life, who are stable, and mentally healthy, and who do a good job with their kids.
Echo Temujin. Succession is a delight to watch. The plots are secondary, and it's not just "Oh look how miserable really rich people can be." (That's how I felt about White Lotus.) The actors and the characters they play are just wonderful. Kieran Culkin alone is worth the price of admission.
This reminds me of Francisco d'Anconia’s Speech on Money from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)
"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil? (it continues)
"We should confiscate all wealth over $100 million."
And do what with it? Which part of the "wealth"? The investment holdings? Or the houses? Maybe the yachts and planes? Or perhaps the sports teams? Maybe nationalize Bill Gates' land holdings in the several states? Then do what with them? Auction them off, where they will be purchased by....more wealthy people? Maybe we can just do that over and over and I'm sure there would be no negative consequences of arbitrarily confiscating "wealth".
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves.Ernest Hemingway offered up his even more famous response, in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”: The rich were dull and they drank too much or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were repetitious. He remembered poor Julian and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that began, “The very rich are different from you and me.” And how someone had said to Julian, “Yes, they have more money.”
Money is a negotiable currency, to pay taxes, debts, and to purchase disparate services and goods. Perhaps we should return to the "chicken and egg" standard.
Clay Cockerel does a lot of self-promotion. This article is part of his advertising. I wonder if it will hurt or help his business. I guess outdoor therapy on the move might not be a bad thing, but I'd like my therapist to not be so desperately on the make.
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Our observation. They are just like everyone else. Collectively, no better, no worse...
...but most of us can't relate- all of them struggle with their wealth when it comes to their children. What to tell their young kids about how much they have, how to teach them about the responsibilities of wealth, how much to leave them, are big questions.
Most interesting: Some of the kids are making their own money and have said they want none of it.
Good God. Ingrid Bergman was beautiful.
As the latest shitty Marvel movies hit the big screen, I’m grateful for Yellowstone and Beth Dutton.
"But for someone who has worked with them, I know that their challenges are real and profound."
But not as real and profound as the challenges of the non-wealthy.
"Low levels of household income are associated with several lifetime mental disorders and suicide attempts, and a reduction in household income is associated with increased risk for incident mental disorders."
"A growing body of evidence, mainly from high-income countries, has shown that there is a strong socioeconomic gradient in mental health, with people of lower socioeconomic status having a higher likelihood of developing and experiencing mental health problems."
I am looking at the video, thinking "what the heck does Ingrid Bergman as Ilsa have to do with anything in this article"?
And then I see it's the "I still love you" scene, and I'm even more confused.
I click play out of desperation and then realize you've linked to the middle of the scene. Before Bogart says anything, I finally get it, "go ahead and shoot. You'll be doing me a favor."
Any post with a scene from Casablanca is a good one. Thanks, Professor.
It's a selective process, and those who can handle it create sustaining generational wealth, and those who can't, have kids working in retail by the second following generation.
Seems like, they're Not saying that Making money is bad, but that inheriting it is bad
But! if you're Not going spend your money on your kids (or, leave it to your grandkids)
What is the point of Making money?
And encouraging people to Not make money, means encouraging people Not to create
If it weren't for Billionaires, there's a lot of things that would never have been created
"Go ahead. Tax the hell out of the rich. You'll be doing them a favor."
You'll be doing the severely undertaxed American poor and middle class an even bigger favor by taxing them more, following the example of the superior Europeans. For the sake of solidarity, personal responsibility, shared sacrifice for the common good. Plus their own mental health, of course. Too much money is a dangerous thing; let the wealthy suffer for the rest of us.
Money is a tool. It can be a very useful tool if used properly and a very destructive tool if used improperly. It all depends on how you view the wealth and opportunity your money brings. For the super rich, it's about power, and money is ow you keep score. Which is not conducive to mental health.
The first 2 seasons of Succession were like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous meets the world's worst family. The lavishness was visually stunning. Season 3 is just the world's worst family sitting in a room saying "fuck you!" to each other. It's barely watchable.
An anecdote: In the latter half of the 1970s in Jacksonville, FL, I worked summers between college as a cashier in a restaurant serving the general public, (a steakhouse called BREWMASTERS). One of the waitresses there worked lunch shifts at the Yacht Club downtown whose membership/clientele were the city's wealthy. She told me once that all the adults she served there were drunks and their kids (teens and older) were fucked up on drugs. She described one dowager in expensive finery who peed herself at the dining table...who did not excuse herself to tidy up in the bathroom, but who remained sitting in her urine-soaked clothing (and chair).
