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Malcolm Gladwell and Wendy Kaminer

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Re: "America's Most Wanted"

By Wendy Kaminer
Posted Thursday, June 11, 1998, at 3:05 PM ET

It is infuriating, isn't it, to see guys like Catacosinos hold up a public utility for millions of dollars. Even today, $42 million seems like real money.

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I wish I had a fix on public opinion about the enormous fortunes being accumulated today. Sometimes I think that many working and middle class people don't resent the new multi-millionaires, because they hope to be rich someday too, because the money culture fuels so many fantasies, because some celebrities enjoy the adoration of millions. (Michael Jordan deserves it all, my friends in Chicago tell me.) But sometimes I wonder how people cannot feel deprived or resentful stuck on the sidelines of what was once unimaginable wealth.

Meanwhile, not content simply to ignore the less affluent, Congress is in the process of restricting bankruptcy, making it harder for people to avoid paying the huge credit card bills they've incurred while struggling to keep up. The Republican sponsor of the House bill (which passed yesterday) declared himself " bored to tears" by claims that credit card companies were complicit in raising consumer debt. Supporters (mostly Republican) of the bill generally called for--what else--more personal responsibility by consumers. One Democratic opponent likened the credit card companies to drug pushers. It seems that nobody mentioned tobacco, but I'd say that the credit industry is about as forthright with consumers as tobacco companies. I'm all for personal responsibility, but my own notion of it includes not exploiting other people's self-destructiveness (except in a debate.)

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