During this season of gift giving and holiday parties I’ve had my head in the clouds contemplating capitalism–the good and the bad. (Okay, I exaggerate. I’ll engage in a fair share of revelry and consumption). But unless you’re completely isolated like Marie Antoinette at Versailles (donning her peasant costume for kicks, hiring hermits to live on her grounds for sheer amusement and living lavishly while the masses suffer), you have noted that the wealthy are increasingly reviled and the masses–more and more ignited.

I can’t be the only one surprised by Luigi Mangione’s sudden hero status after shooting UnitedHealthcare’s CEO Brian Thompson, a few blocks from where I used to live in Midtown West. Is it me, or does this unexpected, rampant fandom feel unique? Are we on the brink of some kind of class revolution? Listen to the cascade of voices equating the violence of UnitedHealthcare’s refusal to pay sick Americans’ necessary medical claims to the daytime execution of a CEO. See a recent piece about the New York jury problem in the criminal trial of the alleged shooter—the problem being widespread sympathy for Luigi.

Seated in a courtroom waiting to be voir dire-d, I once watched a famous 1980’s NYC painter weasel his way out of his civic duty; when it was his turn to be questioned, he stood up and unleashed some eye-roll-worth monologue about his lifelong bias against doctors, which got him quickly excused from the medical malpractice trial. I am amused to learn that in Luigi’s case, the prosecutor is worried that folks will try to be selected for the jury with the soul purpose of acquitting the Defendant and making a statement about the health insurance industry. I imagine there may be another (possibly overlapping) group who lines up in federal court for the privilege of jury duty: young singles eager to bat their eyelashes at the comely, certainly passionate Luigi. Could jury duty become the hottest ticket in town?

And it’s not just the young expressing their support for Luigi. One family member whom I will not out, joked that the shooter was very cute and that she would gladly talk to him on line at Publix, which made me laugh. And I have admittedly found the onslaught of catchy songs and memes that anoint Luigi Mangione a hero, to be mildly entertaining.

Though I’m clearly not a radical (as my own score on the following test confirms), I sheepishly admire Luigi for what he represents. If I can debase myself for a moment and do what Trump supporters regularly do—that is ignore the ugly specifics (here, Luigi’s affinity for the Unabomber’s Manifesto and of course his alleged pre-mediated killing of the CEO)— I can appreciate the fact that Luigi was raised by a rich family but cared about the problems of those outside his strata. (As my friend Mila just texted me, Luigi is like a modern day Che Guevera—revered, in part, because he was a rich kid who fought for the plight of everyman.)

When I told my friend Mila* that I better finish my novel that addresses themes of class rage and violence, to ride the anti-capitalist wave, she said she wasn’t sure it was an anti-capitalist wave but more of an anti-health insurance company moment; she argued that people wouldn’t have cheered as blatantly if someone like Jeff Bezos was gunned down. Who is right Mila or I?

Perhaps, I’m wrong and Americans have not reached the point of cheering about the execution of any ol’ billionaire. This seems to be supported by one seemingly press-hungry therapist I keep reading about lately whose patients are all the 1% (and well below): “When I first got into this [a private therapy practice treating the uber rich}, it was 2006, 2007, when the wealthy were very much admired. People aspired to be like them. And they were used to that. Then, very quickly, after 2008, I was hearing a lot of, “I’m demonized. People don’t like me. They’re out to get me. What’s with this Occupy Wall Street?” A similar attitude shift happened again during the pandemic. Now the tide is turning back to admiring wealthy people again, but they have that scar tissue of worrying that people hate them.”

Reading the above, I was mildly surprised to learn the therapists’ clients have scar tissue from worrying that non-rich people hate them. Apparently, I nurse all kind of wild biases about the ultra rich; I quite inelegantly assumed that most of the wealthiest, ludicrously successful people tend to be selfish and magically immune to criticism/hostility from outsiders. (After all, I can’t recall one scene in Succession (other than maybe some Connor Roy scenes) that involve a character whining about how those outside their social milieu view them. They were too sequestered in their private jets and Nordic hideaways to take note! )

Even if the therapist is right and admiration of the wealthy is currently on the rise, , at the very least, I learned that Americans’ views of billionaires has declined since 2020. (So perhaps, it’s only the billionaires and Health Insurance Company Executives who are on the hot seat these days).

