First, while 10 or 13 million is of course enough to be considered very rich, if every guy with 10+ million got to decide national policy it wouldn’t be much of an oligarchy. “The 1%” is a catchy soundbite but in reality it’s more like the 0.01% that’s the problem.

Second, even if that were the case, an advocate for the people is an advocate for the people. Bernie Sanders isn’t poor but he’s one of the most dedicated and effective advocates for the working class there is. You can be well off and still be working for the betterment of your fellow citizens. You probably can’t be a billionaire and still credibly fight for more equality though. Gets tough to explain hoarding that kind of wealth.

Carlin wasn’t talking about money per say…he was talking about power and the way it’s wielded. Carlin had money, and more importantly, he had power. He had an entire generation’s attention, and man, did he use that power to do some good!

But he didn’t really have the kind of power of those that are in the big club. Carlin didn’t have the power to commit mass layoffs, commit genocides, nor commit mass injustice.

If you’re going to argue that Carlin was a hypocrite because he had a significant amount of money and therefore had no right to criticize those in the big club, then I’d argue back that you severely missed the point.

Those who have the power to directly fuck up massive amounts of people’s lives and livelihoods are in the big club, those that don’t aren’t. Carlin wasn’t in the big club. He could have a significant impact on the way you think about society, but that’s pretty much the extent of his influence.

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The top 1% earn 650,000 a year. George Carlin doing standup for 50 years he would have earned 200,000 a year if you split that up equally over his career, and then there is the 21 years prior to his standup career.

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