One of the few things that moves me to near-violence is when I hear some soft-handed twit prattle on about how anyone can succeed in this country so long as they’re willing to “work hard”. Sounds like that’s something Matt Tabbai and I have in common. He quotes David Brooks:
David Brooks: Yes. I was going to say that for the first time in human history, rich people work longer hours than middle class or poor people. How do you construct a rich versus poor narrative when the rich are more industrious?
and then goes on to say:
I would give just about anything to sit David Brooks down in front of some single mother somewhere who’s pulling two shitty minimum-wage jobs just to be able to afford a pair of $19 Mossimo sneakers at Target for her kid, and have him tell her, with a straight face, that her main problem is that she doesn’t work as hard as Jamie Dimon.
Only a person who has never actually held a real job could say something like this. There is, of course, a huge difference between working 80 hours a week in a profession that you love and which promises you vast financial rewards, and working 80 hours a week digging ditches for a septic-tank company, or listening to impatient assholes scream at you at some airport ticket counter all day long, or even teaching disinterested, uncontrollable kids in some crappy school district with metal detectors on every door. Most of the work in this world completely sucks balls and the only reward most people get for their work is just barely enough money to survive, if that. The 95% of people out there who spend all day long shoveling the dogshit of life for subsistence wages are basically keeping things running just well enough so that David Brooks, me and the rest of that lucky 5% of mostly college-educated yuppies get to live embarrassingly rewarding and interesting lives in which society throws gobs of money at us for pushing ideas around on paper (frequently, not even good ideas) and taking business trips to London and Paris and Las Vegas.
A-fucking-men.
LFS
You know what is worse than twits who try to make us feel bad for the rich, twits who try to make us feel bad for the working poor they know nothing of because they’ve spent quite a bit of time traveling the globe on business and have so few commitments that when they aren’t burning copious amounts of jet fuel they are cycling to and from work to prove how “green” they are. Perhaps those twits should quit harshing on David Brooks because both they and he are elites and actually personally sacrifice significant time and treasure to help the working poor whom they’d rather shove off on a government handout so they (the twits) may assuage their guilt.
Plin
That is an applause-worthy diatribe against my least favorite American (western) myth.
I have actually struck someone over this argument.
MB
Disemvoweled to see if it would make any more sense that way.
Huh. Nope.
LFS
Editting the comments of others now, huh? How “progessive” of you.
MB
My patience with whiny little children is lessening, these days. If you don’t like it, well . . .
LFS
Given that you can dish out critism but can’t take it, not even a little bit, you are the one most like a whiny little child. I thought you progressives were holding yourselves out as the smart ones. But all you seem to be able to do is resort to petty namecalling and childish antics. You make George W Bush seem like a genius.
MB
You seem to be confusing reasoned criticism with flinging poo like a caged monkey. I’m always down for the first. The second? Work out your frustrations somewhere else.
LFS
Oh MB, the Mighty Blacknell, save another working poor family from the ravages of poverty with your super blog. Yes Mighty Blacknell, another single mother on welfare has been lifted up by your last super post. Your quotation of other people’s thoughts is too much for The Man and has saved the oppressed. David Brooks must have nightmares from your threats of almost-violence and the images of your semi-manly form breaking down his door to give him a tongue-lashing. Run David Brooks, run! The Mighty Blacknell shall slay you with incontrovertible linking and out-of-context quips. The poor of the world shall not fear, because the Mighty Blacknell will soon be traveling to Europe or some other far off destination where he’ll post yet again.
MB
Time out for you, LFS. When you can play nice with the other children, you can come back. Until then, think hard about what you’ve done, and why you’re in time out. We’re all sure you can be a good boy.