Drivers

Mr. One Percent (the name I've now given my boss) just got picked up by a driver to go to a meeting that is literally two blocks away. I can't tell you how much I wish I had Rob Lowe's Chris from Parks and Rec standing next to me to narrate this episode. To be a little bit fair, I think he hopped into the car of his former colleague who was being driven to said meeting from Baltimore. But...come. on. It's two blocks. TWO BLOCKS. There's some upheaval happening with the project I'm working on right now, and it's small comfort to see him coming a little bit unglued about how non-corporate America works. As in, we think about things, make decisions based on consensus and critical thought processes, etc. The end goal is not just profits--it's trying to provide good information and analysis based on a variety of factors. Hence the term think tank.

I work for the 1%

And I'm struggling with that. My boss is a great guy. He cares a lot about his family, often comments that he's "fortunate" to be in the position that he's in (he works pro-bono, and I'm his researcher and coordinator), and he's generally not awful. Which, if you live in DC, actually means something. But he's most certainly in the 1%. Maybe even the 0.1%, but I don't feel like doing that math. Twenty years as a corporate executive, he's made bank, and while you might not realize it if you just had a regular conversation with him, it's obvious when you realize he flies a lot, had a driver most of his career, and--get this--is having this boat built in England right now. To replace a different, slightly smaller, boat.

I'm decidedly in the 99%. I'm not below the poverty line by any means, but I've got a crap load of student loans and I'm what they used to call "underemployed" before so many people fit that description that (I think) we've shifted to considering only those with less-than-full-time work who want full time work underemployed. So, does it suck a little bit to know that your financial troubles are equivalent to a rounding error for your boss? Maybe. I don't begrudge people with money--if you've chosen a path and been successful at it, then congratulations. What I begrudge is the nonchalance with which those same people tend to speak of the rest of us. From person to person, the source of this attitude ranges from active distaste for the working and lower classes to blissful ignorance at the human impact of their megamillion dollar salaries paired with layoffs to "save the company". So, I work for the 1%. It feels a little bit like I'm betraying my people--I wish I was less willing to participate in the system that I, at least intellectually, agree is severely flawed.