tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post6112065027289478662..comments2024-03-28T15:05:10.372-05:00Comments on Every goddamn day: 03/28/24: Children of privilegeNeil Steinberghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11468057838260476480noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-36726186336088949412018-05-25T15:08:37.153-05:002018-05-25T15:08:37.153-05:00There's an article in the Atlantic and a simil...There's an article in the Atlantic and a similar one in Time Magazine that discuss the winners in the inequality game besides the infamous 1%. Apparently, there's the 9.9% who are not only doing quite well, but seem to have found a way to make Technocracy inheritable. Of course, it's likely to end up a disaster eventually, given that the left-out 90% are going to catch on sooner or later and make a fuss, but for the time being the 9.9ers are doing quite well, thank you, as will their children and their children's children after them. I'm sure my daughter and her Microsoft husband would be considered nine.niners. Maybe Neil's family as well, despite their dilapidated house.<br /><br />johntatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10088632798195131329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-30162481031391261912018-05-25T10:50:57.666-05:002018-05-25T10:50:57.666-05:00That house looks very, very familiar. I think I mi...That house looks very, very familiar. I think I might have gone to a party there during high school. Is it in Evanston? Or does it just look familiar because this column has been re-run before? <br /><br />My best friend's family moved into his grandmother's house when he turned 15, and he began attending ETHS, so I got invited to a few swanky parties, on or near the lakefront. I didn't grow up in Evanston, but close enough to explore most of it on my bicycle as a kid, and to fall in love with its trees and its architecture. So many of its homes are like the one in that image. I was privileged and fortunate to have lived in Evanston for twelve years as an adult, until leaving Illinois 25 years ago. <br /><br />My present surroundings are green and pleasantly comfortable, but nowhere near as upscale. I still miss Evanston. And yet, while I lived there, I was often discontented because I yearned for and envied the affluence and opulence of Lincoln Park. Most of the time, you don't appreciate what you really have until you no longer have it. Grizz 65https://www.blogger.com/profile/02892702223228764894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-8325360229555889752018-05-25T07:05:11.890-05:002018-05-25T07:05:11.890-05:00I liked this essay. It parallels my own life in s...I liked this essay. It parallels my own life in some ways. <br /><br />When my daughter was seven I drove her to a friend's house for a play date. She told me her friend lived in a castle. I told her I was sure her friend had a very nice house, but it was not a castle. But she insisted, so I dropped the subject.<br /><br />When I turned down the long and winding driveway, the house finally came into view, and I sputtered "Holy crap, she lives in a castle!" to which my daughter responded "I told you so!"Sarahhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07954419505080849218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-81835882397644024632017-05-26T13:23:46.145-05:002017-05-26T13:23:46.145-05:00And though non Caths had lots of kids too, imagine...And though non Caths had lots of kids too, imagine a priest who never married or was up at 2am with a sick child or the Cardinals, bishops , Popes, telliing others to have non stop babies. No thought for the female at all. That's why mainstream Prots, not evang/ born agains, makes more sense than the Vatican. This Pope gives some lip service but not much changes.Privatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10757585399827295128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-28765554097936561662017-05-26T08:11:04.747-05:002017-05-26T08:11:04.747-05:00People were like sheep then believing religious do...People were like sheep then believing religious dogma to have tons of babies, even if there was available birth control to the middle class.Privatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10757585399827295128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-81855198794949720232017-05-26T08:08:59.563-05:002017-05-26T08:08:59.563-05:00You are upper middle class. And hope you've ta...You are upper middle class. And hope you've taken care of that mold by now. That could be a health hazard.Privatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10757585399827295128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-32532642303847224232014-05-27T10:06:54.502-05:002014-05-27T10:06:54.502-05:00I always thought my family was poor. I am the nint...I always thought my family was poor. I am the ninth of ten children and rarely had anything but hand-me downs. We never ever ate meals out or ordered carry out. Nothing went to waste. Milk was cut 50/50 with powdered milk. Every conceivable corner was cut. It wasn’t until 1981 when I got a raise to $5.05 an hour that I found out how wrong I was. When I told my mom how excited I was to be earning $10,000 a year, she stated, “Your father and I had 9 mouths to feed before he was making $10,000.” Being number 9 and being born in 1961 I now knew my father’s salary from back then. So I looked up the median income of white males for that year. It was $4,400. Who knew a car salesman could be so affluent. Of course working 6 days a week and 50 – 60 hours didn’t hurt. Mark McCarterhttp://www.dogeeseseegod.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-38305359583560447462014-05-25T13:47:02.451-05:002014-05-25T13:47:02.451-05:00I was not as smart, or at least not as wise, as yo...I was not as smart, or at least not as wise, as your boys. I grew up in an Albany Park bungalow, not poor; maybe lower lower middle, just high enough to see all the material things my peers had and I did not. When my mother answered my complaints about this by telling me how lucky I really was, I never believed her, or even understood her. I was completely clueless (though it did make me more ambitious). We've often seen in your writing how proud you are of your sons, and you've another great reason for you to be so.Gary Ashmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-19258372069147667672014-05-25T08:48:53.056-05:002014-05-25T08:48:53.056-05:00Good for them. I recently came across this lovely...Good for them. I recently came across this lovely piece talking about privilege as a current that helps you along, so that it makes you seem a better swimmer than you are. http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/04/09/the-hidden-brain-shankar-vedantam/ . My husband's parents, who really were working class (both high school grads, one working on a GM assembly line, one selling paper to butchers) would always end their Sunday drives through neighborhoods fancier than theirs by driving through ones that were poorer, just to make sure their boys understood that they were not underprivileged. <br />Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07065709548202393526noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3972382144120426476.post-55266102168592367652014-05-25T08:41:02.848-05:002014-05-25T08:41:02.848-05:00In the third paragraph from the bottom there is a ...In the third paragraph from the bottom there is a typo. "So they schools" should be "So their schools".Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07680520746040092614noreply@blogger.com