quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a rolling new york times thread

I shouldn’t have to see the pain, struggle, and despair of homeless people to and from my way to work every day.

quid/ag the sentence

http://www.businessinsider.com/im-a-self-made-millionaire-and-im-convinced-there-are-only-5-ways-to-get-rich-2016-2
This is straight trolling but of particular shame worthiness

4. Only do wealthy activities
The number one wealth killer is when a person of promise hangs out in places of poverty. Many times, people put themselves in poor places, which surrounds them with poor people. Get away from poor places if you want to avoid poor people. Dwelling along with poor people in poor places will never make you rich.
When I was a teenager, I used to play basketball with negative people in negative places. I constantly witnessed smoking, cursing, and other disrespectful behaviors every moment of the game. Even though I didn't partake in their antics, I was still a product of my environment, which deeply affected my general performance in life.
Many people tolerate negative conditions like this. They don't realize how much the subtle influence of gossip, violence, and drama impacts them. Moreover, if you're not on prosperity, you're in poverty. Find out how you can partake in wealthy activities. For me, instead of playing basketball, I started visiting luxury homes and car dealerships. It changed my life.

somebody really likes Trading Places

Hmmm....yes, I could play basketball....or I could VISIT LUXURY HOMES!

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/fashion/millennials-mic-workplace.html

meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Mr. Altchek recalled a companywide meeting last September that coincided with the religious holidays Yom Kippur and Eid al-Adha. An Anglo-Pakistani employee asked why management had announced a flexible time off policy for the Jewish holiday, but not for its Muslim counterpart.

“So I told her, ‘Great point, being inclusive and respectful of all religious affiliations is incredibly important to Mic,’” Mr. Altchek said.

Afterward, in front of a smaller group, he was approached by a younger, entry-level employee who said that there were two words missing from his reply. “I was a bit confused and said, ‘O.K., what were those?’” he recalled. “And she said: ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t hear an apology.’”

Mr. Altchek did not think such a comment belonged in a workplace, especially his.

“I was a little taken aback by the tone, but I told her I would address it and make sure the person who asked the question wasn’t offended by the answer,” he said. “You have to control your temper. It was in front of a bunch of people, which was probably better, because I was forced to be calm.”

That employee is no longer with the company. (Mr. Altchek said she was let go for “performance-related issues.”)

meet the new employee, same as the old employee

“People are here from morning to night, and we don’t want to leave,” said Elizabeth Plank, 28, a high-energy reporter who lives in the East Village and hosted a video series called “Flip the Script,” which seeks to challenge assumptions like, “What Happens When a Lady ‘Manspreads.’”

Ms. Plank contrasted her freedoms at Mic to her previous job at a feminist nonprofit organization, which she regarded as exemplifying the outdated work practices of older people.

“We called people on phones and we — I don’t know — we faxed people,” Ms. Plank said, sounding exasperated. “And we had to mail things. And no one really took my opinion into consideration.”

At Mic, she was able to dabble in different jobs and negotiate grandiose titles like “executive social editor.” Often, she prefers the theater of tweeting back and forth with the editor she sits next to rather than speaking face to face.

“If you can be young at heart, I think it makes your personal, and not only your work life, better,” added Ms. Plank, who left for Vox last month after two and a half years at Mic.

the graf directly following ulysses' first quoted section has the reporter saying "A sense of entitlement is not the only stereotype attached to millennials in the workplace." lol so asking for an apology for religious discrimination is 'entitlement', in the opinion of this reporter? ceo fella actually sounds p reasonable about it

that article is horrible, it's like two anecdotes surrounded with random fluffy assertions that seem either obviously dumb and wrong or pointless and unprovable.

yep

“We called people on phones and we — I don’t know — we faxed people,” Ms. Plank said, sounding exasperated. “And we had to mail things. And no one really took my opinion into consideration.”

the "young at heart" quote is worse, at least the "we faxed people" one makes sense. Either way, both smack of cherry-picking quotes to make someone look like an idiot. Which is fair game, I guess.

http://fusion.net/story/283080/nyt-millennial-trend-story/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/fashion/rat-pack-brat-pack-snapchat.html

*farts*

http://fair.org/home/when-nyt-real-estate-stories-read-like-19th-century-colonial-dispatches/

(maybe one for the gentrification thread, but it's NYT specific, so...)

I read that link at first as "WHY nyt real estate stories..." and was intrigued.

Life is a series of disappointments.

http://www.elle.com/beauty/health-fitness/a28600/amanda-chantal-bacon-moon-juice-food-diary/

clickhole getting predictable these days tbh

a rare edition of "the hunt" that feels like what hunting for an apartment in new york feels like for most people
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/realestate/a-bed-stuy-apartment-well-known-terrain.html

my "NY Today" email opens:

Good morning on this meh Friday.

