Meet Jeff! Jeff flew his nannies to Davos on a jet. Jeff wants Americans to lower their own high expectations http://t.co/49oFfOf2VV
— Max Abelson (@maxabelson) January 21, 2015
From the Bloomberg article:
… “America’s lifestyle expectations are far too high and need to be adjusted so we have less things and a smaller, better existence,” Greene said in an interview today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We need to reinvent our whole system of life.”
Greene, who flew his wife, children and two nannies on a private jet plane to Davos for the week, said he’s planning a conference in Palm Beach, Florida, at the Tideline Hotel called “Closing the Gap.” The event, which he said is scheduled for December, will feature speakers such as economist Nouriel Roubini…
Here is an Open Thread for all those thoughts, plaints & snarky comments that would be inappropriate when talking about beloved pets (last post) or delicious food (next post). What horrible, disgusting, immoral, dishonest fustercluckery is knotting your knickers as we start the weekend?
Also, we may have reached Peak Friedman (short those stocks now!):
Tom Friedman, in #Davos, proves once again he is the emperor of the idiots. This got spontaneous applause! pic.twitter.com/S9TTB3hVIZ
— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) January 23, 2015
Baud
The usual.
Mathguy
That Friedman quote is unbelievable. Just when I thought that douche bag could not say something more patently stupid than some things he’s puked up in the past, he vomits that out.
SiubhanDuinne
I’ve been chewing on that Friedman quotation for several hours now, and all I have to show for it is a raging headache.
EthylEster
I don’t even understand what stupid point Friedman is trying to make.
That we should forgive others when they make an error?
WTF does this have to do with the Arab Spring?
forging a lack of human understanding?
IT DOES NOT SCAN!
WereBear
We don’t have the bandwidth to figure out Friedman!
danielx
Shorter Jeff Greene: The US is turning into Bangladesh, and all You People better get used to the idea.
Re Friedman – what the fuck does that even mean? Don’t you have to be at least mildly coherent to give a speech at Davos?
Baud
I disagree. I think Arab Spring is failing for lack of bandwidth.
jaleh
Jeff Greene, unfortunately, is a Dem.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/18/business/home-the-ultimate-investment.html
Zam
@danielx: I assume he’s calling the kids impatient and self centered.
KG
Hi Jeff, I’d just like to say:
Please fuck the fuck off with a flaming, rusted, cheese encrusted chainsaw.
Thanks
Woodrowfan
I see Freidman has hired Palin’s speechwriter…
Roger Moore
@danielx:
Apparently not. You don’t even have to be coherent to get cheers at Davos. I’ll reiterate my claim that Davos during the World Economic Forum would be the best possible place to use a WMD.
shelley
Oh My Lord. Maybe he’ll trade his private jet in for Wonder Woman’s invisible plane. Less conspicuous and should get better gas mileage.
scav
Jeff’s expectations that his head won’t be gleefully impaled on a pike by his fellow citizens without consequence might also need a tad lowering, as does his expectation that he will never face higher taxes.
bemused
Who is this “we” that Greene speaks of? Call me a skeptic but I doubt he thinks his own lifestyle expectations are too high.
Corner Stone
@bemused:
What gave it away? Was it Davos, the private plane, or the *two* nannies?
Major Major Major Major
At first blush Greene seems not that bad. Lefty, rich sure but he *shorted* subprimes, seems more like a Buffett to me. Plus Roubini is associated with him and we like Roubini. What am I missing?
SiubhanDuinne
Alabama?? Hello!!
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/federal-judge-strikes-down-alabamas-ban-same-sex-marriage-n292601
Tommy
Anytime somebody says shit like this and in the story it is said, “two nannies” they revoke any ability to comment. I come from a family with some financial means. Mom raised me. Worked her ass off. I was a handful :). We did not hire somebody to raise me. Anybody that hires people to raise their children, well I got issues.
Pogonip
@danielx: Evidently not.
bemused
@Corner Stone:
Ha, ha. The tone deafness is not exactly subtle.
