[...] fewer than 10 per cent of new journalists came from a working-class background and only three per cent came from homes headed by semi-skilled or unskilled workers."
10.02.2009
Invisibility of the lowest
[...] fewer than 10 per cent of new journalists came from a working-class background and only three per cent came from homes headed by semi-skilled or unskilled workers."
Purchase the authenticity of homelessness

The pop culture fan is well-splattered. Columnists rip Mattel for mocking homelessness by charging $95 for a doll who uses an armrest for a pillow. Homeless advocates murmur that fortunate families that can afford such playthings could get a clue. Others suggest that Mattel marry the thrill of capitalism to the warmth of charity.
The American Girl folks have stated that they are 'disheartened that there has been any confusion over our fictional characters.'
A peek at the American Girl Web site's comments suggests that however well intentioned a life lesson, a doll is always a doll: One young customer was perplexed by Gwen's lack of accessories. 'I expected some outfits.'"
Via http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2009975550_homelessdoll30.html
8.15.2008
My passion will not be interrupted by collective misery
Why do Americans travel?
In a recent survey taken by American Express Travel, 87% of respondents indicate taking trips for the pursuit of personal passions will continue or even increase over the next two years despite economic conditions.
One's 'personal passion' should not be hampered by an economic recession. To be concerned with or have the ability to indulge one's 'personal passion' in the form of elective travel while a nation's economy points toward collapse is a mark of wealth. ![]()
With wealth, the individual has the power to choose. The act of choosing, albeit in the form of negative freedom, is a hallmark of elite culture. They project this and believe that everyone has an equal freedom to make choices.
So what do wealthy Americans primarily choose as their motive for travel?
42% choose destinations for culinary reasons
Food. Exotic food.
Most people expressed they are also willing to spend more money and stay longer for vacations that further their personal dreams.
Again there is talk of dreams. Personal dreams. Dreaming that is not futile as has the potential to be realized is more probable with money and therefore is the property of our wealthiest citizens.
For the rest of us, we are left with the real.
From: http://www.luxist.com/2008/08/14/personal-passions-fuel-getaway-plans/
8.11.2008
The Level Playing Field
The members of the upper classes should feel the same pride in their achievements as Barry Bonds does about his home run record.
The lower classes should feel that they are Herny Aaron, Roger Maris, and Babe Ruth in contrast.
8.07.2008
Don't get too close to my fantasy
A synopsis of the forthcoming television show, Privileged.
Twenty-three year-old Megan Smith has a Yale education, a relentlessly positive attitude and a plan to conquer the world of journalism, despite the fact that she is currently slaving away at a tabloid rag.
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Megan's plan is thrown off course when, in one whirlwind day, she gets fired, meets cosmetics mogul Laurel Limoges and becomes the live-in tutor for Laurel's twin teen granddaughters in the heady Palm Beach world of wealth and power.
Acquiring access to wealth in America has to be predicated on a fantasy. In this case, it is a "whirlwind day" - think tornado in the Wizard of Oz. An incredible event that takes the protagonist out of her mundane world (the domain of workers) and inserts her into a world of adventure (the domain of rulers). Even so, she remains a servant.
The girls, Rose and Sage, are beautiful, rebellious and less-than-thrilled with their new tutor, but Megan is determined to win them over as she enjoys the perks of her new job - breathtaking private suite, gorgeous convertible and live-in chef Marco.
Rebelling against what, exactly? The confines of their upper class life? The authority of a someone who is beneath their status being in charge of their education? I doubt it's truly a rebellion. More likely, it is a reaction.
And the chef is not white.
Despite her own complicated romantic and family relationships, Megan is committed to making a difference in the lives of her two headstrong charges as she navigates the treacherous waters of high society in Palm Beach.
It is the duty of the lower classes to educate and change the amoral, sociopathic, narcissistic individualism that is inherent in the wealthy, or so the narrative goes. To believe in the possibility of a spontaneous change in the values of the wealthy - or any class - is probably naive.
