Singer Mariah Carey showed off her “shoe room” in a recent Instagram post, proving her status as a member of the 1 percent.
Her use of social media to show off her shoe collection, which is so large it has its own room, highlighted the irony of her political support for left-wing crusaders for the 99 percent, including MoveOn.org, President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Carey’s boasting about her massive shoe collection runs contrary to MoveOn.org’s call for “direct action” in April 2012 to “stand with the 99 percent” during its “99 Percent Spring [1]” project. But apparently Carey supported some of the liberal group’s causes. She gave $500 to MoveOn in 2008, according to OpenSecrets.org [2]. MoveOn.org’s website said its purpose was to support “campaigns for progressive change [3].”
The singer is a supporter of President Barack Obama. She donated $5,000 [4] to Obama’s presidential campaign in 2012, according to OpenSecrets.org. She even released a song celebrating his reelection, called “Bring It On Home [5].”
But Obama has often complained about income inequality and delivered class warfare-style speeches.
Perhaps Carey failed to realize Obama might not approve of her “conspicuous” shoe consumption. In a July 2013 speech, Obama complained that the “growing inequality [6]” in America was “morally wrong” and “bad economics,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
“When wealth concentrates at the very top, it can inflate unstable bubbles that threaten the economy,” Obama said. “When the rungs on the ladder of opportunity grow farther apart, it undermines the very essence of this country.”
Carey is worth $520 million according to Celebrity Net Worth [7]. The left-wing British paper The Guardian said in January 2010 that Carey embraces a “puffed-up public persona [8]” of “conspicuous consumption.” Certainly critics of Carey’s consumption would view her Instagram [9] and Twitter [10] posts about her shoe room from July 19, as promoting that “persona.” At least 86 pairs of shoes could be seen in the picture of her “favorite room in the house,” displayed on 28 shelves. Carey hashtagged the posts “#shoes #shoes #moreshoes.”
These days, Carey publicly supports Hillary Clinton. Carey tweeted [11] Clinton’s live campaign launch on June 13 and has changed her Twitter profile picture to a customized version of Hillary’s campaign logo.
An interesting choice for the fabulously wealthy singer, Good Morning America co-host Dan Harris described Clinton as a “class warrior [12]” on June 15 following her campaign launch. Like Obama, Clinton has complained about income inequality. She claimed an increasing “share of income and wealth [is] going to those at the very top [13]” in a May 2014 speech at the left-wing New America Foundation.