JPL
@KG: There’s some truth to his statement. The Economist did a study and said, if you believe in the American Dream, you had better move to Europe. He might be an asshole but our economic system started changing under St. Ronnie and it keeps sliding downhill since. I see Fair Tax bumper stickers on cars all over the south and unfortunately, they have no idea what that means.
jl
@Mathguy:
” That Friedman quote is unbelievable. ”
It would be nice to be able to thank Tom Friedman for being late for his public musing repeatedly, over several dozen Friedman units. He needs a nice long project.
I read that his new book is titled ‘The World is Fast’. Is that a joke? If not, will it be even more full of gibberish than the previous ones?
Pogonip
I am an evil person. I want to strangle this asshole and send his spawn to live in a trailer park, with no nannies.
I need a pupdate.
mdblanche
Alan Turing gives Friedman an F.
shelley
After this and the sad pet post, I’m ready for the Friday recipe one.
Kay
I have one!
Probably not. Here’s his suggestion instead::
We should make a list: “horrible things rich people said about us while they were at Davos”
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: It’s a wonderful ski area; let’s not destroy that.
Corner Stone
I love that picture of him at the top. “Rise, my peasants! Rise off your knees and bask in my sheer benevolence!”
Pogonip
@JPL: I suppose it would mean something different to everyone? To me it would mean a progressive tax system. “Much is expected from those to whom much is given.”. I object to flat tax schemes on religious grounds as well as that I don’t think they’d be particularly effective.
Howard Beale IV
With his inhuman pronouncements, I hope Jeff Greene suffers a stroke of such magnitude where he is totally non-functional and his wealth can’t save him-for it won’t.
Kay
This is interesting, though:
A lot of them are saying things like this lately. Larry Summers is worried about social unrest too. I don’t believe they are actually at risk from any social unrest, but I think it’s interesting that they do.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Trying to understand Freidman(or someone of his age and unadvanced maturity) usually gives me migraines so if you only have a regular headache……
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
So we should use a biological or fast degrading chemical attack rather than a nuclear or highly persistent chemical. Easy peasy.
Tommy
@Kay: you should post that second quote every day for the rest of you life.
jl
@mdblanche:
But does Greene deserve much better? He is a billionaire, and he didn’t marry into it, so I guess he has some kind of practical smarts. But the way he expresses himself. Some quotes from the link:
“I’m remarkably long for my level of pessimism,” he said. “Our economy is in deep trouble. We need to be honest with ourselves. We’ve had a realistic level of job destruction, and those jobs aren’t coming back.”
…
“Many manufacturing jobs that we lost will come back to the U.S., but most will be filled by robots and software.”
…
“I live in Palm Beach, where no one wants to hear bad news,” he said. “We need to have an event where people aren’t just focused on predicting the price of oil.”
Greene is not overly ept at expressing himself clearly. He has made the Buffet Giving Pledge for charitable donations. Maybe what Greene wants is a less resource intensive and more sustainable economy? Except for billionaires who can afford whatever they feel like?
One way to get some of those destroyed jobs back is to, I dunno, a steeply graduated consumption tax, especially on crazy luxuries that only the 1 percent can afford. And way to grab more corporate profits and earnings to get that cash back into circulation by the general population. Do that and I have a hunch a lot of jobs will come back. I’d like to know what Greene has to say about that, if I can understand what he says.
SiubhanDuinne
@JPL:
I know it was a John Linder/Neil Boortz thing for a while. But it’s been four years (had to check that, it seems much longer!) since Linder was in Congress, and I can’t even remember the last time I heard anyone mention Neil Boortz’ name. I think the people who have those bumper stickers think ” ‘Fair Tax’ means others pay more, I pay less, what could be fairer?”
Pogonip
@Howard Beale IV: Well, if the person above is correct and Jeff is just making note of existing conditions, he might be barely human.
Ruckus
@EthylEster:
I don’t even understand what stupid point Friedman is trying to make.
