Big Mike explains the deficit - but why do the rich think like they do?

I wrote this before the sit ins in Wall Street and the other protests around the world began on August 22, 2011. 

The last lines are a bit of a worry.

A key question here (see Big Mike Breaks the Deficit Down) is why the super rich think they deserve to pay less taxes and that deficits are reduced by removing social and medical welfare programs for the poor and less well off. I think it stems from the obsession that has arisen over measuring value in monetary terms - like the value of an executive is measured by the price of their firm's shares multiplied by the number of shares (usually billion and billions). Then the media loves to report how a firms value measured this way changes hourly, weekly, quarterly, annually etc. So if there is a minor speculatory blip in a share price from 4.30 to 5pm one day they can shout out that billions of value has just been destroyed! Oh yeah! Sack the executives responsible! How dare they destroy so much value in 30 mins of incompetent management activity. Did they go to the toilet or something, kept their eyes off the ball? And executives get to play a great value game of first you dont see it then you do. Start at time 1, an incoming top exec gives their assessment of their firm and its prospects. Be pessimistic, be critical of past practice and make sombre pronouncements about cost cutting and tough stuff. Hey the share prices went down - of course merely measuring the true value of the firm and informed by the top exec. Then we come to the end of the bonus assessment cycle. Do all in reverse - be optimistic, celebrate what a great executive you have been, strong growth if expected and the whole place has become so strong and is moving forward. Yeah! Oh and the share prices the next day (hour? minute? second?) go up. subtract value at time 1 from value at time 2 and you get an enormous number. Calculate my bonus please and send the money to my offshore account (or my good foundation for the good guys). And we know that the omniscient market knows all and takes account of all and so the share price is a real measure of value - after all some economists tell us that it is an efficient market.

So these executives and financial gamblers (who dont even have a real firm at all to play with) make off with billions and think they are really very smart people who create trillions in market value every minute of every day. We should appreciate them and celebrate them like elite athletes and popsingers. We should not tax them more or the same they did in the past. Instead we should make up deficits by taking value (=costs ie now rebadged) away from those who obviously produce no or very very little value compared to them. After all they only make things, clean things, service you and me, or cannot find a job to do anything meaningful at all. They should suffer and worship us as Gods. Ever heard of the French Revolution?