"Meh Friday" is traditionally observed in the Hamptons. Tinged with melancholy, it is the 2nd-to-last Friday before Labor Day, and therefore the final weekend before you have to start thinking about packing things up for the summer.

Mom and Dad's $400k plus a program meant for people who can't afford homes in NY = success
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/realestate/an-unexpected-route-to-williamsburg.html?_r=0

v good tipsy

“Throwing my money away in rent was making me nauseous.”

i have heard this tone deaf mess in conversations w other 20 somethings and in every case it was in a convo about acquisition of real estate via mom & dad, either outright or via "help with a downpayment" a la this profile. not sure if it's meant to be a justification/guilt-driven rationalization for accepting a gift of this size or what.

also, i mean, come on...

She decided to find out what $400,000 would buy elsewhere in Brooklyn. “I am a person who can make a lot out of nothing,”

makin' love makin' love
(out of nothing at all)

bwahahaha xp

feel like you may not be joking tipsy

400k in nyc might feel like nothing if you grew up scion of the owner of an 8 mil brownstone
but in that hypothetical, said scion is of course fooling themselves.

mixed feelings here
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/realestate/when-the-dog-decides-where-you-live.html

the human protags of this article are literally named the Funds.

candid photo of mr fund:
http://i.imgur.com/kB4QVmj.gif

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/07/movies/nitehawk-to-open-a-second-cinema-in-brooklyn.html
I am the prime demo for this place and even so:

“We had to decide, do we build condos or do we save Brooklyn?” said Mr. Hidary, who is from Midwood. “So we saved Brooklyn.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/23/upshot/i-paid-2500-for-a-hamilton-ticket-im-happy-about-it.html?&moduleDetail=section-news-3&action=click&contentCollection=Your%20Money®ion=Footer&module=MoreInSection&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&pgtype=article

lol at the punchline. "N. GREGORY MANKIW is a professor of economics at Harvard."

"That is indeed lamentable."

In 2009, while the economy was suffering through the Great Recession, Mr. Leno, a car enthusiast, generously performed two free “Comedy Stimulus” shows for unemployed workers near Detroit.

Yet zero is not, as economists put it, the equilibrium price to see a live performance by Jay Leno. Some of the unemployed who received free tickets tried to turn around and sell them on eBay for about $800. When Mr. Leno learned about this, he objected, and eBay agreed to take down offers to resell the tickets.

well this doesn't seem like Leno at all

paying $800 to see Jay Leno makes me think some people are from the alternate universe where that seems like a good idea

there are many punchlines in that article

His entire career is based on saying "The price is the right price because it's the price someone paid which is good" over and over again.

"It sucks that you can't afford these tickets. Yet there is another way to view the situation, which is that I can afford them!"

He has previously written a paper called "Defending the One Percent" and was an adviser to Romney and to Dubya.

yeah he's a big name in apologetics for the wealthy

That article points out the astonishing fact that when there's a limited supply of something that lots of people find desirable, then the wealthiest people hog it all for themselves. Which is an extremely fair system, because some people having lots of money when other people have very little money is just the way it is, so like it or lump it.

his big solution is for them to just raise the base prices of tickets. but that would mean the secondhand tickets he bought would be way more expensive as well.

his theory that demand would decrease bc it's expensive is undercut by the fact that he is personally demonstrating people will pay extra for these luxury items and in fact take pleasure in out-wealthing other richies.

luv the contrast to this editorial: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/24/opinion/struggling-to-serve-at-the-nations-richest-university.html

when i did econ 101 we were taught from this mankiw book. it was very well written and easy to understand. one of the only university textbooks i had that i felt did a good job of explaining the basic concepts of a field of study to the novice. the thing was though, iirc, it had various little bits about how corporate taxes, rent controls, minimum wages, etc. are bad. it was the only general introductory textbook i had in school that had an explicit political agenda, and we studied it as if it were just "the truth" and not just one take.

All Karen Hendrickson wanted was the latest pocketbook from Gucci, the Sylvie, with a glittering gold chain down the front.

But she had to explain herself over and over to police officers who stopped and questioned her, and searched her shopping bags as she sought to cross Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. She was trying to reach the Gucci flagship store on the corner of 56th Street, but her shopping trip had an unusual impediment: Gucci is inside Trump Tower. Fifty-eight stories above is the penthouse of President-elect Donald J. Trump, who was engaged in the rocky business of selecting his administration.

Well, if this doesn't turn them against him, I don't know what will.

via deadspin: this is from a toronto star article but w/e i didn't know where else to put it.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/ujonl99cvplfh7gneaso.png

septum piercing really makes that for me

Is he going to raise that kale in place of a son?