I don’t believe he does either. I believe he is from the WF Buckley school of “Use big words that don’t have any meaning to the actual content, so everyone will think you are smart.” Or shorter, Bullshit them so much they are speechless.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
It’s always possible that they don’t actually believe those things but think they’re the only thing that will scare ultra-rich conservatives into doing the right thing.
bemused
@SiubhanDuinne:
David Brooks affects me the same way so I skip reading him and Friedman. Just catching a quote from either makes my brain tired.
Pogonip
@Kay: Their unpaid interns have informed them that revolutions are started by displaced middle classes. Although we don’t have any of those in the U.S.–we have temporarily embarrassed zillionaires who will be rich again, or for the first time, Real Soon Now–the historical principle remains sound.
SiubhanDuinne
@Ruckus:
If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.
— W. C. Fields
JPL
@Pogonip: The Fair Tax is a sales tax which is regressive. I see it on twenty year old cars. Our tax system is not progressive, although it sounds like it is. A person earning $60,000 with a mortgage of $100,000 gets what type of deduction for that mortgage. Now a person with an income of 250,000 with a mortgage of $300,000, what percentage is his deduction. I’d be thrilled a flat tax on all income and a $50,000 deduction. Now that would be progressive.
Meg
Ever since they started the Friedman op/Ed generator(http://thomasfriedmanopedgenerator.com/), it has made Thomas Friedman’s job a lot easier. Now he does not even need to talk to a taxi driver or his daughter’s roommate to come up with that one.
Pogonip
@Ruckus: To Friedman’s credit, without him we would not know what “bandwidth” means in whatever language is spoken by taxi drivers in Mumbai.
WereBear
@Kay: Hark! Yonder comes a giant worm of unease!
I guess we’ll settle for that.
SiubhanDuinne
@bemused:
I haven’t read either of them for a very long time except when someone here at BJ or Charles Pierce provides quotations from their columns (they follow MOU and Bobo so I don’t have to!!). But that’s more than enough.
Pogonip
@WereBear: Can you say that in Taxi Driver-ese?
Jeffrey Burr
I think Friedman wrote my weather forecast today.
http://instagram.com/p/yOAefCLe42/
SiubhanDuinne
@Pogonip:
WereBear probably doesn’t have the bandwidth for that.
Tommy
@Pogonip: My parents are rich. They have more money than they can spend in a lifetime. I like to think it is me pushing, but they are starting to think Obama isn’t the worse thing in the world. If they paid 3 or 5% more in taxes they wouldn’t even notice it. I guess the guy at USB might note it, that would be all.
I get in these conversations with my mother. Tell her when they are no longer with us I will just give away their money. I have most of what I want now, I don’t need the money. They hate when I say this but pretty sure that is what I do.
jl
@Roger Moore: I think they live, conceptually, in a zero sum world, have rationalized every benefit and privilege that they have, and are very confused people. Their brilliant ideas and technology work miracles but destroy jobs. They get the money, and they get to keep almost all the money. They want to keep more of the money to give them more incentive to create more techno miracles, which destroys more jobs.
Things get paradoxically better and worse. It is all very puzzling and sad and wonderful at the same time. BTW, it is very important that they get all the money. They can’t see the connection.
And, they are ignorant about the ordinary lesser people. They think that the average Ralph and Alice have had it easy over the last 30 years.
Do they know that people in the upper part of the income distribution has seen their life expectancies rise by almost seven years in that time, while the average person and worse has seen an increase of only about 1.5 years? Probably not.
Kay
@Tommy:
You can see he cares deeply about children and has given this a lot of thought. “Unemployed people should be working in schools, because they’re free!” Also, “technology and other types of things” but only free… things.
Nothing but the best for America’s schoolchildren!
bemused
@SiubhanDuinne:
Exactly, glad others are willing to wade into their babble and still come out with their senses of humor.