8.04.2008
It's not an accessory; it's a lifestyle.
Hand-wringing is currently going on at luxury bag manufacturers.
Luxury handbag maker Coach came in with relatively strong numbers for their fiscal fourth quarter but are still feeling gloomy. Although Coach's fourth quarter profit rose 33% the company has predict that the continued consumer cautiousness in the U.S. will reach well into 2009.
Does this type of cautiousness differ in kind or degree when compared to the cautiousness displayed by the American consumer who moves from cheddar cheese to American cheese to nothing?
Coach joins other retailers in predicting reduced spending even among luxury shoppers.
When the superfluous cannot be moved, a principle feature of capitalism is in peril.
Chief Executive Lew Frankfort said in an interview that the company will introduce products with higher material and labor costs at prices lower than they would have charged during more rosy economic times.
Will the laborers who are increasing their workload see any increase in their wages? Or is it piecemeal? Or, more likely, will their increased effort be rewarded with decreasing wages because of the unfortunate "fluctuation" in the market?
From: http://www.luxist.com/2008/07/29/coach-predicts-tough-times-ahead/
7.31.2008
Who gives a shit?
From the BBC:
The British business tycoon Richard Branson has
unveiled an aircraft in the US that will be used for his project to launch tourists into space.
More than 250 people have already paid $200,000 each to be among the first making the tourist trips.
The reality of millionaires and billionaires being catapulted into space does nothing for me.
A nationalized space program is symbolic of a population's collective will to conquer the improbable, whereas privatized space tourism is an example of the elite's ability to transcend the "mundane" and "common" through flamboyant individuality.
Humanity's dreams and hopes (i.e. outer space) are being populated and appropriated by venture capitalists and day traders.
7.28.2008
Let's try colonialism again
From tourism advice provided by the Wall Street Journal:
It's a China that is long past but glimpsed in three remote and astonishingly well-preserved historic cities.
![]()
<begin sarcasm>
The Wall Street Journal is offering tips for upper class travelers to explore the exotic and undisturbed historic savagery of primitive China. How titillating.
The ethnic Naxi people who give Lijiang its character have been largely overwhelmed by Han Chinese hotel developers, tour operators and trinket sellers.
Quick! See the Naxi before they are rendered extinct by development that is in no way encouraged by upper class tourism!
A visitor might not see more than a couple of Western faces, but there are throngs of Chinese tourists descending from the buses parked outside the old city. That's a downside to Pingyao: the sojourn back in time is marred by guides shouting into bullhorns and by tourist shops selling T-shirts and the local peanut brittle.
How dare the Chinese disturb the respectful and demure gaze of the Western tourists who really know how to respect the savages and their earthy ways.
<end sarcasm>
From: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121703383271586729.html?mod=2_1578_topbox
7.25.2008
Fetch me a table away from the rabble
The class separations are being created and marketed for the online world.
In the real world, the average Joe watches the Red Sox-Yankees game from the bleachers while the affluent mingle in the corporate boxes. Everyday Eddie deals with parking and public restrooms during his day at the beach, yet the mega-rich drop their keys with the valet and settle into a reserved lounge chair at a private club.
Online, the waters are parting too.
The "average" and "everyday" are the domain of the lower classes. The wealthy exist in the realm of the exceptional and rare.
Though it once seemed that the Web was the last place where status didn't matter, the elite are now looking for a comfortable place to mingle with like-minded people. They're leaving Facebook and LinkedIn to the riffraff.
"Riffraff". The undesirables must be kept at a distance so as to not pollute the pristine waters of the wealthy.
Some networks come with strict invite-only policies and a rigorous application process based on education, job title, connections and lots of virtual velvet rope.
