Peoples's fear of the wealthy

Just posted something similar to this on the "It Could Happen To You" board, re: people harassing lottery winners but not corporate CEOs who make more in a year than any dozen lottery winners.

I saw this film less than a decade after the L.A. riots, when I was living frugally enough to rent in Crenshaw, just blocks away from what happened to Reginald Denny. The scene between Peoples and Wade struck me then and sticks with me now for that reason.

This is only my theory, which I reached during the riots, but does anyone else think there's an almost religious deference given to the super-wealthy in the U.S.A.?

This difference is of course often characterized as a "class divide," but I think it goes deeper than that.

During the riots, the rioters trashed all the supermarkets, auto parts stores and, eventually, fast food joints (the fast food joints were left alone for the first few days - I guess they thought they might get hungry). They did this in their own and all adjacent neighborhoods.

Then, they worked their way all the way up to Hollywood, where they looted Frederick's and various stores (but oddly left the magic store untouched - I guess there were no nerds among them) before trying unsuccessfully to set those buildings ablaze.

They hit Koreatown pretty hard along the way, except that the Korean grocers started shooting back (almost all of them are ex-Korean-army).

But, and here's the part that really struck me, THEY LEFT BEVERLY HILLS UNTOUCHED. They marched right past Rodeo Drive and the Beverly Center (someone cracked a window, that's all). PRIME LOOTING, and they left it all alone!

My theory: at some gut level, the lower and middle class view those places as "holy ground," where they feel SO unwelcome and out of place that they cannot even bring themselves to LOOT there.

Again, it's just a theory, but it explains so much in my view.

It suggests to me that, in the eyes of most "normal citizens," super-rich people live mysterious lives. Really, what the heck does ANYONE need with $10million PER YEAR? People don't ask that question, because they assume the "ways of the wealthy" are inscrutable and forever beyond them.

Luckily, people are starting to question it at last.