FlipYrWhig
@SiubhanDuinne: They think “Fair Tax” means “I pay enough already, let the Negroes on welfare get their money from someone else.” That’s what’s unfair, they think: that they pay too much and Those People are getting away with paying nothing. It’s the same sentiment as those bumper stickers that say “Work Harder: Millions on Welfare are Counting on You!” or however it goes.
rikyrah
@Kay:
THEY SHOULD be at risk
jl
@Kay:
Appropriating free stuff that can do good things for you. Rich people know about that. That rich guy should get some more free money for innovative thinking like that.
MomSense
I can’t relate at all to these Davos people. Seems like they are no talent hacks who have lucked into undeservedly lucrative jobs and think they are oh so special and deserving.
Wankers.
Pogonip
@JPL: You’d be amazed at the number of rusty old carcachas with Romney stickers I saw around here during the last presidential election. You’d hear the thing rattling and snorting along, coming up in the next lane. You’d sit beside it at the traffic light, looking at the cracked windshield and dangling muffler. Then it would pull away, shedding rust as it went, and there would be that Romney sticker. Baroo? Even HE conceded he didn’t have anything to offer the working class.
From the orthodox (and, for all I know, the Orthodox) Christian perspective, progressive taxation is the only way to go. I doubt it’ll ever happen in the U.S., except in Blue pockets here and there. 21st-century America’s reputation for being a Christian nation is largely undeserved. Closing the post offices every December 25th does not a Christian nation make.
Schlemazel
I nominate Mr. Greene for the end of the line when the blade is dull
Pogonip
@Tommy: Careful, they may leave all the money to Jeff.
Kay
@rikyrah:
This is Larry Summers. He sounds more Harvard-y than some of the others who are issuing grave warnings but I think he’s a little nervous too:
They should rename Davos “Meeting of the Mobile Global Elite”
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
He certainly isn’t going to fit on the brilliance side of scale.
ET
I am not sure if I have the language skills and the wit to do this dude’s comments justice.
What I do have is more self awareness and common sense. All that money and investing skill and yet so clueless.
PaulW
Next one of these super-rich feel-good conventions, it should be required by law that every speaker making a presentation be a single mother working two jobs wielding rusty chainsaws and screaming “you motherf-ckers need to have YOUR expectations cut down to size!”
JPL
@Pogonip: Although the tax rate is progressive, no one understands the deductions aren’t. The one thing I like about a flat tax on all income, with a high deductible is it get rid of bogus non profits.
srv
I wish I had CGI skillz. I’d put Krugman in Davos with a light sabre and make a multi-hour youngling massacre.
Major Major Major Major
I’m still waiting on the part where anybody tells me what’s *wrong* about what Greene *said*.
Ruckus
@Pogonip:
What you are trying to say is that Freidman is the real Kelso. Whatever goes in has no relationship to what comes out. Sort of like shit. We put in food that smells and tastes good, mix it around for a while and out comes a foul substance that while useful as a fertilizer, has no other redeeming social value.
JPL
@Major Major Major Major: hmmm.. I came close at comment 22
Howard Beale IV
@Pogonip: The issue I have with him is that he bet against what turned out be wholly known fraudulent mortgages. One could argue that efficient markets have such short buyers, but when the market are rigged the way the mortgage market was rigged backed in the 2000s, well…..
schrodinger's cat
@Major Major Major Major: Why do we like Roubini? Because he predicted the financial crisis or because he is always bearish, no matter what?
bemused
@jl:
I think even the fabulously wealthy who came from Ralph and Alice world once upon a time are so removed from average folks, they barely remember what it was like. People find justifications for their wrong actions and they do the same to justify the outsized wealth they’ve acquired, not necessarily “earned”. It’s kind of hard to say they have worked extremely hard to get there when millions of other people are working as hard or much harder just to survive. No wonder so many of them sound so fearful of a peasant uprising.
Kay
@jl:
Why does he think valuable work should or would be free? Is that the flip side of “less valuable work should be insanely over-compensated”?
