by AgentR » Mon 14 Sep 2009, 15:59:11
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JJ', 'u')hhh, ever live in the Philippines? Where a doctor or lawyer works for five dollars a day? Americans are (temporarily) WAY overpaid. But thats about to change. A co-worker married a Filipina about twenty years ago, but has never been there. He just got back. His whole world was destroyed. He kept trying to tell me what its like (been there done that). For the first time in ten years I saw him scared.
People here really have no concept of how far down they have to fall. Most are just floating in a fantasy land of luxury to which they've become so accustomed that anything outside of that is simply unimaginable.
Whats more interesting is the subtheme that gets passed along here, over and over... That the wealthy are somehow less prepared for what's to come. Everything in my experience leads me to the conclusion that the modern cohort of the wealthy are more than adequately populated by people that can manage the combination of ruthlessness and vision that will enable them to maintain a comparable level of luxury in their lives; though the notable substitution of servants for technical product will be a modest change.
Whats interesting about politicians in this mix, is that they, in general, like to speak for the down trodden proletariate while simultaneously being desperate to continue their associations and lifestyles of affluence.
Modern lifestyle of wealth - pristine home, automation, generators, high tech cars and boats. Post modern lifestyle of wealth - large but somewhat dinged up home, no ac other than perhaps in the business office, older cars and fishing boat, and 5 servants who do everything the automation used to do, and who also squeak nicely when you kick'em in the butt. Those five servants who used to be managers, secretaries, or waitresses, will then sleep contentedly on a 20 yr old mattress layed flat on uncovered cement floor with open spaces in walls where windows and doors would otherwise be. They will be cheerful that they have a job and aren't starving in the rain.
Yes, we are. As we are.
And so shall we remain; Until the end.