even more quiddities and agonies of the ruling class - a new rolling new york times thread

Britain Girds for Scorching Heat That Could Break Records
Extreme Heat Continues Its March Across Western Europe
Heat Wave In Texas and Central Plains Could Be the Hottest Yet
Can’t Talk, I’m Busy Being Hot

not today satan

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-upper-middle-class-is-getting-squeezed-11658741402

paywall bypass - https://archive.ph/60MOo

Mark Yu had a profitable pandemic. Like many Americans, he added to his savings and pulled in big gains from the stock-market rally. He purchased a house in his new hometown of McAllen, Texas, then a duplex and an eight-unit apartment complex in Cleveland.

But 2022 hasn’t been so kind.

Heartbreaking, really.

I'm sorry but if you own two houses and an apartment building it does not matter to you how much gas costs. Don't get me wrong, it matters to a lot of people. But it does not matter to Mark Yu.

“had a profitable pandemic”

i know it’s a common phrase but it still contains such depths of evil

similar vibe phrase

"The war was a modest headwind" to year-on-year growth, says Google CFO Ruth Porat in a brief aside on earnings call that I now have stuck in my head, possibly permanently

— Will Oremus (@WillOremus) July 26, 2022

i guess we are ferengi now ("now")

capital is an evil demon that feeds on human misery and blood sacrifice

but on the plus side it has also destroyed the planet

“had a profitable pandemic”

i know it’s a common phrase but it still contains such depths of evil

― CYANIDE MUKBANG (cat), Tuesday, July 26, 2022 9:06 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

It's not like the dude profiteered off the pandemic tbf.

lol, this otoh:

While poorer families might feel the effects of inflation more deeply, they also have had the biggest wage increases and have the smallest share of their net wealth invested in financial markets.

Many of these workers got unemployment benefits during the pandemic, but the benefits didn’t pay as much as their jobs did—unlike lower-wage workers, who often got more money from unemployment benefits than from working.

aw

that's just fucking stupid. poor people *might* have gotten bigger wage increases proportionally; they certainly did not in absolute terms

and unemployment benefits are there to help you survive, not maintain a certain lifestyle. besides, we all know that if those middle-income people made too much on unemployment they'd never go back to work, eh?

clear explanation of why 1) inflation hurts those with the lowest incomes more 2) a relatively large % increase may not be enough to stop it hurting (unless it's big enough to allow you to save money, it still hurts) https://ofdollarsanddata.com/youve-been-thinking-about-inflation-all-wrong/

Rent is driving inflation, 20% year over year in Cleveland, I wonder if this landlord increased the rents when he bought 10 units and "remodeled" them?

I'm sorry but if you own two houses and an apartment building it does not matter to you how much gas costs. Don't get me wrong, it matters to a lot of people. But it does not matter to Mark Yu.

Also, Mark Wu is 33. He puzzles me. Before reading the article I was expecting him to be retired, but he's not, he's 33. He works as a physical therapist. The article points out he could afford to save $3,000 a month, which is $36k, so obviously he's earning more than that. He sends money to his family in the Philippines, which is spelled one-two. Accommodate is two-two. Millennium is two-two. Philippines is one-two. One-two. One-two. Mississippi is two-two-two. Accommodate is two-two. Millennium is two-two. Philippines is one-two. I work with a man from the Philippines. His name is Tim. One-two.

He sends money to his family so presumably he's not being supported by his parents. And he can afford to buy two houses - plus an apartment complex(!). The article doesn't even hint that he has a partner. Do physical therapists get paid a huge amount of money in the US? At the age of 33 he can only have been investing for 18 years, and the article implies that $36k pa was the absolute maximum he was able to invest. I realise the stock market has done well, but the sums feel wrong.

From my point of view inflation is fantastic. My maximum credit card limit is £800. My plan is to load it up with debt, and then when hyperinflation hits £800 will be nothing! Hahaha, suckers! Albeit that my real plan is to wait until just before my credit card is due to expire, then load it up with debt. Then when it expires it all gets wiped out!