They’ll stick anything in a public school. “Sure! Try my half-assed experiment there, on the smallest and most vulnerable captives! It’s free!”
schrodinger's cat
@Major Major Major Major: He should first practice what he preaches if he wants to be taken seriously. Otherwise he just comes across as an out of touch hypocrite.
Major Major Major Major
@JPL: I’d argue that you’re totally right, but asking a guy like this to avoid using loopholes and exploits he knows about is pointless. They’re sharks. Like Buffett. Buffett would love to see the tax laws change, but until they do, he’s taking advantage
bemused
@FlipYrWhig:
Work Harder, Billionaires are Counting on You would be a good bumper sticker.
jl
@bemused: The super rich walk around and see the lesser people, with smart phones!? How can these lesser people want for anything?
Major Major Major Major
@schrodinger’s cat: I like him because of his work on naked CDO’s
jl
@Kay:
‘ Why does he think valuable work should or would be free? Is that the flip side of “less valuable work should be insanely over-compensated”? ‘
I was just saying that some aspects of this logic are attractive to super rich people. And rich people. And merely wealthy plebes, as well.
MomSense
@PaulW:
I’ll do it!
Baud
@Kay:
Aged Solyent Green?
Major Major Major Major
@schrodinger’s cat: I expect smart people to take advantage of laws to their benefit. We all do the same thing every year round about April 15. Don’t you?
schrodinger's cat
As for Friedman, I was in Mumbai this May and took a lot of cab rides while I was there. The average cab driver in Mumbai can speak several languages while Friedman is barely coherent in one.
This is one of the photos I took from the back seat of a yellow and black Bombay cab.
Mike in NC
@Pogonip: I still see beat up pickup trucks sporting the Rmoney/Ryan bumper stickers. It’s an angry white people thing.
schrodinger's cat
@Major Major Major Major: Its not just about tax deductions, which I don’t begrudge him. However I find hedge funds to be operations without any redeeming societal value whatsoever.
Zinsky
Turd burglars like Mr. Greene are always astonishingly unself-aware. The thing that is knotting my knickers today, though, is Speaker Boner’s invitation to Israel’s Nothinbutayahoo, to come speak in front of Congress and not even drop in to say hi to Obama. It may be the most disrespectful, borderline treasonous act by a House Speaker in American history! Can you imagine if Tip O’Neill had invited Fidel Castro to speak in front of the House and, by the way, don’t bother stopping by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to say “Yo” to Ronnie and Nancy? He likely would have been murdered that day!
schrodinger's cat
These so called global elite are not that different or any less exploitative than the mercantilists of the earlier age of globalization. The Davos elite is the latest iteration of the likes of the East India Company.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodinger’s cat: hedge funds exist in a space that laws created for them to do all this crap… I don’t think we’re really arguing so I’ll let it drop, but the “first against the wall” rhetoric against this guy is unwarranted.
Howard Beale IV
@Zinsky: Obama isn’t going to meet with Bibi when he hits the US. And if Bibi loses the elections it’ll be because of this stunt.
schrodinger's cat
@Major Major Major Major: Yes I do know they are legal, I just don’t think they do much for the society at large.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodinger’s cat: I wasn’t saying you didn’t and I completely agree. This guy just seems like an odd target.
Ruckus
@Major Major Major Major:
It used to be legal that a non white person was measured at 3/5 of the value of a white one. Didn’t make it in the least bit right.
Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
Major Major Major Major
@Ruckus: we’re talking about (in some cases literal) Randian cyborgs here. Would you like Warren Buffett on your side or not?
schrodinger's cat
@Major Major Major Major: I am not targeting him for anything, I just don’t think I need to hear lectures from the likes of a hedge fund manager about how the average person needs to lower their expectations or clap trap like that.
Major Major Major Major
@schrodinger’s cat: fair enough.
Though I do agree with him that the mid-late 20th century was an aberration, and that we’re reverting back to Finance über Alles; good for him if he wants to make a buck. Whatever.
