The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for August, 2017

Most of the time it's very difficult to single out a single award recipient from the swirling sea of potential candidates, but this week the dishonoree was clear.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers,

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown Award

for

August, 2017

is presented to

Louise Linton

This past Monday, Ms Linton - actress and wife of Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin - posted a photo to her Instagram account that showed her deplaning from an official US Government aircraft, with all of her costly, high-end clothes and accessories labeled ... 

The optics were poor, and another Instagram user - a 45 year-old mother of three in Oregon - criticized what appeared to be her abuse of government-funded travel: 

“Glad we could pay for your little getaway. #deplorable.”

The situation spun out of control when Ms Linton shot back at the commenter ...

“Have you given more to the economy than me and my husband? Either as an individual earner in taxes OR in self sacrifice to your country? ... “I’m pretty sure we paid more taxes toward our day ‘trip’ than you did. Pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you’d be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours ... You’re adorably out of touch.”

Wow.

Ms Linton's snarky response engendered a firestorm of angry responses, and she took down the Instagram post and apologized for it in a statement provided through her publicist* ... 

“I apologize for my post on social media yesterday as well as my response. It was inappropriate and highly insensitive.”

Where I come from, we call this "locking the barn door after the horse runs off." 

For her tone-deaf confirmation of every ugly stereotype of the self-centered, overly-entitled 1%, Louise Linton is presented the Left-Cheek Ass Clown Award for August, 2017. 

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow, when Cartoon Saturday rides in like the cavalry to save you from yet another miserable week.

Bilbo

* Not many of us can afford a publicist to speak for us so we don't have to eat our own crow.

How the Other Half Travels

There's no way to sugar-coat it: air travel nowadays sucks. From the ever-tinier seats and ever-skimpier service in "economy" class to the endless lines at security check-in to the overbooked flights that sometimes result in you being ejected from a seat you paid for, air travel is less "fly the friendly skies" and more "grit your teeth and hope you get there."

But if you've got the right stuff, it doesn't have to be that way.

You may have seen some recent reporting about the new, private terminal at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) - the one that serves the rich and famous so they don't have to rub elbows with the Great Unwashed*. Using this service - called "The Private Suite" - doesn't come cheap, of course ... it costs $7,500 a year to join and keep up a membership, with another $2,700 (for up to four people) each time you use it**. The cost goes up to $3,000 per use for international flights. If you don't want to pay the $7,500 for membership, you can use a shared suite for a mere $2,000 per visit.

And what does this get you, besides your own spiffy terminal?

First of all, no hassles with TSA people groping you and searching your belongings while everyone looks on ... security screening is done in the comfort and privacy of The Private Suite. According to the website, a team of eight persons is assigned to each member, and

"Members spend their pre-flight time in totally private suites, each with its own bathroom, its own food-service pantry, a two-person daybed, and a runway view of aircraft landing and taking off ... When it’s time to board, Private Suite members are driven across the tarmac, Head-of-State style, directly to their aircraft."

I could deal with that.

The airport and the operator of the service justify the service and its cost by pointing out that it improves security by separating important passengers whose presence might result in inconvenience to lesser customers because of extra security and annoying papparazzi. The operator also claims to reimburse ICE for added expenses and to employ TSA agents "only as needed" ... no burden to taxpayers or longer lines for Real People because TSA is dedicating personnel to the rich and famous.

I don't know about you, but I feel so much better knowing that persons wealthier and more important than I are working hard to protect me from inconvenience ... just like I'm reaping all the benefits of those tax breaks other people get to make my life better.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* That would be you and I.

** How else are you going to keep the riffraff out?

Surviving the Apocalypse in Style, Part 2

Back in January of 2015, I wrote in this space about the industry that has arisen to help us prepare for the coming zombie apocalypse, as well as more mundane but no less deadly eventualities. I pointed you to the "Zombie Fortification Cabin, Model 1 (ZFC-1)," as well as bulletproof school accessories for protecting our children against dangers we never faced in less crazy times.

Well, people are still worried about surviving the apocalypse, perhaps even more now that we have the present administration in power. And as with so many other aspects of life, survival of the apocalypse can be much easier and more comfortable if you are able to afford the best.

Two years ago, six months after I wrote my blog post on apocalyptic survival, Forbes Magazine ran this article: Billionaire Bunkers: Exclusive Look Inside the World's Largest Planned Doomsday Escape. It told the detailed story of a luxurious survival hideaway that was developed in Germany from an abandoned Soviet-era munitions storage bunker complex. Vivos Europa One is described in the article as "an invitation only, five star, underground survival complex, similar to an underground cruise ship for the elite [in which e]ach family will be provided a private 2,500 square foot of floor area, capable of two story improvements for a total of 5,000 square feet of private living quarters." Further, "[p]rivate improvements will include all of the typical amenities enjoyed by the floating counterparts, including pools, theaters, gyms, a kitchen, bar, bedrooms and deluxe bathrooms. The possibilities are limited only by each member’s personal desire."