And when I say Mark Wu I mean Mark Yu. Different people. One is a neurologist who may or may not have a property portfolio. The other is a physical therapist with a property portfolio. They are two different answers to the question of how to survive in a hostile world.

oi man alive, i maybe shoulda over-explicated a little: wasn't pointing to depths of evil in the individual dude, who's probably just average evil. more the systemic evil, and the casualness, even enthusiasm with which that evil is embraced/exploited by those who have profited (and/or hope to profit) from it.

like. the pandemic is bad. many people have died; exponentially more grieving; many suffering long-term effects from infection that may permanently debilitate them; many immunocompromised people still having to live in isolation when most everyone else has gone back to licking handrails; many healthcare workers dead, quit, burnt out; many kids had their social/scholastic development stunted (a serious concern of yours, iirc!); many people lost their jobs; many people lost their homes; a lot lot lot of people, and i cannot emphasize this enough, fucking died. and every item in that list (which is a paltry little nubbin of a list! there is so much more horrible stuff to add!) is one tiny tip of its own massive miserable iceberg of consequences.

covid has been a global catastrophe, and the rich having profited from it by further exploiting the non-rich is evil, and the system that facilitates this exploitation is evil, and that someone could think and write and publish the phrase "a profitable pandemic" and not be immediately disowned by everyone on earth makes me sad.

i would probably have done the same as mark yu :/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/29/realestate/investing-self-care-real-estate-women.html

that’s so good

i know therapy’s expensive - but this is ridiculous!

Shouldn't the Times have to tag advertorials?

Ms. Nova charges $2,400 for a three-month coaching package. An annual mentorship program with Real Estate InvestHER costs $7,500.

happiness is being a landlord?! I am so confused.

or is the real self-care in just owning the property and paying other people to do the work of maintaining it and taking flak from tenants, so that you can be protected from the stress of it all?

https://memegenerator.net/img/instances/56840731.jpg

lol whatever

Nicholas Kristof Returns to The Times

V srsly read part of that as “now Kristoff is stepping up, resuming his Onion column…” and well, yeah

https://www.wsj.com/articles/paying-400-000-for-an-executive-assistant-do-it-all-aides-are-pricier-than-ever-11659553138?mod=trending_now_news_1

https://archive.ph/Ovl3V

Put one in the W column for millennials and zoomers.

Finding millennials and Gen Zers to replace aging assistants is proving a challenge.

“I’ve heard younger people say to me, ‘I would never do what you do,’” says Tiffany Maughn, a 51-year-old executive assistant to the chief executive officer of a consulting group. “It’s almost like they don’t understand working in a service capacity for another human being. As long as it’s legal, as long as it’s safe, there’s really never a ‘no.’”

I remember reading that Lyndon B Johnson insisted his secretary / aide / whoever follow him into the toilet and take notes while he was having a dump. Presumably as a way of establishing dominance. It's one of those things that old people did in the past that just feels bafflingly weird nowadays. Like licking a comb before combing your hair.

"Marta Baranowska says she was elevated to chief of staff after several years in a recent job but left in search of a new challenge. She would like to try serving European royalty."

Are any of the people in that article telling the truth? The interviewer refuses to press Baranowska on her age, so he presumably didn't press her on her salary. On the one hand the interview subjects are supposedly top PAs, but they seem weirdly naive. Why would anybody want to serve European royalty?

This prompted me to see if there was still a Duke or Duchess of Saxony, which led me to this chap:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael,_Prince_of_Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

What stood out was the absurdly puffed-up paragraph about the man's daughter, Leonie Mercedes Augusta Silva Elisabeth Margarethe of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Apparently she was "an Intern Photographer of Contemporary Art for Sotheby's London between January and June 2007, an Intern for "BILD" at Axel Springer SE at Frankfurt and surrounding area in September 2008, an Intern at "Tatler" in April 2009 and then an Intern for "Vogue Russia" in June 2009 both at Condé Nast International, and then again at Axel Springer SE as an Intern at the Editorial Team of "ICON Welt am Sonntag" at Berlin and surrounding area in September 2009."