Once invited to join the network (only selected members with a sturdy Rolodex are given invite powers), a member can browse the market guide (a high-end Craigslist where there are currently 500 member-listed yachts for sale), surf the luxury-travel guide and global-event guide, or participate in forum discussions
"People are unhappy with the free-for-all at LinkedIn and Facebook and MySpace. They are looking for a specialized group to mingle with, and paying a fee weeds out the ones who don't belong," says Chris Curtis, director of Web Business Ownership LLC, a Delaware-based Internet consulting company.
The arguably egalitarian nature of the Internet is undesirable for the "mega-rich". It is a chaotic "free-for-all" that does not give the necessary nod to the exceptional nature of the wealthy. To compete and coexist with the commoners is to sacrifice the individuality and exceptionality that is expected when one is wealthy.
From: http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/02/social-networks-vip-tech-personal-cx_nr_0502style.html
7.23.2008
Simple movements
From a Q&A with where NY residents ask questions of NY Times Metro Editor, Joe Sexton.
Q. The transformation of Manhattan into an exclusive borough for the "super-rich" — I believe that this important issue is under-covered by The Times. Also, the affordable sections of Manhattan (below 14th Street), and the gentrification that has affected southern Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens and now the Bronx. This is having a devastating impact on the middle and working classes.
I live in Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town, which was built for the middle class and is now being turned into ersatz luxury apartments. Typical rents have risen from $1,300 to way over $5,000, and when the lease is renewed, a 17 percent increase is added.A. You are not alone in wondering how people of more modest means manage to stay in Manhattan.
[...] I think we've done some good work trying to capture the full dimensions of the extraordinary remaking of the city that has been under way for years.
[...] We've struggled a bit at getting at what would seem to be some critical issues. If the less well off are being pushed out of the city, for instance, where are they going, and is there a reliable, effective, practical way of actually comprehensively documenting where they've gone? It's trickier than you might think. Or maybe we're just short of good ideas. All suggestions welcome.
We're also currently talking with our reporters about starting a beat we might call "Frontiers'' — a sustained, sophisticated, aggressive look at the intersections of development and preservation, of gentrification (not necessarily a dirty word) and neighborhood identity.
Sexton must remind the reader that gentrification is not a "dirty word". This is correct; it encompasses far too much to be simply negative. However, the issues raised (the quadrupling of rents; conversion of middle class housing to luxury condos for the extremely rich; de facto 17% rent increases during lease renewals) describe a very negative, or perhaps a 'non-positive' change for the lower and middle classes.
Sexton also refers to the lower classes as the "less well off". Indeed, the starving are somewhat deficient in nutrition and cancer patients are perhaps less than healthy.
The immediacy of the middle or lower class family or individual who has been forcibly pushed from their home due to the uncontrollable metaphysics of the market (or so it is claimed) does not experience this change as a polite and necessary shift for the betterment of all; it is devastating and demoralizing.
They are human beings and not the abstract fictions of a ledger sheet.
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/business/media/21askthetimes.html?pagewanted=all
7.21.2008
I refuse to donate money to the orphans unless I see some goddamn razzle-dazzle
The current economic downturn is making it tough for charity organizations to raise money from the wealthy.
Ms. Murray explained, however, that there is pressure in the philanthropic world, despite the economic downturn, to always outdo past
performances.
“There was some talk about getting a normal tent — our budget is about 10 to 15 percent lower than it was a couple of years ago — but we don’t want to give people less,” she said, adding that Mr. Simmons rented a free-span tent two years ago and didn’t want to do without it this year. “What does it say about you if you’re charging less or giving them less? Each year we’re expected to grow this event. People want to see some razzle-dazzle.”
Of course, if you want to maximize profits, you must first minimize labor costs.
Eliza Rand, a spokeswoman for the Children’s Museum, said planners realized a week before the July 12 gala that they would fall short of their $280,000 goal, so “we decided to downscale in order to maximize what we were bringing in.” Out went the cover band, in came the local teenagers and museum instructors, performing free or for $75 stipends.
