The exact nature of his property aside, the point his critics make is that wealth deprives him of credibility.
"Well, they are trying to find some way to go at me because they can't argue the politics," he retorts. "They have a debate with me on the politics of what I'm doing and what I'm saying, and they lose. They know that. They have no moral position.
"And remember, those criticisms have never come from the working class. You will never find a working-class person upset because I have an apartment in Manhattan. If you come from the working class, when one of us does a little bit better or makes some money, it's like 'Right the f**k on! Yeah, way to go!'
"It's only the people who come from money that are upset I've had this success. Trash has moved into the neighbourhood, that's what they're really saying. What are you doing here on the Upper West Side? Who the hell are you?" He contends, with tongue partly in cheek, that it is useful for him to live close to the super-rich minority whom he scrutinises.
"I see it like Mother Teresa of Calcutta; I have to live and walk among these people. I seriously believe that I'm gaining extra points just by having to suffer these people. Because it would be a lot easier if I would just go back home among my own kind, or go live in Berkeley or Madison, or some ultra-left community. That would be easy. But to live among the Wall Streeters and the media professionals," he chuckles, "that is a sacrifice."
"Well, they are trying to find some way to go at me because they can't argue the politics," he retorts. "They have a debate with me on the politics of what I'm doing and what I'm saying, and they lose. They know that. They have no moral position.
"And remember, those criticisms have never come from the working class. You will never find a working-class person upset because I have an apartment in Manhattan. If you come from the working class, when one of us does a little bit better or makes some money, it's like 'Right the f**k on! Yeah, way to go!'
"It's only the people who come from money that are upset I've had this success. Trash has moved into the neighbourhood, that's what they're really saying. What are you doing here on the Upper West Side? Who the hell are you?" He contends, with tongue partly in cheek, that it is useful for him to live close to the super-rich minority whom he scrutinises.
"I see it like Mother Teresa of Calcutta; I have to live and walk among these people. I seriously believe that I'm gaining extra points just by having to suffer these people. Because it would be a lot easier if I would just go back home among my own kind, or go live in Berkeley or Madison, or some ultra-left community. That would be easy. But to live among the Wall Streeters and the media professionals," he chuckles, "that is a sacrifice."