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[littlefallsmets]

Oh, I wasn't saying that this is the new norm, I think I specifically put in wording to connotate that I didn't mean that.

But we're in a particularly goddamned hard time to start new or to start over and we're gonna be in it for a while.

I meant that but that's all I meant.

ALSO: my new doctor in Cooperstown's putting me on a low-level anxiety medication.

So maybe that's the kick in the ass I need so that I can stop defending my life and start trying to live it again.

Still. That doesn't change the fact that this is probably the hardest time in America to start a new business or get an above-subsistence job since the Great Depression.

Even with my head on straight, I don't know. These are fluky times.

[wombat]

Am I exploiting myself?

[yes, yes I am]

Oh dang. I am so exploiting myself. I never thought of it before.

[theinevitable]

It's funny how different facts exist which can be used to support different interpretations.


Why is there a thong on my living room floor? Who would be taking off their underwear in this apartment?

[pmcd9]

Please check your 'facts' a little better. We're in an expansion phase, and have been for quite some time now.

That article seems to confirm that we've just barely emerged from one of the most significant economic downturns in our nations history.

[littlefallsmets]

In fact, the article you linked went to great lengths to say that that the job market is weak, general unemployment is likely to grow and a double-dip recession was made to seem likely.

Extrapolating, it would suggest that if the economy did grow to some small extent, that growth went to those who were left relatively unscathed by the recession to begin with.

Or else they would've said something. Because it would've fit a nice safe corporate narrative to do so.

Not to belabour this point too too too much (not that I EVER do that, of course) but it seems to suggest that the "recovery" is largely sloshing back to those who weren't on the economic fringe at the best of times.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Please check your 'facts' a little better. We're in an expansion phase, and have been for quite some time now.

Technically true, but isn't much of that benefit going to the upper 20%/5%/1%, and not enough to the rest?

(Good Slate piece on how Americans largely don't understand just how unequal the economy is.)

[AugustWest]

So, theoretically AD, is there a point where the system could be set up to where it favors the "haves" too much?  Could someone ever be justified in complaining?  Is the only option to work hard and shut the fuck up about it?

Whether you'll admit or not, there's a class war going on.  We're losing.  Bootsrappy-ness is great and an admirable trait, but the facts are that wealth in our society is concentrating in a smaller and smaller percentage of the wealthiest people.  Do you honestly believe the playing field is level?  Do you think billionaires don't spend their money to give themselves every possible advantage?

Yeah, I get that you are or have been a small business owner.  So have I.  But unless you've got a seven figure income, you're not an "owner" in the sense I meant.  Wake up!  The middle class is getting squeezed out of existence.  Can you accept the possibility that working hard at your job may not do anything to address that issue?  That we may have structural problems with our economy that need to be fixed?  That just because something is the status quo doesn't mean it should be sacrosanct?  Stopping a robber baron from plundering my resources may be redistribution of wealth, but I think it's justified.

Do you think it is rad to have oligarchy?

[theinevitable]

eat a hot dog with just mustard. I don't get it.

Maybe if it were mustard, relish, pickles, onion... but just mustard? boo to that. I need to buy some ketchup.

[littlefallsmets]

At that point, why are you even eating a hot dog?

Go eat a condiments sandwich if you dislike hot dogs so much that you gotta put so many toppings on it, maybe.

[pmcd9]

I've come to the conclusion that there's really no wrong way to eat a hot dog.

[pmcd9]

You get a can for agreeing with me.

[theinevitable]

Ain't you never been to Chicago, lfm?

[miles]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but LFM is a New Yorker. Even if he has been to Chicago, he is required to think they do everything the wrong way. It's science.

[robot_god]

Whoa now, upstaters need to pass certification to be considered New Yorkers, I haven't seen his credentials yet.

[miles]

Ah, OK. All I know is that he is a Mets fan, and even if the rivalry is no longer so heated, my understanding is that Mets fans are bound by the laws of nature to hate Cubs fans.