Things are so bad that even the daily flower arrangements aren't being outsourced.
It might be too early to call this the East End’s summer of austerity, but Jeff Pennington, a high-end florist, said he had noticed that many of his steady private-home accounts had fallen off. “They’re asking for estimates, which they never used to,” he said. “For weekends when they don’t have guests, people are just doing their floral arrangements in-house.”
What I think this shows is charitable giving by the rich is often done in an atmosphere that does not require them to be somber or reflective. Rather, it is a way for them to engage in their already-hedonistic lifestyle with the added exoticism and thrill of it ostensibly being for a humanitarian cause. It is a fetish where excitement is enhanced by the fake selflessness that promotes it.
Via Ohio
7.18.2008
The Sinking of the Titanic: An Illustration
When the Titanic went down, 3% of the first class passengers drowned.
How about the third class passengers?
45%.
Only one first class passenger refused the opportunity to board the lifeboats.
How many third class passengers refused to board the lifeboats?
None. That is, none were given the opportunity as they were told to stay below deck while the ship sank. Some were held there at gunpoint.
The value of human life is directly related to the socioeconomic position of its body.
Info from: Gilbert, The American Class Structure (2003)
7.16.2008
Mudville gentrified
The only things fans really get from new stadiums are price increases.
Just ask Peggy Gavan and her husband, Joe Ebler, of Warwick. For three years they've owned two seats as part of a 12-game Saturday package. They are called "MVP Tier," located in the upper tier between home plate and the Yankees' on-deck circle. Good seats. They've paid $55 a seat which, with a couple perks, makes for a pretty good deal.
Then they opened the mail one day and inside was a glossy packet from the Yankees containing 2009 ticket information. Their seats, now called "Terrace Level Outdoor Suite," would "start at $100 per seat/per game." So the 12-game, $55-seat package that now costs $660 per person will cost at least $1,200, almost a 100 percent increase.
But here's the kicker — Peggy and Joe must buy all 81 homes games, and they might have to sign up for multiple seasons. [...] At best, the couple will have to come up with at least $16,200 for seats that currently cost $1,320.
So the Yanks probably will lose two more common folks from their new fan-friendly stadium. Peggy's been going to games for 30 years. Joe was there in '77 when Reggie Jackson hit three home runs against the Dodgers in Game 6 of the World Series.
From: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080715/SPORTS/807150327
7.14.2008
It's not a handout unless you're in coach. Then you must 'pay for what you use'
Clients traveling Upper Class on Virgin Atlantic flights are being offered wine tasting at the airline's Heathrow Terminal 3 Clubhouse this summer.
The airline has teamed up with I Love New York, the New York State division of tourism, to sample six wines from the state's wine regions during July and August. The regions include The Finger Lakes, Long Island, Niagara Escarpment and the Hudson Valley.
"It is our aim to offer our Upper Class passengers an ever-changing and stimulating experience in the Heathrow Clubhouse," said Paul Dickinson, director of sales and marketing for Virgin Atlantic. "This will give passengers the opportunity to experience wines from one of the wine regions which is less well known here in the UK. We're absolutely certain that it is going to be an educational and enjoyable experience."
VS.
US Airways will become the first major U.S. airline in August to charge domestic coach passengers for soft drinks, juices, coffee and bottled water as part of a shift to what it calls a "pay-for-what-you-use" business model.
The $2-a-pop beverage charge is the latest in a raft of new charges airlines have been imposing to help pay for record fuel costs.
Free nonalcoholic beverages have been one of the last freebies handed out by domestic airlines, which already charge for alcoholic beverages and - except for Continental - for meals and even snacks on domestic flights.
