i think some of it is that we have levels of wealth in this country that make governance an abstraction to the wealthy. it just doesn't really matter to them who is in charge, even if they lose tremendous amounts of money under trump, it won't have an effect on their day to day lives.
It’s true. Even I am hugely insulated. Things like tech industry layoffs, high prices, none of these things affect me at all. There are of course things that would affect me and I’m not a dick and I read stuff and I care but basically nothing *directly* registers.
Rich people never cared. Their wealth is stashed in places that will ride out any chaos. Our economic meltdowns are caused by the greedy rich. Folks like Betsy DeVos are in an alternate reality. Who needs 10 yachts?
Turns out that the really dumb ones text to Chris Cillizza so he can write them up in his newsletter.
Also: money at that sort of volume is about power over people, not about buying things, and they view Trump as someone who will give them new and different ways to control people, even if bank number is abstractly lower
if you're sitting on a hundred million dollars right now and you never make another dime, you will live in unfathomable wealth for the rest of your life. you're only going to buy so many houses or private jets or vacation homes, and if you have that money now, you've already done that
That's what they think. But the rise of Putin did affect the earlier Russian oligarchs - they had to flee to London. The rich are prey to kleptocrats. They're just too short-sighted and "it can't happen here" to realize it.
I believe that they don’t care if everything goes to shit locally because they can just retreat to one of their villas in a country they haven’t soiled yet
And in this particular case if he’s doing things you don’t like you can just bribe him
Not to mention that a significant portion of their wealth is probably overseas, where a weak US economy might actually be to their benefit.
Good opportunity to buy up the carcasses when other businesses fail.