Inspired by a heinous article in The New York Times, this cartoon deals with recession-friendly luxury wear for rich assholes. They want other rich people to recognize them--but they don't want us to catch them in the streets.
You can bid on the original here.
Don't they just go off shore now? Like Haliburton, move to Dubai?
ReplyDeleteThe 'downsizing' also happened during the Great Depression...the rich were certain there would be a 'revolution'. The conspicuous display of money that was so prevalent in the Teens and Twenties disappeared by 1933. the Jay Gatsbys lay low in their properties and didn't flaunt the equivalent of 'bling'.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to have some fun, do some research on "The Awful Seeley Dinner'--probably the greatest display of wretched excess since the Middle Ages.
Here's another, more accurate link: The most expensive private party in history. Mr. Bradley wanted to 'help people in time of Depression' and succeeded in arousing the ire of society instead.
ReplyDeleteThe Bradley Martin Ball outdid the courts of the European kings and queens that it imitated--wretched excess was the order of the day.
The party favors were jewels scattered in sand on the tabletop. The guests had small buckets and shovels to dig for the jewels.
http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/tpsocialsciences/us_history/guildedage/ball.htm
I'm no fan of ostentatiousness or excess, but the article seems to be about handcrafted goods v china-made reproducables.
ReplyDeleteI think the trend pointed to by Maier has more to do with the slow living movement than with rich assholes (though the quote about not wanting "to be screaming luxury right now" and the title belie the author's biases).
Of course, I have no idea what rich assholes buy, so I wouldn't know (but if I were spending three or four mortgage payments on a handbag, I'd take the handmade one that might last more than three months. . .).
what i found really interesting about the cartoon and the article is that some of those rich assholes might actually be aware that their lifestyle depends on the exploitation of many and are afraid, in times of recession/depression, that the exploited might rise up against them. sadly, that is so often not the case, and class war continues one-sidedly.
ReplyDeleteHi Ted,
ReplyDeleteSorry to post this here. Your e-mail is clogged.
I know you read and thought you might find this article interesting.
The Levy Institute at Bard College http://www.levy.org publishes good papers on the US economy. The following is particularly meaty and timely: Financial Markets Meltdown http://www.levy.org/vdoc.aspx?docid=1049
The link to the paper itself is Public Policy Brief No. 94, 2008. http://www.levy.org/download.aspx?file=ppb_94.pdf&pubid=1049
The paper is longish but not as long as the file suggests because there are end notes, references and lists of previous papers.
The papers from this place are usually much drier and technical than this but still informative if you have some understanding of macroeconomics. In general, these guys tend to get the medium term right. This paper is different because it is very much about now and recent history.
This one is very much worth a read and does not pull any punches. The author has been on top of this for some time and, thus, had done enough thinking and research to fire this off in short order once the Bear Sterns debacle broke. It is one of the best pieces of economic analysis I've read in three decades.
James Galbraith, son of John, is one of the economists at the institute, i.e. these are not a bunch of babbling idiots.
How about putting your "Large Hadron Collider" cartoon up on eBay? I'd bid on that one... and I was your second-highest bidder for Nathan Hale.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestion, Russell! I thought it would be kind of boring, graphically. Shows what I know. Email me offline if you'd like to make an offer for it.
ReplyDeleteTed, your mailbox is over quota and my email bounced. I'll try again tomorrow night.
ReplyDeleteApparently this trend is confined to the merely-rich. The super-rich remain unfazed:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/nyregion/14partying.html