From: http://www.luxurytravelmagazine.co.uk/article/828038/virgin-offers-wine-tasting-upper-class-clients/
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-bz.drinks13jun13,0,2294921.story
7.11.2008
The problems of being a psychotherapist to the rich; or, we can hash out the CBT in the limo
"Dr. Karasu, known as an expert in treating the wealthy and powerful, recognized a common pitfall among his peers: Rich people can be seductive. "The therapist wants to identify with the patients and comes to see it as his role to help them get more wealthy," he said. [...] it can be hard to resist the temptation to sycophantically adopt their point of view."It used to be that my patients were the children of the rich: inheritors, people who suffered from the neglect of jet-setting parents or from the fear that no matter what they did, they would never measure up to their father's accomplishments," he recalled. "Now I see so many young people - people in their 30s and 40s - who've made the money themselves."
Dr. Stone said those two kinds of patients tended to have different problems: "In my experience, there was a high incidence of depression in the people who were born rich. And by contrast, the people today who are making a fortune are so often narcissistic in a way that excludes depression."
Dr. Karasu and several of his peers voiced a concern that a rich person today was ever more inclined to view his or her psychotherapist as nothing more than a highly skilled member of his personal army.
He added: "It's King Ludwig Syndrome. In the 19th century, Bernhard von Gudden was the psychiatrist for the Bavarian royal family and began to treat King Ludwig II, who was psychotic. In the end, the two of them drowned in a boat. So I teach my people who are treating wealthy people, 'Don't get in your patients' boats.' "
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/nyregion/07therapists.html?_r=2&ei=5087&em=&en=f3c64fc677840da0&ex=1215576000&oref=slogin&pagewanted=all
7.09.2008
Our leaders must eat, too
Yesterday, the Prime Minister [Gordon Brown] and other world leaders sat down to an 18-course gastronomic extravaganza at a G8 summit in Japan, which is focusing on the food crisis.The meal was served at the Windsor Hotel, on the shores of Lake Toya, where the presidential suite costs £7,000 a night.
The dinner, and a six-course lunch, at the summit of leading industrialised nations on the island of Hokkaido, included delicacies such as caviar, milkfed lamb, sea urchin and tuna, with champagne and wines flown in from Europe and the U.S.
On Sunday, Mr Brown called for prudence and thrift in our kitchens, after a Government report concluded that 4.1million tonnes of food was being wasted by householders.
He suggested we could save up to £8 a week by making our shopping go further. It was vital to reduce 'unnecessary demand' for food, he said.
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1032909/Summit-thats-hard-swallow--world-leaders-enjoy-18-course-banquet-discuss-solve-global-food-crisis.html
7.07.2008
They're just minor growing pains
Montauk, N.Y.Lauren Morris’s gold lamé high heels kept getting stuck between the planks of the patio deck. Her only alternative were flip-flops, which she only wore “to not touch the floor in my share house,” said Ms. Morris, an account executive in a fashion showroom. “They’re gross.”
Wearing a sun-yellow tube dress, Ms. Morris held a glass of champagne, with a blueberry, a blackberry and a strawberry floating in it, and surveyed the scene. A reggae-influenced band played loudly as young men in pressed oxford shirts and jeans with complicated back-pocket designs were sprawled on ottomans. Eyeing them were tan women in skimpy floral-print sundresses.
That’s right, Montauk, known as “The End.” Not Bridgehampton, East Hampton or Southampton, where the thumping fabulousness on display at the Surf Lodge has long been a mark of summertime. Montauk, the easternmost tip of Long Island, is a town that has for generations been distinctly, and proudly low-key, the un-Hampton, where commercial fishermen live and work, and where middle-class families could afford hotel rooms, miniature golf and soft-serve ice cream.
The Surf Lodge, owned by the same group that runs the clubs Cain and GoldBar in Manhattan, is not the only sign of the new Montauk. Chic boutiques dot the village, old seaside motels are being turned into million-dollar condominiums, and an international marina developer who wants to attract megayachts is renovating the rundown 79-year-old yacht club.
Liveable Home, a furnishings store opened last fall by Adrienne Valenza, an interior designer.
