The ultra-rich are having a hard time.
First, local baron Tom Petters, who does not look good in an orange jumpsuit, was charged with bilking billions. Then Bernie Madoff made Petters look like a piker. Now comes John Thain, who passed out billions in bonuses just as his company, Merrill Lynch, was taken over by Bank of America. The bank has taken $45 billion in bailout money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program -- including $20 billion a week ago -- to acquire Merrill Lynch and keep it from tanking.
Hey, all our assets are hurting.
In some countries, this is when the limos get set on fire by mobs who feed the capitalists to the crocodiles. But in America, it is the peaceful absence of riotous mayhem that says something very important about us.
Despite all the screaming on talk radio, most of us actually agree about how this country should operate and what the government should do -- or not do. Amazingly, there seems to be a deep consensus among the public about the mess we're in and the need to do something to protect the average family from being hurt in the fallout of the economic meltdown.
But don't take it from me.
Take it from two professors who study this stuff, including Lawrence (Larry) Jacobs, the politics and government guru at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute. Jacobs and Benjamin I. Page, a professor at Northwestern University, have studied seven decades of public opinion research to find out why our limos remain flame-free at a time of economic distress and insecurity.
Their findings are outlined in a book titled "Class War?," which will be published by the University of Chicago Press in April. Sub- titled, "What Americans Really Think About Economic Inequality," the book argues that despite the corruption at the top, Americans -- including most of the wealthy -- believe government should help the needy, especially with challenges such as poverty, ill health or unemployment.