A Marxist Interpretation of Richie Rich



The holidays are seen by many in the bourgeois moneyed classes as an occasion for charitable giving -- a weak sop to their vestigial conscience that actually masks a despicable reinforcing of class distinction. The act of charitable giving on the part of the wealthy is a fundamental affront to the dignity of the poor and working classes, a demeaning exercise in the flaunting of conspicuous largess as a way of adding feeble moral support to a decaying system of class-based material imbalance and inefficient resource management.

The butler's act of seemingly spontaneous charity is doubly shaming -- certainly if anyone can sympathize with the plight of the homeless, it's the man whose job forces him to demean himself at the alter of criminally ostentatious wealth. One day Richie Rich's small, pudgy body will be found in the gutter, having been garroted and violated by a rising tide of righteous indignation. His mewling pink baby flesh, unconditioned to any kind of physical labor above the level of pushing a button to summon a servant, will be dragged through the streets as symbol of man's triumphant freedom from economic oppression.