So says the richest woman in the world, Gina Rinehart (who, interestingly, looks like a stereotypical homeless woman).
LA Times snarks "Yeah, let them eat cake," but that that make sense? "Let them eat cake" is the line attributed to the completely out-of-touch queen to make her look like she thinks people without access to bread could get to cake as an alternative.
As one biographer of [Marie Antoinette] notes, it was a particularly useful phrase to cite because "the staple food of the French peasantry and the working class was bread, absorbing 50 per cent of their income, as opposed to 5 per cent on fuel; the whole topic of bread was therefore the result of obsessional national interest."Of course, the queen didn't actually say "Let them eat cake." It was always only propaganda. When else should we mobilize this propaganda? For Gina Rinehart?
पोस्ट्स
१०७ टिप्पण्या:
Maybe she's being honest about what worked for her.
Honestly, at my humble level as a pizza driver, I see an awful lot of people who would do better if they worked more and smoked and partied less.
I have an easy job but I seem to get more out of it than anyone else.
And nobody seems to refute that the recommendation is a good one.
don't just sit there and complain..."
Inherit it, like I did!
What I tell my children, and have told my children is this... live below your income. No matter how little money you make, unless you make nothing at all, you can do this. Spend less than you make. Live in a smaller apartment than you can afford. Pay on a cheaper car than you can afford.
Do I do that? Do my husband and I do that? No. We spend every cent we ever get. Our obligations take every cent. It's a bad bad habit and I don't want my children to get in that rut because "downsizing" your own life is really hard.
Now, why, why is it somehow HORRIBLE to tell people what we'd tell our children? We love our children. We tell them the truth. If they start out avoiding debt whenever possible, living below their means and saving a cushion that covers several to many months of rent or mortgage, investing or saving a portion of every check instead of putting themselves in the position to *need* every cent of it... they will do well. Far better than we did.
stereotypical homeless woman
Cuz she's fat?
I believe the "cake" Marie Antoinette was referring to was the creosote build up in the stoves known as "cake"...at least that is what I heard...could be wrong.
I've heard that as the story was told in French, Marie was informed that there was no "pain" (regular flour, water, yeast bread in French) and replied that "they" could eat "brioche" (another type of bread enriched with egg and milk). Marie was lucky enough to be born into the social class that didn't have to worry about having enough to eat. Of course, her luck ran out.
Let them eat microwaveable pork rinds and drink Olde English 40 ouncers.
French law required bakers to sell "brioche," or "cake," at the same price as bread if their shops ran short on bread. When the peasants complained that there was no bread at the bakeries, it made sense to wonder why they didn't eat "cake."
Yes, but that would mean they'd have to stop screwing around, go back to school, get some discipline, get off booze and drugs, and start acting responsibly.
How insensitive can you get?
Reinhart works. She has taken the companies she inherited and greatly enhanced their value. The press and the book writers love to take shots at her, but she has been tougher, had better vision and worked harder than her rivals. The quote is vintage Reinhart. Tell the truth and let the PC whiners rage at her. What she said is accurate. It's no less accurate because she inherited some of her now vastly expanded wealth.
As a child in Catholic school I was taught that jealousy is a sin. What others have is not relevant to your own lot in life. If you are not happy with it, you can change things by your own effort. Otherwise thank God every day for what you have, tangible and otherwise, and leave the possessions of others out of your thoughts.
What is completely lost on leftists is that wealth creation is not a zero-sum game. Just because Rinehart has more, it does not follow that anyone has less. Her investment in industry creates jobs, and those jobs create wealth, for worker and investor alike. If investors like Rinehart weren't there to provide capital, we would all still be plowing our forty acres with a spavined mule.
She looks like she could maybe share a sandwich with a poor person every now and again and not be much worse off.
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That's an article in the business section of a major newspaper? It reads more like a half-assed lefty blog post.
spam alert
"Now, why, why is it somehow HORRIBLE to tell people what we'd tell our children? We love our children. We tell them the truth. If they start out avoiding debt whenever possible, living below their means and saving a cushion that covers several to many months of rent or mortgage, investing or saving a portion of every check instead of putting themselves in the position to *need* every cent of it... they will do well. Far better than we did."
