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

that atlantic article is kind of amazing

best argument for wealth-redistribution ive seen this week

Many wealthy parents structure their children’s inheritances such that the money arrives only in discrete packets, timed to ensure that during their formative years they have no choice but to find a vocation. But Kenny hasn’t seen the strategy work, he says, because the children always know that the money is out there, and usually their friends do too. “We try to get our kids to do chores,” one survey respondent complains, but it’s hard to get them to mow the lawn when “we have an almost full-time gardener.”

life is tough

i mean really the whole article basically is like "being rich sucks," at which point its like, so why bother having rich people??

my old roommate believed in a flat 100% inheritance tax, as a leveling mechanism, with a few provisos for orphaned children and v. v. minimal cost-of-living allowances for spouses. but i've always wondered about the idea: you can give away all your shit before you die, but once you've kicked the bucket, your money goes straight into the welfare system.

best argument for wealth-redistribution ive seen this week

― ☂ (max), Tuesday, July 5, 2011 10:53 AM (29 minutes ago)

how does it rank among the best pro-wealth redistribution articles of the year, though? 2011 has been particularly strong

there are a lot of good arguments for wealth-redistribution featured in articles in this thread!

my old roommate believed in a flat 100% inheritance tax, as a leveling mechanism, with a few provisos for orphaned children and v. v. minimal cost-of-living allowances for spouses. but i've always wondered about the idea: you can give away all your shit before you die, but once you've kicked the bucket, your money goes straight into the welfare system.

― remy bean, Tuesday, July 5, 2011 11:02 AM (27 minutes ago)

ideologically i am 100% behind this but i doubt even a democratic congress with a demmocratic president these days would even approach this - oh wait they just reduced this last year! death tax!

Serious suggestion: people who inherit that level of wealth, instead of worrying about having v. not having jobs, should just start some kind of vanity business and employ people. Best case scenario it might even be profitable.

You mean like the Trump family? :)

Or Jared Kushner, or dubya, I guess

'the only thing that makes me unhappier than having all this money is the thought of someone else having it'

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/nyregion/more-apartments-are-empty-yet-rented-or-owned-census-finds.html?_r=1&hp

Slightly lateral to topic, but this (old) story indicates there's a lot of vacant residences in Sydney too.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/empty-dwellings-in-a-city-desperate-for-places-to-live/2008/05/25/1211653847174.html

"He described the part-timers as 'skim-milk New Yorkers — only 2 percent.'"

No offense to the author and keen urban observer Gay Talese, but skim milk and 2% milk are two different things.

Ha i thought the exact same thing.

“This is not the kind of neighborhood people like us move into,” said Zayd Brewer, known to friends as Spaceman

you know, that's not really a quiddities one; that's more like a buncha young kids getting fucked up and in over their heads and is generally redeemed for me by the last line.

poor kids!

tho

P.M.E.R. — a “psychedelic punk-rap” outfit that stands for Power.Music.Electric.Revival.

b.o.b. has been moved down to #2 on the list of "worst band/artist name derived from the outkast song 'b.o.b'"

its sad, they were a psychedelic punk-rap outfit

poor kids!

― ☂ (max), Thursday, July 7, 2011 11:10 AM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah srsly, theyre just like unlucky, or maybe their neighbors just h8 them idk, i had friends who lived around the corner from there for years w/o incident for year

years

actually it was like ten blocks and one subway stop away

also that neighborhood being east of stuyvesant ave is known as stuyvesant heights

feel like if you're gonna be playin bass guitar 24/7 someone's gonna notice

god why wont they just stfu w/that gdamn bass

we could just take it from them

someone should tell P.M.E.R. "don't pull the thang outlive in bedford-stuyvesant unless you plan to bang"

I am listening to B.O.B. in their honor, though, but fwiw I always heard it as "pop music electrical revival" I guess that was maybe their mistake??

"pop cult music electrical revival" I meant I guess I'm gonna be robbed now too

That's...weird. I only live a few blocks from that corner and it doesn't feel like that to me at all.

someone should tell P.M.E.R. "don't pull the thang outlive in bedford-stuyvesant unless you plan to bang"

― dayo, Thursday, July 7, 2011 11:27 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

also that neighborhood being east of stuyvesant ave is known as stuyvesant heights

― ice cr?m, Thursday, July 7, 2011 11:23 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what part of BETWEEN BEDFORD AND STUYVESANT AVES DOES EVERYONE NOT UNDERSTAND

quiddities and agonies of neighborhood boundary pedants

the quality of being a neighborhood boundary pedant only comes from transplants to that area fyi

like I was very confused when I would meet people 'from philly' and they'd be like 'oh yeah I live in the no-libs"

shut up

Also I'm still wondering what "people like us" means when the person who's quoted as saying it is black. People not from the ghetto, I guess? It's not not a ghetto though: every building on my street for blocks in either direction is a well-kept brownstone with nice gardens or potted plants out front and kids riding bikes and scooters. I wouldn't say it's solidly middle-class or anything but it's a neighborhood with stuff going on. I've left my bike outside every night for a month and it's never been so much as knocked down.

*still not a ghetto!

like I was very confused when I would meet people 'from philly' and they'd be like 'oh yeah I live in the no-libs"

shut up

― dayo, Thursday, July 7, 2011

lol

yeah the only bad incident me and my gf had over a year of living there was when this 14 year old girl kind of shoved this other girl into ari so she stepped in a puddle, but 14 yr olds, what are you going to do

they need to go to saraghina and chill out w/ some pizza n wine

I'm sorry, I take that back: one of them says in a photo caption, "The house was like a muse"; also they described themselves as "street-wise". So apparently "people like us" means total idiots.

it is generally more killy over there than most of ny but ny is p safe altogether so idk http://projects.nytimes.com/crime/homicides/map

once the bodega next door burned down

oh hmm and the week we moved out some guy got shot in front of our apartment while we were home

there was a p bonkers incent that happened on my friends corner where there was a shootout between two guys in broad daylight then a cop rolled up and started shooting at them from his car - i read abt it in the nytimes and sent it along to my friends, they had no idea loll

so I'm wondering if losing your $300 security deposit + losing a bass guitar + getting braces is a good exchange for free publicity from the times + street-cred for having been robbed

hmm

the quality of being a neighborhood boundary pedant only comes from transplants to that area fyi

― dayo, Thursday, July 7, 2011 11:33 AM Bookmark

This isn't true.

kinda amazed that there have been no reported murders between 24th and 29th and 6th and 9th ave since before 2003

that map is p fascinating, wish it was up to date

no snitchin