As someone finally making progress on my novel that is loosely based on my own life as an adult looking back on my real and imagined experiences as a Korean-American adoptee and scholarship kid at several New York City private schools in the 1980’s and 1990s, I am sorting through my own disgruntled feelings about the supremely rich. I’m also researching capitalism and anti-capitalist movements in the U.S. in the hopes, this elevates my story beyond the narrow confines of a whiny, very niche autobiography that could potentially embarrass friends, family and even acquaintances from decades past—their real-life stories baldly strewn across my pages.

Lots of questions emerge as I write this tale that centers around a fictional group of sidelined, minority high school students at an elite Manhattan private school who finds minor, subversive ways to humiliate some particularly harrowing rich kids with the help of their beloved History teacher and his radical roommate—irksome pranks that lead to a tragedy that will follow these characters into adulthood. (You’ll have to read my novel to find out if this humble character-driven writer (me) can deftly execute all this plot!)

Though I realize I’m writing a novel not autobiography, I have fallen down the rabbit hole of researching whether my radicalized, anti-capitalist characters feel authentic in the late 1980’s-early1990’s (my high school years); for had anti capitalist sentiment yet reared its head in our country? After all, this was long before the 2008 financial crisis, Occupy Wall Street, the 2020 height of COVID and what I think is our current anti-aapitalist climate. Were there anti-capitalist terrorists on the Left back then and were any of them operating in the East Coast?

In my research I’ve begun on radical Left terrorism(a less studied and common phenomenon than radical Right terrorism), I’ve learned that most radical anti-capitalists during my high school years consisted of Eco-Terrorists and that these folks were not just concerned with preserving trees and wild life but simmered with hatred of the rich. (See their SUV bombings and destruction of golf courses/yachts on the East Coast and the 2011 bombing of the Vail Ski resort that caused 40 million dollars in damage to the famed luxe resort that I recall my wealthy private school classmates speaking of affectionately).

In keeping with the zeitgeist, I bring you this admittedly roughly-hewn test of your anti-capitalism. As with all my quizzes/tests, I’m not sure what you can do with your score. This test is extremely unscientific. But my cursory research indicates there are roughly ten forms of anti-capitalism (you know like socialism, anarchism etc) and I’ve at least tried to include questions that address all these types; but I’m sure I’ve botched things badly. To begin with, my point system is pretty haphazard. Not sure how I assigned points! (But please, carry on!)

Before taking this test, I can easily predict that I will lean capitalist in my score and that my anti-capitalism is sadly more performative than genuine. Knowing this about myself, I will not buy these stickers I noted on Etsy the other day and affix them to my laptop:

I leave you with a little memory for your contemplation. When I shared an office with Andrea* my coworker and friend at the legal services organization we have both been working at for many years, one afternoon her blunt law school intern who identified as a socialist stood in our joint office disabusing Andrea of her identification as a socialist. As overheard in our shared office as I pretended to work at my keyboard: Oh please Andrea, you’re no socialist. A true socialist doesn’t own many shelves of designer handbags!

Though I agree under the test I’ve devised below, Andrea might get some significant pointage for this bag affinity, her socialist cred will surely be bolstered by her extreme generosity to not only friends and family but to homeless people she meets in the shelters. She’s at least socialist adjacent!

