HughBeaumont
HughBeaumont's JournalThe World's Most Microscopic Tear Dept: "Why the Rich Don't Feel Rich".
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/why-rich-don-t-feel-rich-200600130.htmlCommenters howled, of course, deriding the discontented doc’s self-indulgence and making many predictable observations about materialism run amok. “It’s emblematic of the insane level of lifestyle creep that allows someone who makes $500k+ a year to feel not rich,” wrote one reader, reflecting the sentiment of many others.
The anonymous doc, whom the site dubbed “Jake Smith,” acknowledged his own materialistic impulses. “There is a palpable pressure to keep up with the Joneses,” he said of the social demands in his affluent community, which is in the suburbs of a sizeable eastern city, according to Logan Sachon of The Billfold. Yet he also showed a degree of restraint, making do, for instance, with a 7-year-old Lexus when many of his neighbors drive brand-new Range Rovers. That doesn’t exactly generate sympathy but it shows more self-awareness than the wealthy — or caricatures of the wealthy — are typically known for.
snip
Rather than attacking Smith’s sense of entitlement, it might be worth reconsidering what it means to be rich in the first place. A lot of wannabe millionaires fantasize about a life in which they never have to worry about money at all. But that may be the very thing that leads to the gaudy behavior we find most appalling about the rich. A healthy dose of worry might help the wealthy remember how the other half lives, and even spend their money more like the 99 percent.
"Mo money, mo problems"???? PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT. I'd trade salaries with him in a fast heartbeat. If I was making that kind of bank, you'd never see me at a desk in 5-8 years. Like one of the wiser commenters said: "I didn't find the part of the article that said he was forced at gunpoint to buy three cars and a $1 million house."
Amazed at the Choots-pah: Thomas Friedman hosting "The Next New World" forum . . .
. . . at the ultra-low price of $495!
http://www.nytfriedmanforum.com/
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu . . . .
Bewsh 41-speak aside, it gets better . . .
•Understand the various patterns of interaction used by people today, and how that impacts the way they engage with businesses, brands and each other.
•Assess the impact of an always-connected workforce, and how it will impact interaction with customers, partners and among internal teams.
•Hear methods for navigating through and taking advantage of the changing dynamics of human interaction.
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How robotics and other cutting-edge technologies can increase productivity but also disrupt your office and workforce.
•Identify the latest technological advancements, and how they are working in concert with each other to enhance innovation, productivity and prosperity.
•Hear methods for incorporating technology, while retaining the core elements of your business.
•Assess the impact of accelerated product and service lifecycles, and how that will force businesses to adapt.
How everything from climate change to fallen infrastructure is threatening global supply chains and how the rise of a new global middle class is disrupting American global dominance—while creating new markets.
•Gain an understanding of the changing nature of supply chains, and how that will impact the delivery of products and services.
•Learn how increasing consumption in developing markets will impact the price, supply of, and demand for commodities, luxury items, and the need for innovation.
•Hear projections on how America will need to manage the rapid changes occurring in the global markets to ensure prosperity over the next several decades.
http://www.nytfriedmanforum.com/agenda.php
"markets", "competition", "adapt", "innovate" . . . CHRIST. This guy isn't interested in balance or reducing inequality. He never HAS been. "Competition" is a "motivational" way of telling us suckers from both shores that we're nothing but pawns in a wealth cabal's cost war. It'll be nothing but a bunch of salivating plutocrats and their fawning supporters blathering to a kept man in canned "interviews" as they strategize how to relocate even more workers to tent cities and, using an even more brutal climate of fear and "competition", gouge the wages and benefits of the ones you keep.
What galls me is that this guy sells tons of books and has fans in supposed progressives and Democrats. Just like his vile books, this will be a seminar that pays fealty to abject greed disguised as concerned corporate hypothesizing, and I'm SICK of this garbage. It's kinder and gentler Uncle Milton, but you're still getting the same shaft.
Let me tell you cash-masturbating businesspeople something . . . I really, REALLY wouldn't want to be the last wealthy people in a LESS fair, economically hopeless and depressed world.
The Onion: No Longer a Satirical Newspaper, Part III:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/bangladesh-factory-owners-vow-to-change-nothing-so,32451/SAVAR, BANGLADESH—In the wake of a garment factory collapse last month that claimed the lives of more than 1,100 laborers, clothing factory owners throughout Bangladesh issued a joint statement Wednesday, pledging to spare every expense necessary to ensure that a tragedy like this definitely happens again. “This terrible loss of life has not opened our eyes to the conditions for workers throughout Bangladesh, and we promise to take the proper inaction so that we can guarantee all safety hazards are completely and fully ignored,” wrote Wal-Mart contractor Sujon Majumdar on behalf of over 2,000 plant owners, who vowed to stand idly by and do absolutely nothing within their power to prevent another catastrophe. “In our opinion, the workers of Bangladesh are our least important resource and deserve nothing more than unsafe and inhumane working conditions. Rest assured, this will happen again on our watch.” The statement from the owners concluded by urging readers to pledge to a relief fund to support the revenues that were tragically lost in the recent collapse.
Corporate UhMerica laughs at labor's plights. They're wondering how much Dead Peasant's Insurance they can collect. Sorry there ain't no better way of putting it.
