A column in Friday's Sydney Morning Herald by senior economics writer Jessica Irvine, entitled "How to hit the rich where it really hurts" demands scrutiny here.

In this priceless piece of commentary, Ms Irvine (for a doctor she presumably isn't, Gerard) posits that "the problem" with rich people is that "they are wily". Yes, "they didn't get all that money just by toeing the line and playing by the rules" although "it's not clear whether being unethical explains why people get rich". Seems pretty clear to her!

For "happiness studies show an extra dollar means a lot more to a poor person than a wealthy person". You'd hazard a guess that those same studies show a glass of water means more to an explorer stranded in the Sahara desert without supplies than to a worker at Mount Franklin's bottling facility.

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On first reading, I figured Irvine was branching out from ill-considered finance commentary to macroeconomic satire. Hey, I greatly enjoy slurring people with sweeping and offensive generalisations, but I'm doing so as a comic device! This was actually supposed to be serious analysis in Sydney's high-minded metro newspaper.

You haven't even heard the best part yet! "New social experiments have shown wealthier people display more unethical behaviour. They are more likely to cut off pedestrians and other drivers at intersections, more likely to help themselves to more candy from a free candy jar and more likely to say it is OK to steal and overcharge." Seriously, this is the kind of sh** levelled at Jews in the town halls of Munich and Nuremberg in the 1930s.