Economics: Lesson 150
Why do voters accept the riches of movie stars, but resent the riches of businessmen?
Everyone has a favourite movie star. Little children love certain cartoons, and adults love certain block buster actors. It isn’t often that you come across a person who says, my favourite person is the rich guy who invented the iPhone. And, it makes sense. People resent rich business men because they have made something for themselves. A man with a regular job can look at the rich guy who invented the iPhone and think that there is not much difference between them, and therefore grow envious.
Why didn’t I think of inventing the iPhone?
He’s not smarter than me!
We grew up in the same neighbourhood!
What makes him better than me?
People resent rich business men, because it looks like they are superior to everyone else. So then, why don’t they resent movie stars? They are some of the richest people in the world. It’s because movie stars represent the people. Most movies do well because people can relate to the story, the characters, and the actors. A person can look at a movie, see an actor, and think, he gets me. Actors don’t appear to be superior to regular people because they play regular people in the movies. Not only that, most actors publicize how much they don’t like rich businessmen and capitalism, and people love that.
louisa neudorf 