Billionaire Sam Zell claims, "The 1 percent work harder!"

I found this Huffington Post story, via Daily Kos.  From the Huffington Post:

When the going gets tough, the rich dudes stick together. Or at least rich dude Sam Zell did in an interview with Bloomberg TV Wednesday.

The billionaire chairman of Equity Group Investments backed up fellow rich guy Tom Perkins, who set off a firestorm when he recently compared the "progressive war on the 1 percent" to Nazi anti-Semitism in a letter to the Wall Street Journal. (He later apologized for using the word "Kristallnacht" but defended the overall "message.")

"I guess my feeling is that he’s right," Zell said when asked by Bloomberg's Betty Liu how he felt about Perkins' stance. "The 1 percent are being pummeled because it’s politically convenient to do so."

Zell then said the problem is that all non-rich are just jealous that they don't have the same work ethic that the country's wealthiest do.

"The problem is that the world and this country should not talk about envy of the 1 percent. It should talk about emulating the 1 percent," he said. "The 1 percent work harder. The 1 percent are much bigger factors in all forms of our society."

Liu countered that the ever-widening gulf between the richest and poorest Americans must make it harder for those living under the poverty line to get ahead, no?

Nah, said Zell.

"Lots of people have come from nowhere and become part of the 1 percent," he said.

You know, I would love to see Zell work 8-12 hours a day in a fast food restaurant,  on a summer weekend day in 100 degree heat.  I'd like to see him hustling on a fryer, prepping burgers, or moving between taking lunch rush orders, mixing shakes, and handing out food for customers.  And after the lunch and dinner rushes are over, I would love to see Zell clean off counters, bus tables, sweep outside, wash dishes, restock food drawers, conduct food prep of making sauces or slicing food, and perform closing shift of even more cleaning of kitchen, wiping down dining room tables and chairs, sweeping floors, mopping floors, cleaning and sweeping kitchen area.  And I want to see Zell perform this work, making minimum wage, and still have to come home to perform his own housekeeping chores, cleaning, laundry, or fixing his own food.  I worked in a fast food restaurant for several years, starting from cooking french fries, and moving all the way up to practically supervising the night operations at the store.  It was the hardest job I have ever had to work at.

This guy is full of crap!