I agree and so did Charles Dickens;
"The effects of his father having to go to debtor’s prison left an indelible mark on the young Charles. He put these words into the mouth of David Copperfield‘s Mr Micawber: “if a man had twenty pounds a year, and spent nineteen pounds nineteen shillings and sixpence, he would be happy; but a shilling spent the other way would make him wretched”.
Dickens’s estate on his death was £93,000, comfortably making him a millionaire by today’s standards. And this despite being known for his generosity.
Always spend less than you earn."
"If you're jealous of those with more money,..."
You've got a problem because, like being good looking or talented or anything, there's ALWAYS going to be someone,...
Whud she look like?
Forty miles of bad highway!
I think the pre-20th Century focus on commodities is not quite fully understood by the supermarket shopping populace of today.
http://robcubbon.com/charles-dickens-2012/
The above link regarding my earlier posted comment quoting the Dickens character.
"When else should we mobilize this propaganda?"
Apparently whenever it advances the agenda of liberal Dems.
Re: Sam L:
And nobody seems to refute that the recommendation is a good one.
Snarking about hard work and discipline is how they keep the poor poor and stupid in good old California.
Marie Antoinette. Evil snarky bitch queen or deluded air head blonde?
OR
You can't have your cake and eat it if your head's been whacked off.
Re: Dave:
I've heard that as the story was told in French, Marie was informed that there was no "pain" (regular flour, water, yeast bread in French) and replied that "they" could eat "brioche" (another type of bread enriched with egg and milk). Marie was lucky enough to be born into the social class that didn't have to worry about having enough to eat. Of course, her luck ran out.
Pretty sure it's just made-up agitprop attributed to Marie Antoinette by vile Frenchmen searching for some feeble justification for their despicable behaviour during the Terror.
She said, "If you're jealous . . . ." The statement was not about getting rich. It was about not being envious.
There's a reason that envy is one of the Seven Deadly Sins. Even if you don't believe in divine judgment, and think only about your life here on Earth, envy will hurt you, badly.
So will sloth, another of the big seven.
Pretty good advice, offered for free. I say take it.
She's clear ... concise ... and right.
don't just sit there and complain..."
Inherit it, like I did!
What do you make of Howard Hughes?
She looks like she could maybe share a sandwich with a poor person every now and again
I think it likely she does do that.
The French citizens said: "This is the head of one who toyed with our honor."
@EMD
I don't really care. She's rich, that's great. I don't want to hear what this cow thinks of the poor making money when she inherited hers. On top of it she's carping about the minimum wage?
Stories about inherited money are bogus.
So we should tell stories about poor immigrant parents who took risks and worked unreal hours and gave their children better futures.
Oh, wait...
Honest... it's like taking relationship advice from someone who's been divorced twice, or parenting advice from someone with only one or two children... who are still toddlers.
Whatever you think of her, it's still good advice.
It doesn't say, "If you want to be rich like me." It's "if you want more money."
Instead of doing something that doesn't make money, and complaining about not having money, do something that makes money.
If you're poor, that'll help you be less poor.
Here's the actual story. Louis had implemented price controls on bread when the price of flour went up. Rather than go out of business, bakeries responded by making pastries, which did not fall under price controls. Louis countered with another rule that required any bakery out of bread to sell cake at the price of bread.
M. A. thought her husband had solved the problem. When informed that the people had no bread, she replied with "Well then, let them eat cake" in accord with Louis' latest edict.
Living paycheck to paycheck is risky. Playing with an inherited fortune, not so much.
Here's the actual story. Louis had implemented price controls on bread when the price of flour went up. Rather than go out of business, bakeries responded by making pastries, which did not fall under price controls. Louis countered with another rule that required any bakery out of bread to sell cake at the price of bread.
M. A. thought her husband had solved the problem. When informed that the people had no bread, she replied with "Well then, let them eat cake" in accord with Louis' latest edict.
As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians:
3:6 In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you, brothers and sisters, to keep away from every believer who is idle and disruptive and does not live according to the teaching you received from us. 7 For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example. We were not idle when we were with you, 8 nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it.
