Bill Maher New Rules - Great Gatsby, Wealth Gap in America
A new version of The Great Gatsby opened today, a fond look back at a
gilded age when the ... 1 in 4 Americans makes less than $10 an hour.
... if you can't believe the numbers are as bad as they seem in Bill
Maher's New Rule.
And finally, New Rule: since the average CEO now
makes $380 times the wage of the average worker, if you want to
modernize The Great Gatsby, don't just show the rich exploiting the
poor, show the rich eating them. (graphic of zombie eating human flesh)
Yes,
a new version of The Great Gatsby opened today, a fond look back at a
gilded age when the very rich ran their big pretty cars right over the
very poor. And that was supposed to make you sad — for the rich, or the
car, I can't quite remember.
But the point is, Gatsby isn't
really accurate for today, because the wealth gap now is so much more
profound than it was even in the 1920s. The average "sales" associate
at Walmart makes $8.81 an hour. While the six heirs to the Walmart
fortune are worth $90 billion (audience gasps) — the same as the bottom
130 million Americans. Yes, the have-nots are getting a lot
have-nottier.
And not just at Walmart. 1 in 4 Americans makes
less than $10 an hour. 146 million, about half the country, do not have
enough to meet basic needs. And I say if you don't want to pay people,
just go all the way and do what we do here in Hollywood, and call them
"interns". (audience laughter and applause)
Look at fast food
jobs. It used to be they were the extra jobs our kids would do to earn
money for gas and weed. So they weren't using up all of mom and dad's.
Adults worked actual jobs. But now, the economy is such that the fast
food jobs are the actual jobs. The median age of a fast food worker is
now 28. At the end of the order, they say, "Do you want one of my kids
with that?"
And they're the lucky ones. There's now a web
service called Seeking Arrangement.com that matches rich men with
cash-strapped college girls. He provides tuition money, and she
provides "companionship". It's one hand washing the other — only in the
case of one of the hands, it's a penis.
Or Google the words
"McDonald's prostitute", and you'll see stories about women being
arrested for offering sex in exchange for a Happy Meal. Google "self
surgery", and you'll see people operating on themselves, because they
have no health care. Families are literally eating cat food. I mean,
something is really not right when the kids hear the can opener, and
start rubbing themselves against your shin.
And the older kids?
42% of recent college grads live in the houses they grew up in, because
they cannot afford rent anywhere else. And it's really creepy when
you're a co-ed trolling for a sugar daddy on SeekingArrangement.com, and
you get an IM from your actual dad downstairs saying, "Damnit, honey,
I'm already paying your rent!" (audience groaner)
There was a
story recently about a Georgia man whose home was in foreclosure,
savings running out. So he called 911, and when the responders arrived,
he took them hostage. His demand? Getting his electricity turned back
on. Now I'm not saying that's a smart approach, but squeezing people
economically so tight, that they go all Django Unchained, that's not
smart either.
If you're rich, you should be begging the
government to redistribute your wealth. 'Cause you know what happens in
countries where there's a huge disparity between the rich and the poor?
The rich get kidnapped. It happens 72 times a day in Mexico. Getting
snatched out of your car is so common in South Africa, that they
actually make cars that do this.
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