Sometimes, when I saw an automobile with such a message, my first thought was how tacky to put such a cheap plastic boast of wealth on a vehicle that cost tens of thousands of dollars. But then I realized that, to paraphrase Marshall McCluhan, "the medium is the message." This is what this person is all about; "my greed makes me who I am, and I'm better and more valuable than you are in your cheap Ford."
This destructive confusion of one's worth as a human being with one's financial worth arose in my mind again yesterday when writing a commentary, "Five Reasons the 1% Do Not Want Unemployment to Decrease." After discussing a recent news kerfuffle over multi-millionaire Tom Perkins' assertion that the wealthiest are the most deserving -- in essence an Ayn Randian perspective on human value -- I noted:
There's a theory that the wealthy do believe that they are anointed. This speculation about their world view is not that different from the monarchies that democracies revolted against. It presupposes that the people of the world are set in sort of a pre-determined caste system. In this world view, those who inherit wealth (which is a high percentage of the super rich -- just look at the Walton and Koch heirs) are inherently more deserving of their billions. Those persons who ruthlessly claw their way to the top -- with money appearing to be their ultimate criteria for the value of their lives -- have been chosen to acquire fortunes because of their basic worthiness, this theory argues.
Comment: Psychopaths in Power and the Imminent Collapse of Global Society (It's all your fault!)