On the contrary, we worked night and day, laboring and toiling so that we would not be a burden to any of you. 9 We did this, not because we do not have the right to such help, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you to imitate. 10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
11 We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. 12 Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle d
I started out adult life homeless and on food stamps. There may be many ways out of that, but no matter what else you do, you must as Synova says: "Spend less than you make." Even though I was unemployed and broke, the first step out of that hole was to save up $300 dollars. It was very hard, but as soon as I got it, I left my hometown, and being a beggar behind, forever.
The working hard part is a no-brainer, but even that will not get you anywhere unless you control your spending. Like our nation, you can have a huge income and still be broke.
The reason the peasants were so poor in the France of that era, of course, was that the political class was absorbing way too much of the national income.
Is this really an era in history that the Obamian "progressives," who are even now in the process of converting DC into a new Versailles, should want people thinking about?
Charles Dickens, in the voice of Mr. Micawber: "Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."
"Living paycheck to paycheck is risky. Playing with an inherited fortune, not so much"
I'm not so sure about that. I would put my money on the one living paycheck to paycheck with a good work and saving ethic, over the inheritor without it.
Regardless, most of us don't inherit, so her advise is the only real chance we have. Unfortunately, some people let government and or sloth take away that one shot we have.
Mostly she looks like a woman who's gotten to the point in her life where she isn't all that concerned about her looks, if she ever was. And her message wasn't about how to look good, it was about how to have more money. Although looking good is sometimes an important part of accomplishing that. Except at her age looking good wouldn't really help all that much, not in this economy, not if she were unemployed and looking for some way to work hard and not be a whiner. She doesn't have to worry about that though. She can look however she wants. At least no one's going to be jealous of that.
She is so rich that she could have Brad Pitt cook her dinner and stay the night. She has that much money, that she could make a millionaire into a golddigger.
bagoh20:
"I started out adult life homeless and on food stamps."
I have a suggestion that -- knowing you only from your posts, which I admire -- you may already have done. Tally up what you got in foodstamps and send a check for it to the Bureau of Public Debt (think I have the name right). Some years after I got off foodstamps, I did this. Later I learned I had received financial aid for my children at a private school. (Divorce, loss of job, miscommunication....) I did the same then, except also taught them to start an endowment fund with my payback. You feel cleaner if you reimburse the charity you have received.
Ann you need some extra context on the whole thing.
What you do not know is that our Fabian Socialist government has been demonising Gina Rinehart. She is a very wealthy woman who inherited her wealth, but she has also built up what was her father's business.
The problem is that Wayne Goose (actually Wayne Swan) who is our stupid Treasurer has decided on class warfare as a means of hitting out at the people who actually still employ miners and the like. Goosey brought in a Mining Tax which is over and above ordinary taxes and then we have the tax on the air that we breathe.
With this background, I hope that this gives some more context to what Gina said. She was not aiming at the people in the street, yet the media over here have beaten up the comment to make it out as if Gina was saying that we had to give up the smokes and drinking and the drugs.... but then again if people did that then they would have extra cash in their pockets....
I rear that "cake" did not refer toa pastry but to a by-product of bread making. The bread ovens doubled as a working surface for kneading and shaping the bread dough.
Since the overns were masonry, pieces of brick and mortar would contaminate the dougn unless the first batch of dough was used to cover the work surface. This would form a layer of flat bread that would be heavily contaminated with abrasive material that would ruin human teeth in short order.
In good times, the cake was used as livestock feed. In bad time, the poor would eat the cake and suffer as a result.
This also explains the related saying about "you can't have your cake and eat it, too."
The more you learn about this lady, the more of a vapid waste she seems to be. Makes the Kardashians look three-dimensional.
bagoh20: I enjoy your posts. I didn't know where you came from.
Congratulations.
"Tally up what you got in foodstamps and send a check for it to the Bureau of Public Debt (think I have the name right)"
I was on food stamps for about one month, so probably about $100. I don't even know why I did it. I wasn't gonna starve, but it was free money, and all my friends were doing it, so I did. I was surviving doing odd jobs like cutting grass, and handyman stuff, when I could find it. The idea of food stamps though kind of snapped me out of it, and told me I needed a plan, and it was the turning point for me.
