The Idle Rich
How and why?
The Bennetts, the D’Arcies, and the Binglies of Pride and Prejudice fame are classic and classical examples of the idle rich. They spent their time in mundane conversation, dancing, singing, or playing the pianoforte (all badly), sitting or taking turns around drawing rooms, being sport to their neighbors, and laughing at them in their turn.
That said, they are interesting in many ways.
For example, how and why did they come to being? Why were they tolerated? Even respected? Why was their class of people, a so stable part of English Society?
It took two world wars to dismantle them, and perhaps that also incompletely. Why?
The shallow answer goes something like this.
They had most of the country’s wealth, in an economy where there were no taxes. The law courts and the police were mostly organizations to protect them and their property. Religious organizations like the Church of England preached their virtue and value to the lower orders; that they were to be respected and emulated. And the said lower orders were beholden to them for employment, because like land they had a monopoly over jobs.
This state of affairs also resulted in several important schools of political thought.
Conservativism, for example. For it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want to conserve it.
And Capitalism. Those with the most land and treasure would most want to preserve the sanctity of private property.
The idea that the Idle Rich were superior to the working poor, paved the way to the idea that the West in general (and the British in particular) were superior to the East in general (and the peoples of their colonies in particular). Hence, in a sense, Colonialism and Imperialism were children of the Idle Rich.
The Idle Rich also used ideas like Social Darwinism to justify their own wealth and status, arguing that they had earned their position through their own merit and ability. They believed that the poor had not evolved to survive, and that the wealthy were the natural leaders of society.
In other words, the Idle Rich were hardly idle when it came to influencing the world and its thought. And clearly the Idle Rich had both God and science on their side. No mean feat.
But what of today?
Are the Idle Rich relics of the past or do they still exist? Who are they? What do they look like? What do they do? And do they still take turns around plush living rooms and play the pianoforte badly?
I’d like to suggest the idea of Generalized Idle Rich.
There are two parts to this idea: “Rich” and “Idle.”
Rich implies you are wealthy. Idle implies you don’t work as hard as you should. Thus, “Idle Rich” in a more general sense refers to anyone who doesn’t extract the most value out of the wealth that they already have.
Are you one of the Idle Rich?
