it's all about status quo

I just read an article in the New York Times about how even the rich, or slightly less rich due to the faltering economy, are a bit distressed. The article does mention that no one will shed tears over their woes, but it's fair to say that I think most people haven't given a thought as to how this is affecting the wealthy.

Perhaps a change from 20 million to 2 million doesn't seem as bad to the families struggling to stay middle class, but what it comes down to is change and keeping face. The article mentions random things like fear of spouses leaving and getting divorced because they may have married somewhat for the money. What I found more interesting is that most of the rich were not worried about not being able to eat or have a place to live, but they were worried about other people catching on. It seems that even the common democracies has its pharoahs, and the common people are not meant to see that they are at all vulnerable to things that affect us. The article mentioned taking out loans before art shows just to make it seem like they were going to buy a painting, when in reality they needed the money.

Do we need the upper class to stay that way? What would really happen to the public mindset if we knew that the moneybags of our society were also being affected by the national money problem?

I think that even though the masses are obsessed with tabloid stories of celebrities and the high and mighty falling...that the rich having money, something that has to be true by definition, gave the public reassurance that the money was somewhere. No matter what your income, a making a fifth of what you used to is no joke.