Anyway, I have no guilt about the money, I have paid literally millions in taxes, so I think we're even, but just as a personal token I just might do that. Thanks.
Inherit it, like I did!
...enjoy your envy, but don't let facts get in the way.
Rinehart inherited $70 Million and turned it into $30 Billion.
It took a lot of hard work to get that ROI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Rinehart
This inheritance PIG is the last one to be lecturing the rest of us.
Mr. Lazarus appears to need some education in economics. I suggest he spend some time reading Thomas Sowell's "Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy" now in its 4th edition, I believe. And considering Mr. Lazarus is a journalist, he will no doubt be pleased that there's not much math.
After reading the SF Chronicle for over 40 years, I dropped my subscription after Lazarus became the "business" columnist for that paper, writing daily doses of Marxist anti-capitalist claptrap. I called him the anti-business columnist, a perfect fit for San Francisco.
"bagoh20: I enjoy your posts. I didn't know where you came from."
Although we started out poor, my family was solid middle class by the time I was in high school. My parents just were not gonna pay my bills on principle. They let me live at home for a short while, but eventually that just ate me up, and I had to jump out of the nest. Nothing exceptional at all.
I've done OK since then due to picking the right values, the right people, and the right luck. A great result is that I have no fear of being poor, and I never thought of it as anything other than a temporary situation.
I have always ever known fabulous riches. I throw away gold coins because I have too many. I go to all the swanky parties without an invitation because I'm on the permanent invite list. That's just how much I rock.
Even the people bagging on her here know that she's right. It's not even controversial, unless you're in the throes of class warfare. Get off your ass, party less and work harder? Who wouldn't want their kids to get that message? What's the alternative?
bagoh - but you just don't say what she said in public without everyone hating your guts.
If your first impulse is seemingly to go directly to ad hominem and then stay there in comment after comment, you might consider studying some logic. The merits are a good place to focus. Ad hominem is obviously impertinent, and tiresome.
Ah, the minimum wage was mentioned indignantly too. What better tool to keep young, inexperienced people unemployed to the maximum in order to protect labor unions from price competition. Positively dastardly.
"Let them eat cake" was apparently J-J Rousseau espousing the cause of the common man:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake
Cheers
Alex, I don't hate her guts. Yours, neither, but I could be convinced to dislike them a bit.
garage mahal, your avatar pic reminds me of Molly Ivins. Doesn't look like the pix at Wikipedia, though, so I'll cut you some slack.
There are probably .000001% of the people on Earth who get an inheritance.
The rest of us have to work. It may seem cold, but it's realistic.
If she's been demonized for years I can understand how she might be tired enough of the BS to tell people to go get their own.
Would everyone feel better if she lost it all and became poor? All the people she employs won't feel better.
Marie Antoinette was slandered. I understand she really was concerned with the poor. As Minicapt above points out, it was that nasty man, Rousseau who wrote that phrase. But our educated elites in journalism are too ignorant or lazy to correct their programmed biases and errors.
Marie Antoinette was a member of the royal house. Thus, she deserved to die.
Of course Marie did not say "Let them eat cake."
She spoke French.
Hilarious that the author of this blog post neglected to include the salient point of the article:
"Rinehart made her money the old-fashioned way: She inherited it. Her family iron ore prospecting fortune of $30.1 billion makes her Australia's wealthiest person and the richest woman on the planet."
Good old-fashioned Republican bootstrapping is looking less and less prescriptive and more like wishful and condescending thinking.
I notice in the Wikipedia entry that the lovely Gina is widowed. How sad. I might be able to offer her some small comfort in her loneliness. Would anyone happen to have a contact number?
A woman with a little meat on her bones can be quite seductive under the proper circumstances.
Obese is a lot more then having a little meat on the bones. My god, that woman is gross.
Marie Antoinette was a member of the royal house. Thus, she deserved to die.
And here's the resident junior libertarian in training waxing sarcastic about the dangers of abolishing monarchy.
Ever wonder why libertarians in America can't garner more than 5% of the vote? They're generally apologists for every other sort of practical restriction on your opportunity that you can imagine.
Not a credible or coherent philosophical framework. Newsflash: Private actors can abuse your liberty too, and they often will try to get away with it!!!