The really happy rich people don’t go to therapists any more than other happy people do. The miserable ones tend to have plenty of time on their hands.
Despite wearing “Tax the Rich” designer gowns and talking endlessly about rigged systems that favor millionaires and billionaires the current BBB bill that the House just passed has a huge giveaway to the ultra-rich who pay more than $10,000 in state and local taxes, exempting them from Federal taxes. This is exactly how Warren Buffet gets away with paying less taxes than his maid. There’s a cap on “soaking the rich,” and the two reasons the lying Democrats do it is to reverse yet another common sense reform implemented by Trump and because Democrats are beholden to the richest 1% to fund their robbery of the middle class. Every policy makes it harder on the middle class and easier for their well to do buddies.
Yes, TV series often pile on ideas to push their message. It is a good reason in favor of older movies and TV series before the media started overloading programs with progressive ideas which aren't central to middle class America thinking.
This guy’s gimmick is that he will walk around Central Park and talk through your problems for $600 per session. Maybe he has a few billionaire clients, but this op-ed doesn’t read as very good marketing to that segment. It seems more likely that his target niche is children of the more moderately wealthy.
May I second the motion on Bergman's breathtaking beauty in Casablanca? I vividly remember the first time I saw that film, half a century ago, more than half a lifetime ago.
The stock market has been very, very good to me. I don't know what to do with the money now, I was not brought up that way. It's not so easy to change miserly habits of a lifetime. But I'll think of something.
Lucien makes a Great Point when he said...
The really happy rich people don’t go to therapists any more than other happy people do
It IS Interesting; how MOST of the people that go to therapists are unhappy
If you're an expensive therapist; probably will see a lot of rich people
None of this is news to anyone in human history. That said, Succession is a great show and you won't glean much from a Trailer of it without the context of knowing the characters. But we do know the characters.
They may be surnamed Roy, as in the fictional Succession family, or Kennedy, or Pelosi, or Getty, Pritzker, Sulzberger, Murdoch, but they all have that 'we-are-above-you-all-and-because-of-that-we-can-act-out-like-aliens-and-you-have-to-watch-it' sort of attitude. The difference is that so many of them have actually jumped into politics, when historically they used to just wield the power behind the politics.
BTW- I read that Nancy Pelosi just bought a $25million dollar 3rd or 4th home- this one on the Florida coast. Apparently not worrying about the rising seas, the lower taxes, the lack of mask mandates and lockdowns, or Gov. Ron DeSantis. And, Nancy's children have led interesting, well-connected lives. Interesting as in- "Hey...how'd she get to make that documentary when real documentary makers cannot get any backing?"
Go ahead. Tax the hell out of the rich. You'll be doing them a favor.
Actually, you'd be doing the government a favor. (Or favour, since it's the Grauniad.)
Succession is an absurdist comedy that some people (apparently including the guy who wrote it) think is scathing social commentary. I haven't seen the third season, but I did enjoy the first two as the usual stupid trash TV.
FTA: "When one leads a life without consequences (for being rude to a waiter or cruel to a sibling, for example) there really is no reason to not do these things. After a while, it becomes normalised and accepted. Living a life without rules isn’t good for anyone."
Very true. And it doesn't have anything to do with money. Some parents (rich and poor and middle class) allow their kids to be mean to each other without consequence. Some parents (rich and poor and middle class) are abusive to waiters and model crappy behavior to their kids.
Money is not dirty, shameful, guilty or fearful. People can be, though. All kinds of people.
If he's a therapist to the super-rich then while not super he's definitely rich himself.
In a system that lacks extensive and severe oversight against government corruption, taxing the rich is not a moral solution. Lots of reasons for this, but the relevant one for this post is that taxes fund the dissolution of politician's children. If struggle results in better character, we need to close the spigot of what politicians can use to get wealthy. The less money they control the less the other rich will feed their corruption and the better their families will be.
Think of the children,Althouse! It's too late for Hunter, but maybe there's hope for the wastrels of future politicians.
"BTW- I read that Nancy Pelosi just bought a $25million dollar 3rd or 4th home- this one on the Florida coast"
Pelosi is what real white supremacy looks like, her whole heritage and family is that, the evil of which causes the blame and spotlight to turn elsewhere while she not only continues in lavish privilege but does so while convincing POC to kill and segregate themselves for her lust for power. She feeds on their blood for her livelihood while acclaimed for her moral stands that lead to ever more suffering, like the worst of medieval popes.