After graduating she became an intern again. By emphasising all of these minor roles the paragraph implies that she's a third wheel, and she appears to have been given a sinecure job. I imagine there is an opening for a PA to the child of defunct European nobility, but are you going to earn $400,000? Your personal connections will be with people who are irrelevant and unlikely to be relevant again.

idiomatic favorites of copy editors at the NYT which I have used on occasion (but infrequently!) and for which at least once I was reprimanded:

horse trading
outsized

NYT: Meet the Rich Cokeheads Whose Parents We Know

— Patrick Cosmos (@veryimportant) August 9, 2022

Being a cokehead is probably the most relatable thing these people do

These people are so fucking lame my god - if you have a guilty conscience about being professionally useless at least do Works or something. They can’t even be Catholic without being Protestant pic.twitter.com/LaSRZbAoye

— bad vibes coordinator (@dkulchar) August 9, 2022

"Beat", that's another word that annoys me. I get the idea. It's journalism-ese, presumably a reference to the police. But "the podcast covers X" is slightly easier to type and conveys the same meaning. It's just better. And that's official.

In my opinion slang has three uses. Firstly it expresses something that's otherwise inexpressible, but that doesn't work in this context. Secondly it demonstrates that the writer is "cool", "gas", and "with it", but again that doesn't work because "beat" is overused and anodyne. It's so overused that it's barely slang any more.

And thirdly slang can be a fun stylistic quirk or literary flourish - reading is a voluptuous pleasure - but there's nothing fun or stylish about that tweet. And fourthly slang can condense language to fit a small space, but I have scientifically destroyed that argument. So that's three points plus a fourth, bonus point.

Checkmate, atheists. Checkmate.

I'm assuming that because the writer called the podcast "trendy" they decided to use some hep language to convey trendiness. Therefore you associate the podcast with someone cool, who covers a beat--like a policeman!

I am treating my family to a special vacation in Alaska. My grandson, 28, and his wife are unable to join us; they are expecting a baby soon. I’m sorry they can’t come, but I was shocked when my grandson asked me for a cash gift equal to what I would have spent for them to join us on the trip. He suggested I donate the money to the baby’s college fund. I am stunned! I was happy to help them with wedding expenses and part of the down payment on their first home. But I told him this is not how life works. Was I wrong?

POPSY

What's the play here? If you're 28, your grandparent has got to be old enough that you're going to get that cash in the near term anyway.

I am shocked, shocked that my grandson would want money.

you're going to get that cash in the near term anyway.

Especially if we're talking about when someone now a baby goes to college! Just wait! What, you think you can invest it better than grandma and grandpa? They're in position to book an Alaska cruise for an entire extended family, so probably not!

i mean yeah but also, grandpa, just say of course, we’d like nothing better, and be done with it, and you’ll have done something that makes everyone happy. instead of this, which is bad!

Or just say no, and then don't write into the NYT parading how you put your entitled grandson in his place.

yes pretty much any other option

Dear Ethicist, my question is that I have an axe to grind.

"Is Popsy gone yet?"

Only Murders in the Building have you hankering for the Upper West Side? These sheet-pan rugelach will make you think you're at Zabar's.

— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) August 17, 2022

The quiddity and agony of your kitchen needing a kitchen

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/realestate/back-kitchen-scullery.html

lol this article is literally about quiddities and agonies of the ruling class: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/16/nyregion/trinity-grace-church-school.html

First paragraph:

As we have seen over and over in recent years, privilege is in crisis. Undone by guilt, jittery about an authority it is not eager to relinquish, lost in internal conflicts and contradictions, privilege has earnestly worked to rebrand itself, at times alienated its longstanding constituents, backtracked, corrected, wrung its hands.

It doesn't get better.

My god that may actually be too irritating to read in full, and I tried

Privilege is in crisis and Something Must Be Done.

I'm out of free articles, but that is quite a headline