George Carlin - It’s A Big Club & You Ain’t In It!
George Carlin had a net worth of $10 million at the time of his death in 2008.
Adjusted for inflation that would be $14,653,441 in 2024.
The minimum net worth of the top 1% of households is roughly $13.7 million.
So, Carlin was in the “big club” of the 1%.
First, while 10 or 13 million is of course enough to be considered very rich, if every guy with 10+ million got to decide national policy it wouldn’t be much of an oligarchy. “The 1%” is a catchy soundbite but in reality it’s more like the 0.01% that’s the problem.
Second, even if that were the case, an advocate for the people is an advocate for the people. Bernie Sanders isn’t poor but he’s one of the most dedicated and effective advocates for the working class there is. You can be well off and still be working for the betterment of your fellow citizens. You probably can’t be a billionaire and still credibly fight for more equality though. Gets tough to explain hoarding that kind of wealth.
I’ve used this example before to try to make people understand your point:
10 million seconds is a little less than four months
10 billion seconds is over 300 years
Q: What’s the difference between 10 million dollars and a billion dollars?
A: Roughly a billion dollars.
Even if this was correct (see the comments about how it really isn’t), it wouldn’t matter much since he was still right.
And $10 million isn’t really that much, it’s still at the level where you have to budget income and expenses and money is tangible. The 1% of the 1% are the ones who are past that and leverage power with their worth, it’s no longer about whether or not they can afford anything.
years ago ten mil would have been big but around me their are over a million dollar houses and they are not exactly mansions.
class solidarity from Carlin; yet OP is a solidarity backstabber
We have seen a lot of this weird sentiment…
Brian Thompson is a working class hero
Luigi is a elite
Carlin is part of the of the club because he died with boomer type money…
He was rich but he didn’t control the capital nor did he shill the ruling class propaganda
Carlin wasn’t talking about money per say…he was talking about power and the way it’s wielded. Carlin had money, and more importantly, he had power. He had an entire generation’s attention, and man, did he use that power to do some good!
But he didn’t really have the kind of power of those that are in the big club. Carlin didn’t have the power to commit mass layoffs, commit genocides, nor commit mass injustice.
If you’re going to argue that Carlin was a hypocrite because he had a significant amount of money and therefore had no right to criticize those in the big club, then I’d argue back that you severely missed the point.
Those who have the power to directly fuck up massive amounts of people’s lives and livelihoods are in the big club, those that don’t aren’t. Carlin wasn’t in the big club. He could have a significant impact on the way you think about society, but that’s pretty much the extent of his influence.
$10 million is chump change on the scales we’re talking about.
That’s not a shower thought by a long shot. And you’re a class traitor. Go away.
The top 1% earn 650,000 a year. George Carlin doing standup for 50 years he would have earned 200,000 a year if you split that up equally over his career, and then there is the 21 years prior to his standup career.
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