Portrait of a one percenter

If the people at Occupy Wall Street were looking for a poster boy to represent everything they hate, they'd find the perfect example in Jon Corzine. Here is a guy who bought his way into politics and has now taken other people's money—no doubt including the life savings of a few people—and trashed every penny of it by playing stupid high stakes game.

He, however, is still rich. He is, in fact, entitled to a $12 million golden parachute even though he eliminated the bank he was working for from existence.

But what, you are asking, are this man's politics? Here they are:

Corzine stressed that the greatest underlying cause of the recession was the growing income inequality in the country. “Far too much of the commentary that I see [in the media] misses the point that the imbalances are still there and need to be dealt with,” he explained. 

What do you know, the certified one percenter wants exactly the same things the people protesting against one percenters want. And he's not the only one.

As I said yesterday,

Suppose you were a member of a committee studying rape on campus and you and your fellow committee members have come up with a list of recommendations designed to reduce incidence of rape. Now imagine to your shock that you discover that the campus rapists also have a committee and they have put together a list of things that would make it easier for them to commit and get away with rape and, to your even greater shock, that the thing at the very top of their wish list is exactly the same thing you have at the top of your list of things that would reduce rape.

By making a big thing of economic inequality the Occupy protests are playing right into the hands of the rich and powerful.