Thank You, Mr. Professor...
Tired of Being Lectured by the Rich About Need for Austerity
By bink
Good morning, Tom Friedman.
I'm getting pretty damn sick and tired of it.
Sick and tired of being lectured by rich people that the Good Times are
over and it's time for Americans to accept a lower standard of living. We
need to get used to the idea that we all won't be wearing furs and jewels
going forward. We need to get back to work and work hard, says Tom
Friedman!
The champagne has stopped flowing.
The party has ended.
The bubble has burst.
The balloon has popped!
Sure.
But what good times are Tom Friedman talking about?
During the last eight years, incomes for working people have stagnated or declined. Poverty rose. We had eight years with no net job creation. The nutrition problem in our country grew worse, culminating with ten percent of the population on food stamps -- and this was before the financial collapse! We experienced skyrocketing costs for housing, higher education and medical care at the same time government was threatening to yank away safety net programs like Social Security.
The last eight years weren't a party for most Americans.
They were a time of constantly working harder for smaller rewards, a time of ever-increasing financial and social anxiety, a time of disruption and precarity.
Now ...
Now, rich people like Tom Friedman are calling for austerity?
Americans have to be punished for the Sybaritic orgy of the last eight years?
I have news for Tom Friedman:
We didn't participate in it.
The non-stop parties, the liquor, the second and third vacation houses, the strippers, the disfiguring plastic surgery and the drugs -- these were things enjoyed by you, not by us.
Don't admonish me, don't tell me to repent for your sins.
While you were partying at Davos, Tom Friedman, or flitting from resort destination to resort destination with Indian off-shoring billionaires ...
We were worried about jobs.
We were trying to figure out how to pay for school for our kids.
We were looking at medical bills and contacting a bankruptcy lawyer.
We were running up credit card bills and extracting equity from our houses trying to preserve the same middle class quality of life that we remembered our parents so easily affording when we grew up.
If there is a new austerity, Mr. Friedman -- and your ilk -- I suggest you go first. Surrender the remaining millions from your wife's collapsed billion-dollar real estate empire. Move out of your house -- said to be the largest private estate in the D.C. area. Get a job at Starbucks, if they haven't closed the one in your neighborhood yet.
And then tell me that I need to start working harder.
Until then, you don't have the standing required to lecture me or other working and (formerly) middle class Americans about what we need to give up to keep your system going.
By bink
Good morning, Tom Friedman.
I'm getting pretty damn sick and tired of it.
Sick and tired of being lectured by rich people that the Good Times are
over and it's time for Americans to accept a lower standard of living. We
need to get used to the idea that we all won't be wearing furs and jewels
going forward. We need to get back to work and work hard, says Tom
Friedman!The champagne has stopped flowing.
The party has ended.
The bubble has burst.
The balloon has popped!
Sure.
But what good times are Tom Friedman talking about?
During the last eight years, incomes for working people have stagnated or declined. Poverty rose. We had eight years with no net job creation. The nutrition problem in our country grew worse, culminating with ten percent of the population on food stamps -- and this was before the financial collapse! We experienced skyrocketing costs for housing, higher education and medical care at the same time government was threatening to yank away safety net programs like Social Security.
The last eight years weren't a party for most Americans.
They were a time of constantly working harder for smaller rewards, a time of ever-increasing financial and social anxiety, a time of disruption and precarity.
Now ...
Now, rich people like Tom Friedman are calling for austerity?
Americans have to be punished for the Sybaritic orgy of the last eight years?
I have news for Tom Friedman:
We didn't participate in it.
The non-stop parties, the liquor, the second and third vacation houses, the strippers, the disfiguring plastic surgery and the drugs -- these were things enjoyed by you, not by us.
Don't admonish me, don't tell me to repent for your sins.
While you were partying at Davos, Tom Friedman, or flitting from resort destination to resort destination with Indian off-shoring billionaires ...
We were worried about jobs.
We were trying to figure out how to pay for school for our kids.
We were looking at medical bills and contacting a bankruptcy lawyer.
We were running up credit card bills and extracting equity from our houses trying to preserve the same middle class quality of life that we remembered our parents so easily affording when we grew up.
If there is a new austerity, Mr. Friedman -- and your ilk -- I suggest you go first. Surrender the remaining millions from your wife's collapsed billion-dollar real estate empire. Move out of your house -- said to be the largest private estate in the D.C. area. Get a job at Starbucks, if they haven't closed the one in your neighborhood yet.
And then tell me that I need to start working harder.
Until then, you don't have the standing required to lecture me or other working and (formerly) middle class Americans about what we need to give up to keep your system going.