Men who are physically strong are more likely to have right wing political views. WOW.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2325414/Men-physically-strong-likely-right-wing-political-views.htmlThe Daily Fail is officially a parody website.
Men who are physically strong are more likely to take a right wing political stance, while weaker men are inclined to support the welfare state, according to a new study.
Researchers discovered political motivations may have evolutionary links to physical strength.
Men's upper-body strength predicts their political opinions on economic redistribution, according to the research.
(snip)
Professor Petersen said: ‘Our results demonstrate that physically weak males are more reluctant than physically strong males to assert their self-interest - just as if disputes over national policies were a matter of direct physical confrontation among small numbers of individuals, rather than abstract electoral dynamics among millions.’
However, the researchers found no link between upper-body strength and redistribution opinions among women.
Too much Benghazi bullshit floating on wingding sites this week, so . . .
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/08/1982151/witnesses-debunk-benghazi/?mobile=nc#GOP Star Witnesses Debunk Right-Wing Benghazi Conspiracy Theories
Part of the prevailing theory surrounding the events the night of the Benghazi attacks is that the Obama administration did not do enough militarily to respond to the crisis. Gregory Hicks — a Foreign Service Officer and the former Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya — claimed during his pre-hearing testimony that fighter jets could have been flown over Benghazi, preventing the second wave of the attack from occurring.
Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) questioned that statement, asking Hicks whether he disagreed with Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff Gen Martin Dempsey’s assessment that no air assets were in range the night of the attack. Hicks didn’t disagree, saying he was “speaking from [his] perspective” and what “veteran Libyan revolutionaries” told him, rather than Pentagon assessments.
snip
3. A Special Forces Team that could have saved lives was told to stand down
One of the most shocking reveals in the lead-up to today’s hearing was that a team of Special Forces in Tripoli were told not to deploy to Benghazi during the attack. That decision has led to an uproar on the right, including claims of dereliction of duty towards Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey for not taking actions that could have saved lives.
During questioning, Hicks confirmed that the team was ready to be deployed — not to join the fighting at the CIA annex — but “to secure the airport for the withdrawal of our personnel from Benghazi after the mortar attack.” Hicks also confirmed that it was the second such team to be readied for deployment, with the first having proceeded to Benghazi earlier. Despite the second team not deploying, the staff was all evacuated first to Tripoli, then to Germany, within 18 hours of the attack taking place.
They're seriously and desperately trying to hunt for "The Scandal That Brings Down President (insert racial slur here)" that isn't there . . . just like they did with Clinton.
Here's a great place to start job creation in Cleveland: The RTA (a story)!
Taking the train yesterday, unbeknownst to me in the morning, was a huge mistake.
I go eastbound from the W. 140th/Triskett Station. The station after it (W. 117th and Madison) has service blocked from both sides to the West Blvd/Cudell station. We had to take shuttle busses to the Cudell station and then had to wait 15 minutes for the next train to arrive. The platform was DC packed, and they had only three small cars for all of us, which is one more than they normally have for a rush hour commute that arrives every 13-15 minutes.
That wasn't the worst of it. On the way home, I was standing in the Tower City platform and had to wait 20 minutes for a train to arrive. During rush hour, mind you.
The train finally approaches and all of a sudden, there was a giant banging noise as if something exploded. Turns out that a giant 4 x 4 metal grate fell from it's ceiling confines with such force that the tile underneath it cracked. Everyone on the platform was stunned and they had good reason to be: had anyone been under this thing, which weight a good 60-80 pounds on it's own, they'd have been hospitalized at best and dead at worst.
I looked up and the area above the ceiling had such a great amount of water damage and rot all over.
So does RTA mean to tell me that, despite jacking up pass rates every year (to the point where parking downtown is actually the less costly option), they can't keep at least one set of tracks open? They can't update it's Carl Stokes-adminstration-era cars or at the very least, add more cars during rush hour? They can't add another desperately needed line along the Lake Erie coast that conveniences everyone and not just east-siders? They can't simplify their needlessly complicated train-pass system (activate or not? REALLY?)?
The RTA's Rapid is literally the WORST train system I've ever been on. It's infrastructure is crumbling, it's unsafe (not just the cars or the platforms, but the people on them . . . your morning commute is awesome with students getting into shouting matches or fistfights on the damned train, let me tell you), it's very inadequate for 2013, it stops in only one place downtown and very few places of any importance, it's becoming less of an economic option for the return on investment and it's infrequency is a problem.
You want a TDA project/giant overhaul that will bring much needed jobs and work, why not start HERE? MAKE this city an example of how a great and adequate transportation system benefits a city and revives its job-starved economy. Many cities can use infrastructure repair for certain, but this would bring a lot of people for sure.
Can someone tell CNBC's Rick Santelli that the Cold War is over?
Can someone tell that fuckstick lunatic, who just went on a yelling boilerplate tirade to Steve Liesman about "pro-growth policies as opposed to socialism!", that Red-Baiting terms have zero emotional significance to most of America that's moved ON from that sort of nonsense?
Can someone tell that ranting, rubber-room candidate that the President is actually a centrist Chi-Schooler when it comes to economics, and that Republicans are the ones who control the purse strings?
Can someone give him a nice fat valium or a bat in the jaw?
How'd that Tea Party work out for you, Ricky?
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