So brace yourself and give this test a whirl:

1. I try not to buy things on Amazon. Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 5 points)
2. I own more than one pair of un-recycled Adidas Sambas (I realize this isn’t the most expensive option but Sambas are my floor! If you are wearing those infinitely more expensive but adorbs Miu Miu/New Balance sneakers, I see you!).Y or N (Y-add 4 points, N-add no points)
3. I routinely use Free Markets, e.g., DePop to get and donate my clothes, household wares, toys, books? Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 5 points)
4. All my clothes washing is done with “some soap nuts thrown in a muslin bag with added drops of eucalyptus oil.” Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 2 points)
5. I routinely shop at thrift stores rather than buy new clothes.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 5 points)
6. I routinely sew outfits for myself/others to reduce consumption of new clothing.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 3 points)
   1. I have run out and tried at least two of these toys/treats in 2024:a) Dubai chocolate at $20/bar. Yumm; b) a Yukai cushion and/orc) moon shoes
   2. (Y-add 5 points, N-add no points)
7. I routinely use a bike, train, skateboard or scooter for transportation (not a car)? Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 10 points)
8. I routinely garden and grow any herbs/food. Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 4 points)
9. I have signed up for Steve Brill’s foraging class for food in Central Park or similar classes elsewhere.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 2 points)
10. I have foraged for food on my own, outside of any class mentioned above. (I am not talking about your annual apple picking excursion where you fill a small, expensive sack of apples and go home with overpriced fruit pies, maple syrup and apple cider, you dope!)Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 1 point)
11. If I saw a couch in seeming good shape on a city sidewalk, I would consider taking it.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 1 point) Egads, absent desperate financial circumstances, I’d avoid this. As I learned nine years ago when my neighbors’ bedbugs spread to my former NYC apartment, bed bugs can hide forever in wood furniture much like the little kid who holds out in a game of hide and seek when all his friends have gone home, only to emerge hours later— ruffled and sleepy-eyed (but not at all harmed). As I learned, these foul vermin can linger for ages in wood and mattresses; even after being mercilessly gassed and/or ice-blasted by exterminators, these predators can hang out in wood furniture and survive! Though perhaps I’m being xenophobic/classist in my profound fear and hatred of these vermin. As a Russian friend of mine once confided, allegedly in Russia and other parts of the world, people don’t flinch when they get bedbugs, they treat them like any seasonal inconvenience like mosquitos).
12. I have on at least one occasion sorted through someone else’s garbage/a dump/landfill and taken something. Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add one point) I used to stomp up the ten flights of the NYC Salvation Army women’s residence I lived in as a young woman in law school and search the recycling/newspaper areas for magazines. Hey I lived in a building of aspiring fashion models and actresses. They dumped particularly good magazines. You try affording Italian Vogue on a law student’s coffers!
13. I have at least one time, recovered clean, fresh food from the dumpsters of a food retailer.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add one point)
14. I have at least once distributed fresh food from the dumpsters of food retailers to those in need. (See the awesome non-profit Sharing Excess that I once volunteered at with my daughter’s school).Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 2 points)
15. I have at least once taken a free book from one of those community book libraries on the side of the road. Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 4 points) Again, if you are like me and long ago had bed bugs that compelled me to pay handsomely for a visit from a specially-trained beagle with an other-worldly ability to smell a lone bedbug nestled inside a book on the top shelf of a bookcase and bark furiously, you are forever wary of used books.
16. I take more than two Ubers/cabs or drive a non-electric car more than twice a week.Y or N (Y-add 10 points, N-add no points)
17. I (at least once in my life) purchased a new diamond.Y or N (Y-add 5 points, N-add no points)
18. I (at least once in my life) purchased a piece of gold jewelry.Y or N (Y-add 5 points, N-add no points)
19. I work for a radical left non profit organization.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 4 points)Rah, this will get me a bunch of points as I work at a Plaintiff-side legal services office representing mostly low-wage workers in wage and hour and/or discrimination cases against their employers. This may be my only answer that suggests I’m an authentic anti-capitalist!
20. I regularly get my meals delivered to me via Seamless and/or its competitors.Y or N (Y-add 10 pts, N-add no points)
