Snooty

Was reading some financial news today and came across an article in Financial Times where the Greek PM, George Papandreou was seeking public support for the new austerity plan being pushed down the Greek people's throats.   That piece of news in itself was not interesting or remarkable in any way.

I did find a sentence at the bottom of the article interesting though, more because it gave a nice peek into the mindset of a snooty financial news outlet, than anything else:

"Owners of luxury yachts, swimming pools and high-end cars would have to pay a one-off tax-- a move intended to appease populist claims that high-income earners have so far been let off lightly"

Here's what to take from that sentence:

1) Financial Times (and really all "high-end" finance publications) look down at the general public.  If you're not wealthy, a mover & shaker, an investor or connected in some way with the 'Club', you're riff-raff and those publications' agenda is to appease those who are the core of their subscribers and the high-end advertisers.

2)  The sentence really says this in plain speak:  'The populist rabble claim those of our ilk aren't paying enough in taxes, so Greece's policy makers threw them a symbolic 'bone' by taxing those with nice cars, pools and boats to shut the masses up'.

All news outlets have bias and agenda.  In the US in particular, we are used to this played out in a left vs right, Dem vs Rep paradigm.  In some financial publications here and often abroad, the bias is more geared toward wealth and social status divisions than mere political ideology.   The writing and overall editorial content is geared to appease a certain economic level or social strata and if you're not part of that group, your point of view is either completely ignored or ripe for a good mocking.