I was reading an article in the New York Times today about white collar workers retraining in the current economic downturn as welders and truck drivers. Crock pot is the most searched term on the internet. The casserole is evidently back in as well. Suddenly, conspicuous consumption is tres outré.
My sister is an accountant and was telling me a story yesterday about a very wealthy 99 year old client of hers who lost everything in the Madoff scandal. Newly arrived émigrés from the land of opulence and splendor are landing on the shores of the Bush depression every day.
I am sort of a foodie but must admit to be taken slightly aback by the food column in the Los Angeles Times. How long will the public stand for an anachronism like Irene Virbila waxing over the quality of truffles and sweetbreads at the chic west side eateries while the general public goes hungry? I think that patrician gourmands will soon have to go underground or risk the wrath of the angry bourgeoisie.
I heard that Campbell's Soup, mac and cheese and McDonalds are doing really well in the downturn. Suddenly comfort food is back in. Canapes are being quickly replaced by sloppy joes and beanie weenie at the most tony affairs.
In the long run, I think we will look back at this time with some measure of fondness and appreciation. We are all taking our medicine. I grew up poor and know all about it. But the class equalization of the downturn can take the edge off the entitled people's feeling of being a special race and breed. Maybe we can all work together for a while? Poor is in, in, in. Soon we will be competing on street corners for the title of most compelling tale of woe. Like the old game show, Queen for a Day.
My advice is to be very careful and to save any cast off effects and other detritus of this forlorn era. Someday they just might be worth a lot of gelt.
11 comments:
LA Weekly used to have a good food column (maybe they still do), i think it was called Good Eats, by Jonathan Gold-he would write about neighborhood eateries, all affordable...i think the LA Times is pretty elitist in general; i miss the old Herald Examiner...
Okay Robert ! You can leave Queen for A Day out of it, since my mother was "Queen for a Day" back in the 50's. She was a widow with 5 kids. I won't bore you with the details. Although very poor, at least we were never on welfare. And speaking of people going hungry, food stamps are being 'increased'. So we won't have to worry about the people who are too lazy to work going hungry. Thank goodness, huh? Those who work for a living can learn to do with less. I at least hope that those who have lost their jobs might qualify for some help in these times. Have a safe trip home....Wanda
Wanda, thanks for reading the blog. Hope you found the lost book about pooping. Thanks for your best wishes as well.
Love,
Robert
you guys KILL me....Anon-you have about as much compassion as a can of tuna fish-where did you receive your depiction of poor people from? Certainly not from first hand experience. I hope you don't stereotype yourself this way....you know, an arrogant, conservative white elitist.
Things changed since Grandma's days....I think most of our families survived the GREAT DEPRESSION through the generosity of the community, through service organisations and churces etc....and our parents as teenagers, worked after school and brought home their money blah blah blah. Maybe you can still do that where you live-pay your bills with the money your kids make after school...7.50 an hour...GOOD FOR YOU!
Go work in a soup kitchen or do some community service for a while and STOP STEREOTYPING POOR PEOPLE. You know, go pick on somebody your own size...go down to Rodeo drive and pick a fight with somebody wearing 2000 dollar "cowboy" boots. It is funny that your Mom was probably stereotyped way back as 'trailer trash' or white trash or some other really stupid and mean spirited manner, since that was the stereotype of Queen for Day types and your big fucking lesson is to make a dumbassed elitist comment like that. There are 40 thousand homeless men women and children here in NY. Most of them lack job skills. Why don't we just tie them to some trees in Central Park and watch them starve to death, the rotten low lifes....how dare they send their kids to shitty public schools where they learn nothing....must be their own fault.....nothing "CHIC" about being out of work with no job skills and no support system, no family or friends to go to, no computers to blog on, friends to visit on vacation.You look at this world through the eyes of some stupid news program or something? It is embarrassing to read your words....kind of like a Rush Limbaugh approach to life...say anything to get a laugh...no matter what, as long as it is not at your own expense....you know, when did you last rip yourself apart to make people laugh at your own misfortunes? Let me know and I will be delighted to read it. Meanwhile, though only a small handful of Bob's friends read this (fortunately) rest assured I would say these very things to your face if I knew who your were, but of course, you remain a safe and secure and probably scared "Anon." You should be ashamed of yourself. Your Mom would most likely be disappointed in your comment unless she too has drunk the kool aid of dispassion. Hope not.
Robert,
I read the same Times article, thinking seriously about it myself.
Wanda, I don't know quite what to say that NYSTAN has not put out there. I guess we all have a dream-world of our own, some of us are pretty hung up on the upside of the Horatio Alger myth. Some of us take that as proof that the downers belong there. I guess every year I seem to "know" less.
Back to work, gotta stay off welfare.
wave_
Stan, you have no idea what you are talking about if you are dissing Wanda. You will never find a more wonderful down to earth middle class salt of the earth populist in your life. She does great works every day, for people, for animals, for everybody. When she says she was poor, she knows of what she speaks. I was really poor growing up, corn meal mush twice a day for three years - two pairs of pants with holes in them. I've been there, seriously and don't see the romance in it. Maybe we all dress up in potato sacks and experience the new depression together. My guess is that some people will screw the whole thing up again and get rich again. Bastards.
who the fuck is WANDA?
I responded to someone name ANON who showed about as much compassion as a can of tuna fish...maybe this person does not have a good vocabulary....because I could have sworn they =, he, she,it mentioned something about printing up more food stamps for lazy people and that those who work for a living will have to learn to do with less....yeah, I don't know any of you nor do I know the people who write books, make movies or create art....but let's stand in our places and take responsibilities and whoever wrote that crap deserves a wet noodle across their pompous forehead, and that includes an animal lover...people aint animals....gimmeabreak....you guys are getting on my nerves....you show no sense of charity in anything you write. Enough of the ME ME ME crap, ok? Go help out someone with LESS than you to the point where it makes you uncomfortable....not some chump change.
My husband's family was on food stamps and received government cheese and other items when his father was out on strike and the union didn't give them enough money to pay for food. There were five children. Would it have been better for them to have gone hungry? Or for him to become a scab and lose all job benefits when the strike was over? Believe me, there are few harder working people than that family.
On the other hand, I'm a bit confused by Stan's mention of not knowing artists, writers. Are we all supposed to be wealthy? What a laugh. Most artists and writers I know have to have "real" jobs to be able to survive. It is only the lucky few that make a living at it. So there. (raspberry noise)
hi carrie-sorry about the generality....I agree...not what I meant to convey....was referring to Rbt's sometimes rose colored glasses and meant it sarcastically..sorry bout that....I was fuming mad. Well, we had a day of freezing rain here and I got sidetracked by lack of fresh air...even at freezing temps, I still need FRESH freezing air.
Rose Colored Glasses? Are you kidding? Can we get off this tired old cartoon that only the destitute are noble and that having two bits to your name qualifies you as a charter member of the wicked darkside?
If I give away everything that I own, than I will become one of them and they probably have enough competition as it is...Are you fucking Mother Theresa, have you sold your cameras so that you can heal the lepers? If not, give me a break, Stan.
Like most people, I am living a month or two from the precipice. I think that you have a tendency of making judgements about people (including me) that might be unfounded. Caution.
My original point was that the poor have a lot of new company and that conspicuous consumption is really in poor taste at the moment - as it should be. But I don't think that we are at the advent of some new trotskyite dream - smart, capable (or even lucky) people will find a way to get over on everybody again.
Attn; NYSTAN-Wall Street is in New York. In the name of God and Country, you need to right this place. Take necessary photos of your task in hand. ANON
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