21. I toss out my cosmetics like lip glosses and mascaras long before they run out and replace them because someone once told me this was necessary/sanitary. Y or N (Y-add 5 points, N-add no points)
22. I routinely repurpose glass/ceramic food containers (e.g., fancy ceramic yogurt containers) to be mini vases or containers for my acrylic paints.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add one point)
23. I have the latest I-phone model and will surely replace it the minute the new model comes out.Y or N (Y-add 10 points, N-add no points)
24. I replace my computers long before they have issues/break.Y or N (Y-add 5 pts, N-add no points)
25. I often stop to read union signs when I pass by protestors on the street and/or engage (positively) with protestors.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 5 points)
26. If I learn a restaurant doesn’t pay its workers overtime and minimum wage, I have no choice but to boycott the restaurant. (Even if it’s my absolute favorite restaurant.)Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 5 points)
27. I sometimes get lazy, don’t wash out my recyclables and dump them in the regular trash. Y or N (Y-add 8 points, N-add no points)
28. I try not to buy plastic water bottles and try to always bring my own water bottle with me wherever I go.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 8 points)
29. I own at least one metal straw and/ or some paper straws.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 1 point)
30. I generally agree with this proposition: A successful businessman best knows how to manage things and is therefore likely a good politician.Y or N (Y-add 12 points, N-add no points)
31. Rich people should have to pay proportionately higher taxes than the rest of society.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 15 points)
32. If I saw Luigi Mangione in McDonalds I would have reported him.Y or N (Y-add 5 points, N-add no points)
33. If I saw Luigi Mangione in McDonald’s, I would have just winked at him.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 8 points)
34. I have read all 34 pages of the Unabomber’s Manifesto.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add no points)
35. If you answered yes to #34 did you agree with at least 1/4 of the parts not addressing the use of violence?Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 3 points)
36. If you answered yes to #34, did you agree with the parts regarding use of violence?Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 2 points )
37. Property tax is a necessity.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 15 points)
38. The rich contribute enough to society. Y or N (Y-add 10 points, N-add no points)
39. I want to be inordinately wealthy.Y or N (Y-add 10 points, N-add no points)
40. I would marry/partner with a billionaire.Y or N (Y-add 15 points, N-add no points)
41. I shower less often to conserve the amount of shampoo, conditioner and/or soap I use.Y or N (Y- add no points, N-add 1 point)
42. I keep my money someplace unconventional, e.g, my mattress, a credit union, a frozen cabbage in my freezer, my bra.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 2 points).
43. I am not on Social Media.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 3 points)
44. I regularly take out books from the library.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 3 points)
45. No one person should be allowed to be a billionaire.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 12 points)
46. No one person should be allowed to be a millionaire.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 4 points)
47. If you have a child, do you write on your child’s birthday invite: no presents please?Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 5 points)
48. If you answered yes to #47, do you secretly get upset when people respect this?Y or N (Y-add 6 points, N-add no points)
49. I regularly tip less than 20% at restaurants/to cab drivers?Y or N (Y-add 10 points, N-add no points)
50. I regularly tip less than 20% to food delivery workers.Y or N (Y-add 10 points, N-add no points)
51. I regularly tip anyone who is supposed to get tipped more than 20%.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 1 point)
52. I tip anyone who is supposed to be tipped in cash.Y or N (Y-add no points, N-add 1 point)Scoring: 0 to 80 pts (Raging Radical): You are a radical anti-capitalist probably on a FBI Watch List) 81 to 260 pts: (Mousy Moderate): Breathe a sigh of relief. No one is judging you. 260 to 287 pts (Savage Capitalist): You are a proud, insular capitalist—smug and unrepentant. Try toning it down in 2025. Don’t do your usual, e.g., stack a few of your Daytona Rolex/Patek Philippe watches on your corpulent, greedy wrists (as I once saw a rich man do), order an un-demurely large SUV Uber so you can dine someplace hyper-exclusive that is perfect for preening, and then cap it all off by leaving your lovely server less than 20%. Note: If you want someone to compare yourself with, I scored 231 (frankly a little closer to Savage Capitalist than I’d like). Maybe I’ll test again in later 2025 and do better! xoxo CMCA Happy Holidays and New YearI believe this is drawing I did years ago is of a photo of Charlie Chaplin as Napoleon. Again, I didn’t draw this for this particular post because I was too tired to draw something new! But I like having visuals!)

Thanks for reading Crazy Middle Class Asian!