A recent article in The Atlantic had my hackles up, and although the author was similarly irritated with the content of the article, he nonetheless draws attention to an issue so peripheral to what’s really going on, in just writing it he has earned my disdain. The article is How Occupy Wall Street Is Alienating The Young 1%. Andrew Burman, an editor for The Atlantic, has somewhat of an insider perspective on this. Being the product of an Ivy league school, he relates a moment spent with friends that were, we can assume, very much members of the 1%. Among this elite crew of young Entourage wannabes, the phrase “1%” becomes a moniker of pride, and the “99%” one of derision. A friend, Burman describes, crosses to the craps table as he relates an evening spent with strippers and swagger. Another friend comments, “Wow, that’s so 1%.”

Burman, understandably, excuses this ignorant bravado as an unfortunate case of the young 1%-ers disaffected by their 99%-er peers who, by comparison, have real problems. “I simply can't dredge up an ounce of sympathy for those who lament the loss of a gold studded ride,” Burman relates from a nasty string of comments on TIME. Of course, the response from that 1%, although more politically aligned than not with the 99% (one of his friends runs a school in East Africa), counters with something like, “I hate black friday cause it lets normal people feel like they are rich," a Twitter comment with the new vogue hastag #IAmThe1%

In other words, we need to tone down the rhetoric because young 1%ers are being disenfranchised from the broader political left? The 20 and 30 somethings that also gamble with client and investor money are feeling a bit of a pinch, and want to be able to complain freely on social networking about their repossessed Beamer without being made to feel like a whiny bitch? Tell that to the 14.4% of unemployed young men between the ages of 24 and 28, many with young families, that can no longer support them.

Burman relates a moment, at the end of their little soiree, when a friend lies broken and hung-over after a night of “out lavishing” his friends. Burman asks how he feels and the friend replies, “like the 99%”. To his credit, Burman acknowledges wanting to hit him. The problem here is that this elitist entitlement is not unique to this moment in our social evolution. These thoughts, feelings, and attitudes are not new to the ultra-privileged under-40 club. Instead, the perversity of their position has become very public, and they are angry. Let them be angry. Some of them will grow out of it, and some of them will turn into the Bernie Madoffs and John Corzine’s of the future. I certainly wouldn’t expect an entire generation of angry, young, unemployed men to put on velvet gloves just to spare the champagne glass feelings of a few of the ultra privileged.