Irene:
French law required bakers to sell "brioche," or "cake," at the same price as bread if their shops ran short on bread. When the peasants complained that there was no bread at the bakeries, it made sense to wonder why they didn't eat "cake."
Which is why, if I were a French baker at the time, I would be damned sure to be out of "brioche" before I ran out of bread.
If I didn't buy the extra eggs, sugar and milk, I wouldn't be giving them away for free. Understand?
Wyo sis, that comes out to 70 people out of 7 billion getting an inheritance.
Pick your poison: ignorance, innumeracy or ridiculously gross exaggeration?
I suspect that there are more flattering photos of that woman. At any rate, when you're worth thirty billion, there's no great need to look good. The world is full of people who will commpliment her on her peastant heartiness and consider it an honor to spend time in her company.
There's more to the story. Marie's husband inherited a huge debt from his father. The new king tried to pay it off by inflating (debasing) the currency.
That resulted in the price increases which he tried to prevent with price controls on bread. Of course, the bakers made sure they "ran out" of bread so their customers would have to buy things the bakers could make money on.
Then the king decreed that if they ran out of bread, then they had to sell "cake" at the price of bread. Marie knew about the laws, so her comment was perfectly reasonable--except, of course, the bakers made sure they were "out of" "cake" as well.
So, Marie was no more "out-of-touch" than the average politician who inflates the currency and fixes prices (but I repeat myself).
I grew up very poor. I never missed a meal, but there were eviction notices, toothaches, and worn out shoes. Poverty is embarassing and sometimes physically painful....In America it's not an impossible feat to rise out of poverty, but poverty is a moveable famine. A lot of if becomes internalized. I'm no longer a poor person, but I have all sorts of residual tics and grimaces that will never go away. My pennypinching ways got me out of poverty, but subverted my domestic life and caused me to miss some of life's best flavors.......Eh, bien. The hardest thing to do in life is to figure out what to do with it. At least I knew that my life had a purpose. The purpose of my life was to make money. Not ennobling, but there are far more sordid biographies than mine.
"Pick your poison: ignorance, innumeracy or ridiculously gross exaggeration?"
Are you threatening to poison her? That's pretty near a crime. You should be more careful with language. We are very serious here, and take everything literal. Anal and literal, that's us.
She spoke French
As a second language. As the daughter of Maria Theresa, her native tongue was Austrian.
> As a child in Catholic school I was taught that jealousy is a sin.
Jealousy/envy is the only one of the "seven deadly sins" that provides no benefit to the sinner.
During Bush's recession, the median income went down about 3%. During Obama's recovery, the median income has gone down about 5%.
Which of those things is better for poor people?
During the "horrible" Reagan years, the income received by the lowest 20% doubled.
At this point, the poor will be lucky to break even under Obama.
Also, during the Reagan years, there was a lot of mobility between income brackets. Do you see any poor people making it under Obama?
The reason why Democrats rant about the 1000 folks who inherit fortunes is that they can't talk about what Democrats have done to poor people.
There are two kinds of envy:
1. destructive one, and ...
2. constructive one.
The first is of the kind of "if I don't have, you should not have either" is the one the socialists and communists count on in their theories and work hard to appeal to, and it's the one that destroys prosperity.
The second is of the kind of "if you/someone have/could do, I can have/can do the same and more/better" is the one subscibed to by majority of, if not all, successful people, and is the one that creates prosperity. This is the one exercised for by Gina Rinehart also.
garage mahal said...
Living paycheck to paycheck is risky. Playing with an inherited fortune, not so much.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And you know this because you inherited fortune, right?
There's a reason why the Tenth Commandment exists. And in a free-market economy, there's no need to covet what belongs to your neighbor -- just go out and get it for yourself.
Unfortunately, since most atheists discredit the Ten Commandments and the book in which they're found as ancient superstitious claptrap, they spend most of their time ignoring its advice in favor of the highly sophisticated, modern and scientific pursuit of class hatred and warfare.
"Reinhart works. She has taken the companies she inherited...."
Stop right there. Problem diagnosed.
All the poor people around the world who fail to enhance the value of the companies they inherit when they come of age have no one to blame but themselves. Fucking crybabies.