“My partner and I thought it would be great to have a store to address things that are missing from Montauk,” Ms. Valenza said, sitting behind a desk not far from a glass “rock bowl” selling for $172. “Montauk is becoming this great shopping destination, so why not?”
Vogue and Women’s Wear Daily have done photo sessions there, and the hotel rooms, about $450 a night, are booked every weekend for the rest of the summer, said Steve Kasuba, an owner.
Another Surf Lodge owner, Jamie Mulholland, said the issues raised by the town are “minor growing pains” that are normal for any fast-growing business.
...the signature drink [at the bar] is the Yachtini, a mixture of rum, lime, pineapple juice, almond syrup, Grand Marnier and Champagne. A Mega-Yachtini is $100 and comes in a martini glass big enough to hold a carp.
“Montauk is a special place,” Mr. Farkas said in a telephone interview. “What we are trying to do is cultivate that feeling.”
Not too many decades ago, developers sought to attract a different class of people to Montauk. A new book by Paul Sahre, “Leisurama Now” lovingly chronicles the history of 200 low-key ranch houses that were sold in Montauk in the mid-60s by Macy’s. The price: as little as $12,990, including land and all furnishings. Now, an enlarged Leisurama house can sell for $800,000, according to Mr. Sahre. New two-bedroom attached houses on the property of the Panoramic View Hotel are being sold for $2.8 million, luxury oceanfront cabanas included.
At the Shagwong, a bar and restaurant, where fishermen, construction workers, realtors and vacationers have been drinking since 1969, a group of Montauk old-timers were grousing about the changes. “Look at all the places that used to be like this that are gone,” said Harold Foster, a semi-retired carpenter who has lived here since 1967. “The Windjammer, the Harvest, the Blue Marlin. This place and Liar’s are the only places left you can come meet your friends.”
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/fashion/06hampton.html?_r=1&ref=style&oref=login
7.04.2008
Surely this marks the beginning of a dialectical shift
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- With oil near record highs, the Persian Gulf is awash in cash, stimulating a return to some very conspicuous consumption.Earlier this year, Abu Dhabi businessman Saeed Khouri made headlines and the Guinness Book of World Records when he paid $14 million for the tag simply sporting a "1." The "1" tag bought by Saeed, 25, was a coup for the family, says his 21-year-old younger brother Hamdan.
"We are lucky. We have the money to get what we want. We want to be the best," Hamdan says.
7.02.2008
I love the look of that king crab
"Safeway opens a posh downtown Bellevue store Friday designed to cater to an affluent crowd with extras such as a nut bar, wine cellar, fireplace, sushi bar and -- of course -- a Starbucks.'In the Seattle division, this is our first elite-lifestyle store,' store Manager Patti Kennedy said Thursday, standing next to the gelato bar while employees readied the place for customers.
A baby grand piano has been set up near the cash registers to play live music through Sunday.
Up to 40 percent of the produce is organic, the pharmacy in the back is outfitted with cherry wood and looks like a doctor's office and the wine cellar is temperature controlled, encased in glass and features bottles that cost up to $550. A wine steward will be on hand each day to help luxury condominium dwellers choose the perfect bottle.
Among other upscale features, the seafood bar has doubled in size and features whole octopus, shark steaks and Chilean sea bass. [...] Safeway has brought in a chef from Chateau Ste. Michelle to prepare crab leg samples.
An entire king crab was on display Thursday.
'I love the look of that king crab,' Wampler said. 'They flew that in from Alaska a couple of days ago.'"
From: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/368597_safeway27.html
6.30.2008
Keeping slaves is a value: approximately the same cost as a low end BMW
A wealthy New York woman has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for keeping two Indonesian women as slaves. Varsha Mahender Sabhnani, 46, and her husband Mahender Murlidhar Sabhnani, 51, kept them as slaves and abused them physically and psychologically.
performances.