Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

There have been many attempts to expose the bourgeois over the years, from any range of fields. In politics, Marxists attempted to lay bare the supposed historical underpinnings of class. In art, the Dadaist movement sought to do it by attacking the foundations of art, logic, and power themselves. But it turns out the greatest satire ever produced on the upper classes may be their own obsession with their health.

Spend any time among privileged Americans, and you'll see that the most pampered and spoiled group of people - perhaps the largest group of the rich the world has ever known - waste half their days worrying about supposed health concerns that seem almost lunatic to outsiders. Recent statistics in the wake of the measles outbreak in the US showed that kindergartens in richer areas, and in high-tech enclaves like Google, had lower vaccination rates. This stemmed from the parents' belief in quack theories such as the untrue claims of a connection between vaccination and autism.

Fads sweep the upper classes on an almost monthly basis.  That's how kale, once a peasant foodstuff in Europe, came to dominate the dining tables of the wealthy. Claims that it was "the healthiest vegetable" fed the fragile egos of a class for whom obsessive worrying over nutrition has replaced actual fears.  Kale became compulsory not because of scientific research, but because the American Kale Association hired an extremely talented New York publicity agency in 2012, putting the bland vegetable on dining tables across Manhattan and Brooklyn.

These obsessions come at a time when the power of the wealthy in the US only continues to grow. The country's Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, has reached startling new heights, even as the middle class that the nation's power once depended upon has been hollowed out by corporate forces more concerned with making a profit for the 1 percent than with creating a sustainable economy. Families who once had a solid place in the national story are now clinging on by their fingertips, while the share of wealth - and power - owned by the top echelons has increased massively since 1980.

Perhaps, with everything else in their lives secured, the US rich have only their own bodies to worry about. But some of their obsessions seem almost like a parody of the fears of the poor. Take the recent wave of claims about the supposed health dangers of sitting. It's true that if you're recumbent all day, it's not good for your body. But instead of adopting cheap solutions like walking around the office, Americans are forking out for expensive "standing desks" - and a range of gadgets that make them mildly less inconvenient and uncomfortable.

But the lucky poor get to stand every day, whether it's in retail jobs, or in the fields as migrant laborers. One of the rights most hard fought for by US unions - and most frequently ignored - has been the right for rest breaks. Corporations, meanwhile, have enforced increasingly stringent internal rules on "time theft," an Orwellian euphemism for employees doing anything during the day other than showing absolute devotion to their work. As the US rich pay money to be able to stand at work, in other words, the poor are fighting for the simple right to sit. 

Equally, the foodie obsessions of the upper classes, throwing away meals or reducing their diets to a health-magazine approved minimal list, seem like a parody of the concerns of the poor. Where once people fought to get cheap bread, now the rich avoid it out of their own imaginary gluten allergies. People may not starve in the US, but food insecurity - the inability to get nutritional meals at affordable prices - is nevertheless rampant, with Department of Agriculture statistics showing that 13.4 percent of households lack access to proper food. 

Rather than spending their time, and money, on their own self-worship, perhaps the rich would be better off putting some of that effort into making sure other Americans can enjoy the very privileges they spurn.

The author is a commentator based in Beijing. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn