Possibly. Maybe not with Thomas specifically, I think most people start of as ethical but well be more likely to act unethical the more they feel like they are being under paid. The likelihood of that should go down the more they are paid.
It also may not go down materially for someone like Thomas or Kavanaugh until you get to a much higher amount. Their self importance seems very high.
This is my definition of “wealth”. I consider myself wealthy because i can afford to live in a place i like, eat the foods i want to eat, pay for the healthcare i need, and i even have some leftover for vacations and toys.
Does “start as ethical” apply to either Thomas or Kavanaugh?
Yep. “Class” is a sociology concept – education, attitudes, use of leisure, type of job, …
It seems that judges are likely of the same social class as the lawyers in front of them, even at levels where the lawyers earn quite a bit more.
I got involved in this thread on the question of whether Thomas’s motor home is out of line given his finances. It’s likely the lawyers could reasonably afford the motor home while Thomas couldn’t.
So I felt it was appropriate to look at income rather than class for that discussion. And then Twig’s comment about “upper middle” being able to afford second homes seems to be about income rather than class. Whether traveling in an expensive RV for vacations vs. spending the same amount flying to Europe, appeals to you may be a class indicator.
Right. The existence of excessive things that i can’t afford did not make me not wealthy. I am wealthy because i can easily afford all the normal things, and with some degree of luxury. It’s only the really big ticket items that require some amount of prioritization… house, car, college tuition, overseas vacations for the entire family. And it’s not that those things can’t happen, there is just a limit on what can be done in a given year.
Yes, you may just need to go back to the pre-k years.
The alternative is to quit.
Well, except this might prevent themselves from doing that. I mean, Thomas went straight to the “pay me more” angle.
I disagree somewhat this notion because the comfort-per-dollar value of money drops a lot as you have more of it.
For example, being able to buy (or rent) a house is much more important than being able to buy two houses.
Clarence Thomas is officially Clayton Bigsby
Months later in 2018, Clanton was hired by Thomas’s wife, Virginia Thomas, to assist her with right-wing media projects. Virginia Thomas spent multiple years as a special correspondent for The Daily Caller and was serving on Turning Point USA’s advisory board at the time of Clanton’s hiring.
There’s the connection, she’s a far-right actor known for Tweeting things like “a bacon a day keeps the Islams away”. She was second in command at TPUSA until the racism became public 6 years ago. After the controversy waned with time they said “How do you do fellow racist, do you want a job at SCOTUS?”
…he had to divorce her…
Thomas is MIA from Supreme Court hearings, and nobody will say why
In NYC, collecting his new RV and $1 million from John Oliver?
The level of gaslighting from this guy really grinds my gears.
Poor Justice Thomas. Just like DJT he has to endure all these “lies”.
Makes sense. I’d also be an angry person if I knew the moment I retired, all of the people willing to associate with me would no longer give a shit about my existence or death.
Lol, I just read it more than a 30-second skim. Isn’t the prevailing theory that the SCOTUS leak was by Ginny Thomas? And he’s insinuating that somebody (another Justice) leaked specifically to hurt him?
Take a look at your own household, you absolute nincompoop.
I thought the leak was Alito putting pressure on the other justices to not change their mind before it was released but sure Ginny being the leaker is plausible too.
What kind of world re we living in where an honest hard working man sacrificing his retirement for the good of the county can’t take a few vacations with friends while his wife accepts bribes on his behalf under the guise of a consulting firm.
At a time when Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was accepting lavish trips paid for by GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, fellow Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was turning down bagels and lox from high school friends, over concerns she could be violating the court’s ethics rules for accepting gifts, according to a new report.
“We thought it would be a sign of support to send her some lox, but she was too ethical to take the lox,” said Sarah Schulman, a former school friend, according to the media outlet. Another Hunter College High School alumnus, Ann Starer, told the Forward that Kagan was touched by the offer but it was “creating more stress for her than it was worth.” She said that Kagan sent her an email, which reportedly said: “I have to take these ethics and reporting considerations very seriously.”
Kagan’s approach seems to directly contrast with that of Thomas when it comes to accepting gifts.