In October of 2010 I started a practice on Saturdays to run stories about our fellow citizens of the One Percent (actually .01 of the 1%, or one out of every 10,000 of us) hoping that by doing this that we wouldn't lose touch with their world and their concerns--you know, to promote understanding. Unfortunately, for some reason they tend to hide their lives from the rest of us behind walls of secrecy, literal walls of guarded gated communities, private clubs, esoteric publications, by traveling with private jets, etc.
But then I discovered Jamie Johnson who wrote a weekly column in Vanity Fair on lifestyles of the rich, and in October of 2010 I began running many of his articles on Saturdays. But then I discovered in--I think it was--August of 2011 that they stopped running his articles. Oh oh, I thought, this might be some sort of backlash for exposing their secrets during this year when protestors were targeting the One Percent for criticism in relation to the austerity measures and bankster bailouts. Johnson, of course, is well known for one of his famous documentaries entitled The One Percent. (If you haven't seen it, I urge you to do so. Incidentally, I hope to start up this feature about life among the One Percent again on Saturdays, with this being the first.)
This morning I was wishing that Jamie was doing his column on the rich when I decided to google his name. I came up this recent video which I found very interesting, and I hope you do to:
When the heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune makes a highly acclaimed documentary about being rich, his father's unexpected feedback is what sticks with him.
Jamie Johnson is a documentary filmmaker and the great-grandson of the founder of the Johnson and Johnson pharmaceutical company. His HBO productions, Born Rich and The One Percent, examine wealth and social class in our culture.