We Are Pawns in Obama's Fiscal Cliff Game

Same for much of the San Francisco Bay Area, Manhattan, Boston, Seattle and other places with tony urban and isolated suburban neighborhoods where people don't even think twice about spending thousands a month on rent, "buying" a house for millions of dollars and going out to eat dinner every other night.

Sure, the capital gains tax might make some rich dude in Santa Monica sell his house prematurely, but there will be another wealthy soul there to buy it above asking price. Maybe the same person puts off the BMW purchase when his lease expires, opting to keep the 2010 model by paying the balance.

#firstworldproblems!

The "Washington/media conglomerate" Stalter refers to rolls in these circles as well. That's why politics, egos and positioning and posturing through the media dictate how the fiscal cliff -- or any crisis du jour -- unfolds.

There's little, if any, material impact for the privileged who live and work in Washington, D.C., or who commute in from the suburbs of Northern Virginia or have second homes in New England to come home to for the holidays as the nation sits on the verge of chaos.

They're not delaying personal Christmas spending because of the uncertainty. They're not comparing the cost of COBRA vs. buying a temporary stop-gap health insurance plan online if all hell breaks loose. They're not crapping their pants because the 50 shares of Apple (AAPL) they own lost 25% of its value in a New York Minute, even though Apple is easily America's most dominant company.

No matter how much they say they do, they don't care! And they certainly don't get it.

It's not possible for them to really get what a poor person, a middle class person, a small business person or even an upper middle class, relatively affluent, white collar cat goes through.

Pardon the yelling, but IT'S NOT POSSIBLE!.

It's the same dynamic as the high school class that sleeps outside for a night to see "how it feels to be homeless" or the book author who travels the country working minimum wages jobs to see "how it feels to be a low-level, unskilled worker trying to get by."

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