you know, all this stuff is fun. my question to you is, you have in the u.k. you and i have discussed this before, one of the most ridge idly class bound societies. and you have this monarchy that thrives. there are monarchies in other countries that don t get the same level of attention. it s interesting having lived in the unit for mean years, it feel does me as though americans believe at that they ve been inokay lated from the aristocratic royal structure and class structure by the constitution, which rules out barons, baronets, dukes and duchesses. then i read this book, and i discovered that america is not a class structure. it s a cash structure. because what you have here is parents who have a lot of
graduates. we need more vets in the newsroom in the elite institutions. is that what you re talking about? that is a huge part of it. we ve seen a lot of writing about if you look at elite colleges, for instance, the class structure, right. 80% from households in the top fifth of income, right. there s, you know, there is a affirmative action take n insur racial diversity, but there is this total lack of class diversity, socioeconomic background and you get a situation in which even if you re drawing from a wider and wider part of society which i don t think our elite ib sti tutions are, we would agree on that, talk about evangelicals in the bible belt getting into yale law school, not a ton are, but even if you are, if you focus power and concentrate it in smaller hands it doesn t matter how widely you are drawing from society that s going to produce its own dysfunctions and pathologies. one of the things we re seeing today with this remarkable story
bill: reaction to you, you flif hollywood. you re in the show business world, most people there support barack obama and not only support him, but idolize him what. kind of reaction have you gotten? well, almost everybody agreed with me. bill: really? yeah. yes. because most of my friends are democrats. i m a democrat. but yes. they agree and say i work hard and i pay a lot of taxes. it s because it s not true. and i think just a devicive way to appeal what the masses to get votes. this is obvious, we should all be helping each other and bringing everybody together. we re all in this. i was in new york when september 11th happened it wiped out class structure because it s like being on the titanic. you re in first class, everybody is on the same boat.
in hollywood, you know, you re in the show business world. most people there support barack obama, and they not only support him, they idolize him. what kind of reaction have you gotten from this? well, almost everybody agrees with me. really? you know, people say yeah, yes, because most of my friends are democrats. you know, i m a democrat. yeah, they agree. they say, hey, i work really hard, i pay a lot of taxes, because it s not true, you know. i think it s just it s just a divisive way to appeal to the masses, to get votes. it s just blatant and obvious. there is no verses. no one is trying to help people in a lower income tax bracket. we should be all helping each other. i was in new york when 9/11 happened. it wiped out all the class structure, because it was like being on the tatitanic.
what s the goal of the chinese government? i just read kissinger s book. are they really looking inward, or do they want to take over the world? and he said, it s very simple. the communist leadership wants to sustain the communist leadership. if they have growth of 9% and 10%, he said this is very parochial. have you ever heard, all politics are local? he said this is very local, and it s about communist leaders keeping themselves and their families in power. if the economy grows 9%, 10%, they stay in power. if it drops to 4% or 5%, things become tenuous fast. i thought that was a fascinating observation. what they certainly didn t count on was how messy this year of transition is. they are in a once in 10-year transition right now, and boy, has it turned into a public debacle. related to joe s question, talk about class structure at this point in 2012 in china. the last 600, 700 years in the west, the lesson if you have a