I didn’t hear the lecture so maybe I missed a patronizing tone, which totally would have pissed me off.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: @Major Major Major Major: Like Major*4, I did not hear the speech, but the quoted section could well comport with the disdain for McMansions, etc., that pop up here quite often.
LWA (Liberal With Attitude)
So, in addition to my usual rant about the non-existance of any moral justification for the right to own guns (Yes, I do suggest repealing the 2nd Amendment) here’s another thought.
The moral case for property rights, which most Christian theologians accept, is not inflexible. We can suggest that property rights shrink and narrow after basic needs for sustenance are met, and can be mediated and negotiated with the communal needs.Further, the more wealth is amassed, the less of a legitimate connection there is to labor required to produce it. If you have a thousand times the wealth of the median worker, you couldn’t possibly have worked a thousand times as hard or as smart- it is inevitably just gambling winnings somewhere.
That is to say, that at some point up on the wealth ladder, the right to amass even more can vanish to Zero. At some point, lets say a Billion just for conversations sake, any further wealth can legitimately be confiscated entirely by the community.
I know this idea, like the abolition of gun rights, isn’t going anywhere in the foreseeable future.
But like challenging gun rights, I think its critical that we go on the offensive, and get people to question basic assumptions that lead to everyone just blithely assuming that taxing anything more than 15% of a billion dollars of capital gains is unjust.
A nation in which just a small number of people buy into this sort of thinking, will be one where a majority is willing to accept truly progressive taxation.
RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac)
@Zinsky:
I wish Obama could pull some immigration card and deny Bibi entry into the US.
Sloegin
If Davos was nuked, nothing of value would be lost.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sloegin: Have you ever been there? Met the ski bums and bartenders? Skied the Parsenn? You may decide that the cost/benefit analysis makes it worth it, but saying there is nothing of value there is daft.
Howard Beale IV
@RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac): As a head of state he probably can’t do that so easily. But I’m sure that State can make his entourage’s going-abouts rather “unpleasant”-and no doubt he’ll have the NSA and the CIA watch each and every move in case he or his entourage pulls a Victorica (“Fuck the EU”) Nuland.
Major Major Major Major
@Omnes Omnibus: I was actually just about to comment: what about Davos?
Omnes Omnibus
@Major Major Major Major: Of course, there was a club in Davos that charged me the equivalent of $8.00 for a Budweiser in 1992. Fuckers. I left that place and found a fun ski bum bar with cheap local booze and good music and a good time was had by all.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: I am not a fan of McMansions either but a man who travels in private jets has no business criticizing those who live in McMansions. YMMV.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: Again, from what I have read of what he said, I cannot be sure that he was criticizing rather than observing.
AlladinsLamp
It would greatly simplify my life to see Jeff, his wife, his children, and all like them, hanging by their ankles, naked, and bloody.
Is it too much to ask for?
Omnes Omnibus
@AlladinsLamp: I seem to lack the vicarious lust for violence that many here appear to possess.
Cervantes
@AlladinsLamp:
Oh, little Jeannie, you got so much love.
Ruckus
@schrodinger’s cat:
This. He claims to be on our side and may not be a complete douche but he is a hedge fund manager and hangs out at the Davos conference, takes his TWO nannies and kids in a private jet.
Warren Buffet may also be on our side but he’s what in the top ten richest in the world? That’s making more than a buck.
How productive is all this financial wheeling and dealing? Other than making some wealthy and a very few very wealthy and the rest of us poor and poorer. The great unwashed middle class my ass. I realize that’s the way of the world, once again that doesn’t make it right that it is getting worse not better.
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat:
Can you elaborate? Thanks.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: Elton frickin’ John?
AlladinsLamp
@Cervantes:
I have enough for both of us.
I got it covered.
Omnes Omnibus
Does no one recognize song lyrics?
srv
You people disgust me. This attack is like Al Gore flies to Davos in a private jet or lives in a 10K’ mansion.
Greene made his money the old fashioned way, being contrarian when ya’ll were taking out $100K Helocs.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
What else did you want me to do with Aladdin’s lamp?
