The Rich Are Different from You and Me 2
They have their own code of laws.
After pointing out that the root of the word “privilege” is the French for “private law,” Noah Smith bemoans the system of private law for the rich and white that he sees evolving in the United States. He supports his case with many examples. Here’s one (emphasis added):
“Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger’s profession, and that entered into it,” [prosecutor] Mark Hurlbert said. “When you’re talking about restitution, you don’t want to take away his ability to pay.
So a rich guy got a lighter sentence because a heavier sentence would prevent him from being rich. Obviously, this get-out-of-jail-free card isn’t available to someone from the middle class, even if he or she is white.
Smith’s mistake is thinking that there is anything new about the rich having private law, though the privilege of the privileged does seem to be increasing. As recently as the Savings and Loan scandal of thirty years ago, banksters went to jail for stiffing their customers; today they get bonuses.
Follow the link for the rest of Smith’s examples.
September 1, 2014 at 4:47 pm
“The U.S. is slowly becoming a country where income and race determine the degree to which a citizen is bound by the law of the land.” Of course Noah Smith had to write the bald-faced fib. If he wrote what he knew to be true — the US -is- a country where income and race etc — he might not have had it published in the whitey-run newspaper. And he might have ruffled some of the upper and upper middle class in important positions at his employer. One must give the well-heeled something to clutch in their comfortable life and belief that it really isn’t irretrievable yet.
September 1, 2014 at 10:41 pm
Give the man a break. At least he noticed.