Unfortunately, since most atheists discredit the Ten Commandments and the book in which they're found as ancient superstitious claptrap, they spend most of their time ignoring its advice in favor of the highly sophisticated, modern and scientific pursuit of class hatred and warfare
The hardest part to overcome is the mental inertia.
But desire must come first and then the act.
People like garage can't visualize a world where they are successful on their own. They then have to denigrate anyone who is financially successful. It makes the pain of their own existance bearable. To them anyone who owns their own business is "rich" and somehow manipulated the "system' to get more than their share.
It is thois bedrock peasant attitude that the democrats rely on.
For those who complain about others making more money than they do, there's the time-honored retort:
"I upped my income. Up yours."
Re: "Let them eat cake."
Aside from the likelihood that Marie-Antoinette never uttered said words, the connotation of the phrase is completely misunderstood. According to a very knowledgeable guide we had at Versailles in April, "cake" referred to the creosote at the bottom of the oven, essentially the dregs left from baking actual bread. So, the statement is not ironic - it is sincere and appropriate (if a bit callous).
By the way, this guide also gave us a nice perspective on the life of M-A: a 14-year-old girl who was uprooted from her Austrian home as part of a diplomatic deal, and thrown into the dying days of the French monarchy, dying because of the profligacy of Louis XV and XVI. How did she become the symbol of that profligacy?
VekTor
How about:
Knowledge that some alien species would do the math and make an issue out of it.
For those Americans in the 20th to 95th percentile in income/wealth, we live better than 99% of all the people who ever lived on this planet. Most of the bottom 20% live better than 95% of all the people who ever lived.
What's with the jealousy? Be grateful for the relatively easy life so many of us live.
There are ways to have more money that are not dishonest [although various gov't actions make it harder and harder]; they involve a bit more than that suggested, but not that much. It's the doing it that's hard.
If someone else has more than you, but you have what you need or want [mostly], be grateful. You too can have more. It's not a zero sum game.
"All the poor people around the world who fail to enhance the value of the companies they inherit when they come of age have no one to blame but themselves. Fucking crybabies."
Pretty much.
Think about it Cook.
Unless something has *happened* and certainly life may *happen* to you, even if you come into the world having inherited a great deal life may *happen* and take it all away, unless you are completely disabled, hit by a truck or *die*, why is "enhance the value of what you inherit" an evil thing to say?
Anyone can "enhance the value of what you inherit".
What is truly evil, Cook, is telling people that they can't do that; fill them with despair and then call yourself the good guy? Really?
Enhance what you inherit. Because you did inherit something.
It's a better plan than stealing what someone else inherited because you have convinced yourself that you're owed.
Redistribute that wealth so that the unfair inheritors have less to enhance and you get to live on it until it's all gone.
And then it's gone.
garage mahal said...
Living paycheck to paycheck is risky. Playing with an inherited fortune, not so much.
Hysterical.
Yes, because as we all know, those with the most to lose don't have much risk.
You are an abject idiot in every sense of the words.
O Ritmo Segundo said...
Hilarious that the author of this blog post neglected to include the salient point of the article:
Actually retard that isn't the "salient point" at all since she actually grew the businesses.
Everything you post here is a lie or in service to a lie.
Not only did she not exactly say that; it was not exactly Marie Antoinette who said it.
It was a Spanish Bourbon princess, and the occasion was at the end of a garden party at Versailles, where the locals doubled as wait- and bussing staff and had the privilege (at that time) of keeping the leftover food, and the princess was admonishing the noble guests not to mess up the food for them. However it is said in French, it was, "Keep the food clean; remeember it is for the poor!" or something like that.
"Do something to make more money yourself — spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working."
Psh. Next she's going to tell me to lose weight I'll need to eat less and exercise more. I don't want unpleasant truths this early in the morning.
Damn, our resident libs are vile fuckers.
Normal libs used to make an impassioned plea for equality of opportunity and the dignity of the individual.
Now it's class warfare and calling this woman a "cow."
You're a total embarrassment, even to your own.
Well, the fish rots from the head down. You people think your envy is acceptable because your leadership is utterly shameless.
Now's a good time to revisit Heinlein:
Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.
