(CNSNews) - President Barack Obama told a gathering at Georgetown University on Tuesday that the problem isn't racial segregation, it's wealth segregation, manifested by "elites" who "are able to live together, away from folks who are not as wealthy."
"Kids start going to private schools," he said. (Just as he did and his own kids do.)
Once upon a time, the president noted, a banker lived in "reasonable proximity" to the school janitor; the janitor's daughter may have dated the banker's son; they may have attended the same church, rotary club, and public parks -- "all the things that stitch them together...contributing to social mobility and to a sense of possibility and opportunity for all kids in that community."
But now "concentrations of wealth" have left some people less committed to investing in programs that benefit the poor.
"And what's happened in our economy is that those who are doing better and better -- more skilled, more educated, luckier, having greater advantages -- are withdrawing from sort of the commons -- kids start going to private schools; kids start working out at private clubs instead of the public parks. An anti-government ideology then dis-invests from those common goods and those things that draw us together. And that, in part, contributes to the fact that there's less opportunity for our kids, all of our kids."
President Obama's two daughters attend an elite private school in Washington where tuition runs $37,750 ("includes hot lunch," the school's website notes). His wife and children ski at Aspen, an elite resort in Colorado. President Obama frequently golfs at exclusive private clubs. And the entire family takes summer vacations in a borrowed mansion in ritzy Martha's Vineyard or Hawaii.
But the president wasn't talking about himself or his family at Tuesday's Catholic-Evangelical Leadership Summit on Overcoming Poverty.
He was talking about hedge fund managers and corporate CEOS who now earn "thousands" of times more than the people who work for them. "Now, that's not because they're bad people," Obama said. "It's just that they have been freed from a certain set of social constraints."
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10 comments:
It is amazing how out of touch the President is with reality.
the children that are currently in the white house are going to private school, and a very expensive one at that. sounds like the kettle is calling the pot black (no pun intended).
If we are talking about elites and CEO of the Fortune 500 companies then we are talking about shipping jobs overseas. We are talking about using what amounts to slave labor and in some cases is slave labor. We are talking about shaving off a savings of 10-25 cents on the dollar with the bulk of that going into the pockets of ceo's without a thought given to the the people producing the product or reducing the cost to consumers.
All of these things were made possible by our politicians. We have become a country of Corporations ,run by Corporations for Corporations. And that needs to stop. Nobody I know really benefits from having 6 Walmart within a 30 mile radius of Salisbury. But I know an awful lot of people are put out of business by big box retailers. The American public is selling itself down the river so we can buy cheap crap we dont really need.
This worked so well for Baltimore, didn't it!
Obama wields as much if not more power than most CEO's. I find this double talk is all for political gain and nothing more.
not All that attend private schools are rich or the "elites". we sacrifice for our children to get this education.
B.O. is so clueless and loves to continue to divide the nation any way he can.
What a freaking hypocrite his own children go to a "club" school lol. More rhetoric from Boy Blunder
The president has a point and I don't think his statement is divisive, although the article tries to make it so. His private school experience aside, there are layers of stratification in our society that continue to widen. The elites are indifferent to the middle class and middle class problems. They have absolutely no idea of what it's like to live from paycheck to paycheck, sacrifice so their kids can get an education or fear the cost of a car repair. Yet these people are politicians, bankers, regulators, CEOs and even Union bosses and they make decisions every day that effect all of us. The middle class isn't real to them, much less the indigent. What's real to them is votes, stock prices and profit margins.
2:48 So you think Buffet, Gates, etal grew up rich and don't have any concept of being middle class or that the elites of yesterday are different than today?
Do as I say not as I do. lol. He thinks this will fly. What an a$$. map
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