Trickle down icing on the cake

-
I read a headline yesterday about how the yacht business is doing very well indeed.

What the right wing economists and the glassy-eyed Randians fail to learn from is history.

When the gap between the haves and the have nots gets big enough, people will do one of two things- leave or revolt. The push against immigrants may leave the poor with few choices.
And the way things are going at home, with the gap increasing, social mobility getting harder and harder, people feeling like there is nothing to loose...

Marie and Louie didn't believe it.
Nicholas and Alexandra didn't either.
I'm sure the current ruling power in China can't fathom their ouster.
Who else might be feeling invincible? 

"If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you."
LYNDON B. JOHNSON, 1960, remark to Bill Moyers.






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tripped up in Beantown

-
Image
It is dawn. Mark is asleep but I have been awakened by pain. I had actually considered buying insurance for this trip.  Probably will next time. I had so much in mind for these 11 days and now it will be simply scenic drives for the foreseeable future. Yes, I have pain pills, but I take them sparingly because one very quickly builds a tolerance to codeine.  Mark is fetching and nursing - something,  I'm sorry to say, at which he has a lot of experience. At least I was still able-bodied for the MFA, one of America's truly great museums. Come for the John Singer Sargent. Be amazed by the Jamie Wyeth. Mark was gobsmacked by the latter, thus we made the exit through the gift shop and grabbed the exhibition book, adding serious pounds to the luggage.  I am blue. Mountain hikes and beach combing plans gone. Historical walks? Nope. Getting old sucks. I'm not saying I fell because I'm old. I fell because I walk fast and don't look out for obstacles. But a twenty-something w
Read more

Yes, we are moving.

-
Image
Short version: We have no need or desire to stay in Houston but we’re not ready to be 2000 miles away from our kids. Slightly Longer Version: We have never loved Houston and in the summer, we actually hate it. But we have had friends and work we liked (I came here for a job) plus it was an easy place to live because staying is always easier than going. It could have been much worse. But now Mark is retired from the U and my work requires only that I have access to an airport. When we took our month long vacation this summer, one of my goals was return home with a plan. Instead we returned home with a tan. But it was the pits of August so we fled to the hills of Austin to seek cold springs to swim in and drive some neighborhoods and before you know it, we were closing on a house. ‘Tis a small and modest 1971 ranch-style house, a fixer- upper not far from the action, less than 5 miles SW of the Congress Street Bridge. It is a transitional home, a place to be comfortable for a couple few
Read more