Repulsed by the rich
It is past time to reclaim the value of compassion for the poor
Watching the clips of Pope Francis’ funeral reminded me of my only close friendship with a Catholic priest. Like Francis, he was a Jesuit. I wrote a column for The Day of New London in the early 1990s when Bernard J. Bush called me. He liked my column, he said, and wondered if we could meet. We soon did.
I was delighted with the wide-ranging nature of our conversations and his unflappable nature, despite my frequent criticism of the Church’s limited roles for women (“Maura,” he once sighed. “You are so hard on priests.”). My husband, too, liked him immediately and we formed an unlikely friendship, based on shared dinners and fueled by curiosity on both sides. We talked about the nature of good and evil and whether Satan existed. (Bernie said yes, and told several hair-raising stories to back it up.)
But it was our conversation about home financing and bank practices that remains fresh in my mind. One day, Bernie asked me to explain home mortgages. I laughed; despite his doctorate, he had never had to pay a mortgage and didn’t understand how it worked.
We then had bought three houses in 10 years, so I showed him our bank statements. When I pointed out the tiny amount of principle a homeowner pays to the bank for many years because banks front-load interest payments onto early years of the loan, he became outraged.
“That’s immoral,” he sputtered.
Absolutely, Pete and I agreed, or at the very least, unfair. But perfectly legal. It works out if a house rises in value. But if a home price drops – as had once happened to us – you may have to sell at a loss. Bernie remained utterly appalled.
I thought Bernie just a bit naïve at the time. It turns out, I am, too.
“Maura,” Bernie sighed. “You are so hard on priests.”
I realized this while watching a new show on Apple TV called, “Your Friends and Neighbors,” starring Jon Hamm. The series is an eye-opener. The plot, in a nutshell, is when a wealthy hedge fund manager (Andrew “Coop” Cooper) is fired, he doesn’t tell his ex-wife, or his kids, or his friends. Instead, to cover the bills, he begins to steal from residents in his old, ultra-exclusive neighborhood.
The series illustrates the lives of the rich by going beyond merely depicting the mansions, the luxury cars, the private schools, or the over-the-top nature of their frequent parties. It gets very, very specific. “Coop” is smart; when he steals, he only takes one thing amid the vast and opulent possessions of the uber-rich. He opens a drawer holding numerous watches and rolls of hundred-dollar bills. He ignores the money and instead takes a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5811 watch, worth $175,000. During a second heist, he takes a rare Richard Mille RM011 sports watch, worth $250,000. On another occasion, he steals one woman’s Hermes handbag, worth six figures. On his way to a party, he steals a bottle of chardonnay, worth $32,000.
Watching episodes that reveal of how the 1 percent spends money makes me every bit as appalled as was my friend Bernie was over mortgages so long ago. The idea that someone would buy a watch with a price tag that could send a dozen students to a community college or pay the bills of the food banks that are now struggling with federal cuts is, frankly, repulsive. Add to that revulsion is the fact that the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, gleefully crows about cutting off American aid to the poorest of the poor here and around the world to save pennies a person, even if they die as a result. That American voters have, with their eyes wide open, elected a billionaire president with the empathy of a crocodile is even more disgusting.
Of course, it’s a capitalist system and people with more money than I could ever imagine can do whatever they damn well please and always do. But I could not help but reflect on Pope Francis, who wore an iron cross rather than one made of silver or gold; how he lived in a humble room, shunning opulent papal apartments and how he took the subway when he was a cardinal in Buenos Aires.
We need more leadership like that. We could certainly use more moral outrage about the rich bastards in power in the United States who are molding government policy guided only by their narcissism and lack of morals and casting aside whatever shreds are left of American compassion.
Bernie moved to California to direct a retreat center and we were in contact only sporadically until his death in 2020. But he did send me a postcard in 2013 after the papal election.
“Francis has come just in time,“ he wrote.
Yes, he did. Would that we had more leadership like that.
I'm not Catholic but I loved Pope Francis and agree that his voice is sorely needed in this too-materialistic world. The church will be hard-pressed to do better.
When I lived and taught in Turkey, we lived across the street from the university in what by American standards would be a well-maintained housing project. We were happy there, knew our neighbors and felt a sense of community, as if we were exotic foreigners worth knowing. When we lived in the UAE, we "upgraded" to a villa but didn't know our neighbors or the locals, who lived in mansions behind walls. Too much wealth insulates people from community, IMHO.
I am nauseated by how often Trump tells his audiences, "we are going to be so RICH". He has no sense whatsoever that most people are not striving to be rich, they instead are striving to be secure. Many recognize the trappings of wealth. Trump equates the American Dream with extraordinary wealth.