Oh say can you bourgeois-ie
Jan. 28th, 2008 07:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penfield"Let me tell you why I'm no fan of the middle class, okay? Nothing 'middle' is all that great. Middle class, Middle Ages, Middle East ... they're trouble."
- Esteban Colberto (a.k.a. Stephen Colbert), The Reporto Colberto (a.k.a. The Colbert Report)
The President's State of the Union address is now mere minutes away, and we are certain to hear about some sort of "stimulus package," the "thrust" of which is to "goose" the economy through the "injection" of capital, thereby avoiding a "sagging" markets and a "flaccid" economy. To economists, a stimulus package is the fiscal equivalent of Spanish Fly.
According to most reports, the heart of the package is a broad tax rebate, geared toward individuals and families between the income margins. Meanwhile, Lou Dobbs (your everyday man-of-the-people) has a best-seller with his tome War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back Against Ridiculously Long Subtitles. John Edwards has based his entire campaign on "fighting for the middle class," which is a remarkably noble gesture from a guy sporting a $400 haircut.
Of course, when media and politicians wax rhapsodic about the noble middle class, what they're really doing is aiming at the biggest target. This is not just because the "middle class" constitutes the bulk of the population's bell curve, but also because so many of the people outside the middle class like to think of themselves as inside it, anyway. Somewhere out there tonight is a skunk-eating yokel who thinks he's a yuppie, and a millionaire in a first-class airline seat cursing the billionaire in his private jet.
I don't know if I'm middle-class or not. But I'm nearing middle-age in a middling middle-management job, living in a mid-sized apartment building (furnished according to middle-brow tastes) with my lovely girlfriend, who is herself a middle child from middle-America. Is that enough to earn me my $600?
At least I'm at the end of this entry.
- Esteban Colberto (a.k.a. Stephen Colbert), The Reporto Colberto (a.k.a. The Colbert Report)
The President's State of the Union address is now mere minutes away, and we are certain to hear about some sort of "stimulus package," the "thrust" of which is to "goose" the economy through the "injection" of capital, thereby avoiding a "sagging" markets and a "flaccid" economy. To economists, a stimulus package is the fiscal equivalent of Spanish Fly.
According to most reports, the heart of the package is a broad tax rebate, geared toward individuals and families between the income margins. Meanwhile, Lou Dobbs (your everyday man-of-the-people) has a best-seller with his tome War on the Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back Against Ridiculously Long Subtitles. John Edwards has based his entire campaign on "fighting for the middle class," which is a remarkably noble gesture from a guy sporting a $400 haircut.
Of course, when media and politicians wax rhapsodic about the noble middle class, what they're really doing is aiming at the biggest target. This is not just because the "middle class" constitutes the bulk of the population's bell curve, but also because so many of the people outside the middle class like to think of themselves as inside it, anyway. Somewhere out there tonight is a skunk-eating yokel who thinks he's a yuppie, and a millionaire in a first-class airline seat cursing the billionaire in his private jet.
I don't know if I'm middle-class or not. But I'm nearing middle-age in a middling middle-management job, living in a mid-sized apartment building (furnished according to middle-brow tastes) with my lovely girlfriend, who is herself a middle child from middle-America. Is that enough to earn me my $600?
At least I'm at the end of this entry.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-29 08:41 pm (UTC)$2,900,000,000,000.
The impact that the president can have -- using the powers of that office -- on that $2,900,000,000,000 on the lives of individuals dwarfs the influence that $386 dollars ($400 - $12 at Supercuts, plus a 2-dollar tip), given monthly, to a food bank.
Hypocrisy, regardless, is not the worst crime in the world. Dick Cheney probably isn't a hypocrite. Is it better or worse to spend $400 monthly on pheasant hunting or haircuts? We may object to many ways that an individual spends his money.
I think it's preposterous to spend $400 on a haircut. I think it's ridiculous to pay Johnny Damon $13 million to play baseball poorly. I think it's significantly worse to spend a billion dollars a week on the war on Iraq. And only in the case of the last one is it my money being wasted.
Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-29 11:22 pm (UTC)I believe that Edwards could do a lot of good for a lot of people if he were President. (I also think he would also hurt a lot of people, which is why I won't vote for him. But that's not the point.)
I just think that the haircut revelation undermines both his image and his message of salvation for the poor and middle-class. My distaste is for Edwards as a politician, not as a public servant.
It's a fine distinction, maybe, but I can see it.
Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-30 03:14 pm (UTC)And I further believe that our current president -- the candidate we all agreed we'd rather get a beer with -- should have removed any doubt about whether we should care about candidates' imagery.
Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-30 05:59 pm (UTC)But we have to remember that every word an American president says has some kind of impact on the stock market or world diplomacy. Other leaders must respect our president. Image counts on the world stage.
When did people decide they wanted a beer with Bush? Nobody asked me.
Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-30 06:35 pm (UTC)But, secondly, we don't all agree on what issues are important.
http://www.pollingreport.com/prioriti.htm
A CBS News/New York Times Poll, taken Jan. 9-12, 2008, showed that "Other" was the most important issue for 35 percent of voters, down from 45 percent in December. That the number one answer on any of these typically is given by about a quarter of respondents shows the lack of consensus.
More interestingly, scroll down to the Newsweek Poll. Terrorism is the most important issue of a plurality of Republicans (27 percent), and 5 percent of Democrats. Splits like that appear throughout.
Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-30 10:36 pm (UTC)Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-31 07:03 pm (UTC)Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-31 08:44 pm (UTC)And despite all that, a majority of people want him to drink a beer with them?
Maybe that's not a sign of popularity at all. Maybe it's a sign that we're just bored.
Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-31 10:04 pm (UTC)Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-31 10:34 pm (UTC)I guess I'm like the people in that poll: I'd much rather hang out with him than John Kerry.
Re: Expensive haircuts
Date: 2008-01-31 10:14 pm (UTC)I also think that he was in AA, at least briefly, but I could be wrong about that, too. I could probably look it up if I really cared. But I don't.