Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on Our Civil Religion

by Lewis H. Lapham

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555841090
• ISBN13: 9781555841096
• Release Date: January 1988
• Publisher: Grove/Atlantic
• Length: 244 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Rich culture, the consumption, the pilgrimage, the remaking oneself

Observation 1: The rich believe schools serve the social order and, quite properly, promote the habits of mind necessary to the maintenance of that order. What does it mean to graduate from Harvard or Yale? Graduation from Yale is the ticket too a high paying career. The student is expected to parrot the language and opinions and ideas of the professor rather than introduce his own ideas, analysis, and language. Observation 2: The children of the rich will comfort themselves with the dreams of power, innocence, and grace. The rich are not "materialist", instead, they are dreamers on a journey to the promise land, "pilgrims". First, the materials are used to remake their lives. "All status is temporary, all states of being are conditional." The desire is to be accepted in the "exclusive party". "The fear of sinking in the world drives consumption, "maybe the weight of their acquisitions will prevent them from drifting off into the void, or relieve them of their anxiety, or buoy them up to the sufferings of job", says Tocqueville. Second, American believes movement in itself means something. They are not convinced that settlement is desirable. About 20 percent of the population shifts its household every year. Money attaches itself to velocity, to the changing of occupations every six to seven years. Third, "Without a deal or a business relation held in common, Americans discovered they have little to say to each other." Consumption, greed, opulence, and sexual conquest form the nucleus of a high society. The rich associate with the rich, yet they despise each other hoping for the others death or bankruptcy. The rich value themselves above all possessions. The rich believe their personal value above moral law and human decency and so they find opportunity to slander people and break laws, disgustingly buy women for pleasure, and criticize the dinginess of the poor and middle class. The rich have souls empty as space. The rich put on the appearance of concern and friendship but rejoice in the misfortune of all those they envy. The rich do not believe in charitable helping the poor rather they despise the poor and block them out with expensive security system, amour cars, and body guards. The rich view the poor as the enemy and look down on them with harsh adjective criticism. Observation 3: Your never poor until you have $10 million. The price of membership for the rich lifestyle has its costs: unbridled competitive animosity, illusionary reality, and the voracity of consumption that is all encompassing taking in exclusive communities (rolling hill or Jupiter Island), cultured oriented private schools, expensive lawyers and accountants, high visibility golf club membership, plurality of toys and gadgets for the children, and complex taxes. The rich believe they are the world's gift - success, beauty, happiness, and fame. The illusion of unlimited means has done its damage. "All respondents say that if only they could accumu

All You Need Is Cash

Written in the 1980s when Reaganmania ruled, this book is just as apt for today. Lapham comes from the moneyed class, but he does not take their side. Instead, he offers insights into The Inheritors and The Parvenu from a perspective the rest of us will never attain. The chapter titles alone are worth the read:"The Golden Horde", "Social Hygiene", "Coined Souls". His wit is wonderfully displayed whether he's taking on the bored and clueless trust fund babies or the so-called poor who spend as if they actually have money. America's infatuation with wealth and material accumulation is indeed our civic religion.