This is known as “bad luck.”
Heinlein had you libtards pegged.
Did you notice that Ralph 1:17 AM is channeling Obama? Watch out for that guy!
"That's an article in the business section of a major newspaper? It reads more like a half-assed lefty blog post."
It's the LA (Left Angeles) Times. The NYT is a centrist beacon of objectivity in comparison.
In any case, I'd have to agree that living below one's means is (when possible) a reasonably easy way to reduce one's anxiety about one's economic life.
Which is to say, a miserable bear of a boss is much less threatening when you know you've got a big enough nest egg to survive even prolonged unemployment without any major losses.
There's the bad luck where everyone gets together to punish those who are successful. This seldom punishes the richest woman in the world or those like her even though it is meant to, mostly it just punishes those struggling to build something from nothing. Political "bad luck".
But certainly there is actual bad luck, too. Getting sick or other things in the "act of God" category.
But mostly people create their own personal bad luck. Why did this lady take what was given to her and make a fortune and other people waste inheritances or lottery wins and end up with absolutely nothing?
It can't be what you start with, money-wise.
Re: Zimmerman:
According to a very knowledgeable guide we had at Versailles in April, "cake" referred to the creosote at the bottom of the oven, essentially the dregs left from baking actual bread. So, the statement is not ironic - it is sincere and appropriate (if a bit callous).
Even the French wikipedia says the phrase was:
Qu'ils mangent de la brioche!
I'll admit my French is poor, but I don't know how you can translate brioche to mean the stuff caked at the bottom of an oven. Brioche is brioche.
In the late 70s, I was a 2LT in the Air Force—I started as enlisted in 1970. With every raise, cost of living increase, and promotion, I put half of the increase in savings. I knew I could live on what I was making before so it was not a sacrifice for me to do that. In the 80s, I started buying stock with that money. Now I have a portfolio that includes IBM, GE, Home Depot, Duke Energy, Exxon-Mobile, Chevron-Texaco, Spectra Energy, Toyota, Ford, and Bank of America. BTW, when BOA stock tanked, I sold it and bought it back after 30 days, generating a tax loss and still having same number of shares paying dividends. I also have several mutual funds and IRAs. I figured out how to do this by reading and paying attention. I figure if I could do it, most people could.
balfegor:
"I'll admit my French is poor, but I don't know how you can translate brioche to mean the stuff caked at the bottom of an oven. Brioche is brioche."
Note also how extremely unlikely it is that a young princess from another nation, speaking a second language, would be acquainted with a slang industrial term of art. About as likely as Carolyn Kennedy using the term "fluxing" metaphorically. How often do you suppose she tosses resin into the pot of molten lead she is using to cast .45 slugs, in order to purify it? There are some useful metaphors here, but they are unlikely to occur to one of our 'aristocracy.' So too, I think, for Marie Antoinette.
When I arrived in Alaska in 1975, a twenty-year-old living on my own for the first time, one of the first stops my friends and I made was at the Job Service office. We were under the misapprehension that they would help us find a job. Truly, the place should have been called the Unemployment Insurance Service, because filling out applications for that was all we accomplished there. The federal functionary there recommended that we go across the street and apply for food stamps. Being young and used to doing what we were told, we did that. As luck would have it, we had arrived at the end of one food stamp month and the beginning of another, so we qualified for both at once. The federal functionary there seemed overjoyed to put us on the food stamp rolls. Within two weeks we all had jobs, no thanks to Uncle Sam. We took our food stamps and threw a party for the neighborhood, with a ham, a turkey, and all the trimmings. In later years the memory of this profligacy had a lot to do with my becoming conservative.
Dave said...
"I've heard that as the story was told in French, Marie was informed that there was no "pain" (regular flour, water, yeast bread in French) and replied that "they" could eat "brioche" (another type of bread enriched with egg and milk). Marie was lucky enough to be born into the social class that didn't have to worry about having enough to eat. Of course, her luck ran out."
Nice try with the working of class war back in. Yes; your quote is close to what she said... plus the bread market was regulated even back in her time. Her argument, or point was, if there is no bread buy the buns. They ough to be lowered in price to match bread if the bakers have no bread....
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