Money is seen as dirty and secret. Money is awkward to talk about. Money is wrapped up in guilt, shame, and fear.
Hey, not every rich person wipes his or her ass with $100s.
So Nancypants is fleeing the Golden State to avoid the very taxes she gladly inflicted on the rest of us? How perfectly in character can you get?
Money is great...I like it a lot.
But of all the rich people I know, the more 'normal' ones are the ones who earned it themselves.
I often run into an older multi-billionaire when I shop. I always say hello and he is always very pleasant.
He started as a salesman and went on the found two gigantic companies most of you have heard of, so he earned it all himself.
He shops for his own groceries and drives a Camry hybrid : )
Professor:
Succession is not just about rich people problems. It is King Lear for a modern age. The money and power are there. But they have become proxies for love, affection and affirmation in a very dysfunctional family.
The themes are universal. A friend of mine (a Marquette student) had his trust and estates professor write the following equation on the black board on the first day of class: Family + Money = Litigation.
Of course, the same thing happens many families without billions. How many families have hard feelings after grandma left her Hummel collection to her favorite grandchild? How many divorces are unduly prolonged over issues of personal property? I am sure the right Westlaw search could come up with any number of reported appellate cases fought over comparatively worthless property.
But what I read between the lines at The Guardian is: Go ahead. Tax the hell out of the rich. You'll be doing them a favor.
Except, as I pointed out yesterday, BuildBackBetter provides a tax subsidy worth thousands of dollars that is maximally exploited by people with taxable income between $350,000 and $900,000. It was Donald Trump who eliminated the state and local tax (SALT) deductions and closed loopholes for the rich, resulting in the lowest taxes and best economy for people at the bottom of the economic ladder since World War II (if not even further back).
@MJB Wolf, I apologize for accidentally overlooking your similar comment.
If I had a therapist (actually, I do, but he doesn't write editorials), and he wrote something like this, I'd drop him immediately. Even though he's speaking in generalizations, he's still discussing the private lives of those who entrust him with confidential information. Also, he gives a "when you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail" vibe. Maybe he attracts the kind of patients who fit this description. But I've known a few wealthy people in my life, who are stable, and mentally healthy, and who do a good job with their kids.
Echo Temujin. Succession is a delight to watch. The plots are secondary, and it's not just "Oh look how miserable really rich people can be." (That's how I felt about White Lotus.) The actors and the characters they play are just wonderful. Kieran Culkin alone is worth the price of admission.
Round up the usual suspects.
I find the "Super rich" incredibly boring. We should confiscate all wealth over $100 million. But oh no's RC, that will destroy their incentive. LOL
This reminds me of Francisco d'Anconia’s Speech on Money from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957)
"So you think that money is the root of all evil?" said Francisco d'Anconia. "Have you
ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist
unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material
shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and
give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by
tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by
the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
(it continues)
"We should confiscate all wealth over $100 million."
And do what with it? Which part of the "wealth"? The investment holdings? Or the houses? Maybe the yachts and planes? Or perhaps the sports teams? Maybe nationalize Bill Gates' land holdings in the several states? Then do what with them? Auction them off, where they will be purchased by....more wealthy people? Maybe we can just do that over and over and I'm sure there would be no negative consequences of arbitrarily confiscating "wealth".
And who is "we"? The Federal government? States?
Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me. They possess and enjoy early, and it does something to them, makes them soft where we are hard, and cynical where we are trustful, in a way that, unless you were born rich, it is very difficult to understand. They think, deep in their hearts, that they are better than we are because we had to discover the compensations and refuges of life for ourselves.Ernest Hemingway offered up his even more famous response, in “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”:
The rich were dull and they drank too much or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were repetitious. He remembered poor Julian and his romantic awe of them and how he had started a story once that began, “The very rich are different from you and me.” And how someone had said to Julian, “Yes, they have more money.”
I'll take Misery for a billion, Ken.
You mean no happy rich people go see this Zippy the Pinhead therapist?
Money is a negotiable currency, to pay taxes, debts, and to purchase disparate services and goods. Perhaps we should return to the "chicken and egg" standard.
Clay Cockerel does a lot of self-promotion. This article is part of his advertising. I wonder if it will hurt or help his business. I guess outdoor therapy on the move might not be a bad thing, but I'd like my therapist to not be so desperately on the make.
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