Labor Day 2007: A Rising Tide Lifts All Yachts

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Dear Fellow Workers:

Happy Labor Day!  It’s dry and sunny in my east coast village with just enough of a breeze to give my American flag a satisfying snap.

I’m writing because I heard money was a little tight for you.  I’m going to assume you’re making the current minimum wage ($5.85 an hour) and your tax rate is about 15 percent; your housing expenses, including utilities, are $832 per month; your food costs on the “Thrifty Plan” are about $34 per week; you take public transportation to and from work (about $12.50 each week, say); and you pay about $40 per month for the cheapest phone plan.  When I do the math I discover you’re already overspent by $2,631 for the year, leaving you imaginary dollars to buy clothes, do your laundry, and catch the occasional movie, never mind save for your retirement or visit that niece in Columbus.

You might consider ordering a copy of Preparing for a Financial Setback, a handy guide distributed by Northwest Airlines to its employees.  The four-page booklet contains suggestions such as shopping in thrift stores, taking “a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods,” and not being “shy about pulling something you like out of the trash.”

Fortunately, the news isn’t all bad.  Thanks in large part to your efforts, the richest one percent of Americans now earn 15 percent of all income and own 38 percent of all wealth.  There’s also been a boom in the building of mega-yachts, some as long as a football field, creating new labor markets for folks like us.  Low- and moderate-income people by the thousands are now able to start military careers in Iraq while helping to preserve our American way of life.

So suck it up.  And God bless America!

Comments

[Bruce Trachtenberg]

Lest you think it's all champagne and bon bons for owners of mega-yachts, how little do you know. Take, for instance, the plight of Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Ellison has been complaining for years that the boat he built specifically to be the longest in the world — or at least to be longer than Paul Allen’s — turned out to be rather impractical. He can’t dock at most of the world’s marinas, since his boat exceeds size limits. When he pulls into shore, he has to tie up with oil takers and container ships at industrial ports. (Not very posh.) Or he has to anchor offshore and take tenders to the dock."

See...not everything is as wonderful as it looks!

[John Anger]

Point well taken, Bruce. Never judge a man until you've cruised a (nautical) mile in his mega-yacht.

[Joe McPatriot]

If you care so much, give your money to the down trodden. To each his own. Who is stopping you?

[Albert Ruesga]

Look here, McPatriot, I know my friend John has been known to drop a few mites into the beggar's cap. More importantly, he's trying to make a better world by blogging.

[Bruce Trachtenberg]

This just in--and again from the WSJ--more evidence that rich just don't have enough to spend their money on. According to a front page article about the luxury goods market, eyewear giant Luxottica Group SpA. is launching a chain of boutiques in the U.S. that will sell sunglasses from Chanel and Tiffany and others for up to $10,000 a pair.

Sounds shady.

[Nonprofiteer]

My only quibble with your elegant and devastating calculus of shortfall is the underpricing of public transportation. Here in Chicago you'd pay at least $17.50 a week, and if your financial situation precluded your getting a credit card with which to prepay transit costs you'd pay $20. But I suppose once you have no money, having more no money hardly matters.

And I'm stunned at Joe McPatriot's suggestion that the solution to this problem is charitable contributions. Don't most let-them-eat-garbage commentators have a saying about teaching people to fish rather than giving them fish? If fishing doesn't pay, though, the smug beauty of that saying ends up somewhat tarnished.

[Albert]

During the Cold War, the MacPatriots would suggest to liberal protestors that they move to the Soviet Union. "Let private charity address the problem" is the cri du jour. Joe also understands that most dumpster divers are outlaws, undermining our nation's retail sector and subverting the Ownership Society. We paid for that garbage, so why should we let anyone else have it?

[Hwayne Hwizenga]

Mom, Apple Pie, Baseball ==> Garbage, Entertainment, Automobiles

Fish or cut bait. Some of us are licensed, you know.

[i.a.t.]

it's not all bad. we still have late night infomercials.