And, of course, budget.

There are numerous other apocalypse hideaways for the 1% in various locations around the world, including Czechoslovakia, England, and the United States*. You can read more about them in this CNN article published yesterday.

Yes, Dear Readers, those higher than you on the socio-economic scale will be just fine when the nuclear, biological, political, and ecological chickens come home to roost. You, not so much.

Have a good day and don't worry ... if you are concerned enough to worry about surviving the coming apocalypse and wealthy enough to want to do it in style, have your broker call now!

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

* The Vivos xPoint website tells you, "This is the place you will want to be when the SHTF!" It also reminds you to buy now, because "It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark."

Pitchforks

The other day my old high school friend and fellow retiree Davis sent me the link to a very interesting article written by Nick Hanauer, a self-described member of the much-maligned "1%." The article was titled "Ultra-Rich Man’s Letter: “To My Fellow Filthy Rich Americans: The Pitchforks Are Coming;" it's a bit long, but worth the time to read and think about.

In case you don't want to read the entire article, here's a quote that sums up his theme:

"... the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution."

and here's the foot-stomp:

"... the fundamental law of capitalism must be: If workers have more money, businesses have more customers. Which makes middle-class consumers, not rich businesspeople like us, the true job creators. Which means a thriving middle class is the source of American prosperity, not a consequence of it. The middle class creates us rich people, not the other way around."

Conservative and libertarian commentators argue that there should be no restrictions and minimal (if any) taxes on businesses and the wealthy because they are the "job creators," but as Mr Hanauer elegantly points out, if the workers don't have enough income to buy the things the businesses produce, the businesses fail and the jobs they provide go away ... so in that sense, it's the workers who create the wealth and the jobs. An interest in balancing the economic interests of businesses and workers is not "socialism," it's common sense.

How do we balance those interests and still maintain the more-or-less laissez-faire capitalist society that is beloved of the Right and of those who've drunk that economic Kool-Aid? I don't know. But I do know, as I adapt to the economically reduced circumstances of the humble retiree, that I'm a lot more concerned about the threat posed by pitchforks and torches in the hands of the discontented than I am about the threat posed by the so-called "Islamic State."

And I think you should be, too.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo

P.S. - you may remember that economist John Kenneth Galbraith once said, "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."

Luxury Pyramids

I ran across this interesting article a while back by Meagan Willet on the "Business Insider" website: Here's the Hierarchy of Luxury Brands Around the World. It cited a book by HSBC Bank managing director Erwan Rambourg titled The Bling Dynasty: Why the Reign of Chinese Luxury Shoppers Has Only Just Begun, in which Mr Rambourg created a pyramid of brands to show how major brand names range in accessibility from more-or-less affordable everyday luxuries like Starbucks coffee* and craft beers to extreme-high-end luxury items like top-of-the-line diamonds. Here's his pyramid:

The idea is that brands which become overly accessible to the Great Unwashed like you and I become less desirable and appealing to those higher up on the economic scale. If too many people are able to buy a particular item, it loses its appeal as a symbol of the wealth, power, and sophistication that allows the privileged to exist in the rarefied atmosphere of the social and economic elite.

I tried to do up a few versions of the Rambourg Pyramid** that would be a little more realistic when applied to the 99%, but wasn't really happy with any of them. Here's one version ...

In my pyramid, the first five levels represent the increasing levels of more realistic "luxury" (meaning that there's more disposable income to be able to dispose of at increasingly expensive stores). Most of us will never reach the peak of super-ultra-premium-high-end goods represented at the Bespoke*** level of Mr Rambourg's pyramid.

I spend most of my time in the first three levels of my pyramid and the first level of Mr Rambourg's, and at my age I'm not likely to move up much higher. So tell me ... what does your pyramid look like? Leave a comment and let the rest of us know.

Have a good day. Shop at the right places, and come back tomorrow when we reveal our Right Cheek Ass Clown of the Month for April.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo

* I'm not sure I agree that Starbucks Coffee is an "affordable everyday luxury" ... I sometimes think that each Starbucks location should have a collocated bank branch to handle short-term loans.

** My term, not Mr Rambourg's.

*** "Bespoke" means "custom-made," as opposed to off-the-rack.