Major Major Major Major
@srv: I’m tempted to say “did you read the thread or are you just an asshole” but that would be classless of me.
schrodinger's cat
@Cervantes: He sounds a tad hypocritical, that’s all.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: This or this.
kc
@Tommy:
I’m available to be adopted.
Omnes Omnibus
@kc: I doubt that you want to be a part of that family.
Scamp Dog
@Omnes Omnibus: I knew there had to be a legitimate use for the neutron bomb!
Mike G
@Roger Moore:
Or a fortuitous time for a massive avalanche.
Shorter Greene:
“When I said ‘ less things and a smaller, better existence’, I meant you people, not me. So next year I don’t have to ride on the same private jet as the nannies.”
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Those are fine but did not say what I wanted to say in response to the provocation, whereas (sarcastic) Elton was succinct.
I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet
@Omnes Omnibus: If he were criticizing, [or even if he were observing,] he should recognize that a guy who has had stories like these published in the press has very little space for telling others to consume less.
:-/
That’s just one of his homes, of course.
But your point that there’s almost no context for the limited comments from the Bloomberg interview is a good one.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Scamp Dog
@Ruckus: Well…. The 3/5 compromise was pushback against the Southerners who wanted slaves counted at full value for purposes of allotting representation in Congress, basically “I won’t let him vote, so I get to vote for him”. The Northerners would rather have them not counted at all: “If he can’t vote, why should you get to vote for him?” The 3/5 thing was what both sides could tolerate. The country probably would have been better off with a 2/5 compromise. Or a 1/4 compromise. Best of all would have been “Get lost crackers, do it our way!” Although we needed to do something, since the Articles of Confederation weren’t working out. Hmmm, there’s that word, Confederate…
Your history pedantry for the day!
srv
@Major Major Major Major: For all your rank, you failed to bring the mob to heel.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cervantes: Fair enough. I am just disappointed that no one else seemed to catch your reference.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: I got it. Right away. Just didn’t comment. Does that count?
Cervantes
@I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet:
But in that story he is selling the estate, as opposed to buying it!
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: Of course. It was the response to the comment that obviously missed the point entirely that bugged me. Sometimes it is rather obvious that that someone is quoting poetry or lyrics. Why take those moments literally? Just sayin’. Or am I being an snob?
Violet
@Cervantes: He couldn’t sell it if he didn’t buy it first.
Cervantes
@schrodinger’s cat:
I got that from your earlier remarks, thanks.
Still not sure I understand it, though. After all, one person’s conspicuous consumption may well be another person’s most efficient use of resources.
Omnes Omnibus
@Violet: But if he is selling, he may be downsizing….
Cervantes
@Violet:
Possibly true.
Anyhow, we know he sold it, but unless we also know why, can we really say much about hypocrisy or lack thereof?
rikyrah
Ernie Banks dies at age 83
Updated: January 23, 2015, 11:38 PM ET
ESPN.com news services
The Chicago Cubs’ beloved “Mr. Cub,” Ernie Banks, has died at 83, the club confirmed.
“There’s sunshine, fresh air, and the team’s behind us,” Ernie Banks said during his Hall of Fame induction speed in 1977. “Let’s play two!”
“Words cannot express how important Ernie Banks will always be to the Chicago Cubs, the city of Chicago and Major League Baseball. He was one of the greatest players of all time,” Tom Ricketts, chairman of the Cubs, said in a statement released by the team. “He was a pioneer in the major leagues. And more importantly, he was the warmest and most sincere person I’ve ever known.
“Approachable, ever optimistic and kind hearted, Ernie Banks is and always will be Mr. Cub. My family and I grieve the loss of such a great and good-hearted man, but we look forward to celebrating Ernie’s life in the days ahead.”
A 19-year-old Banks debuted for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro leagues in 1950. After a two-year stint in the Army, Banks returned to the Monarchs, who sold his contract to the Chicago Cubs in 1953.
http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/12219755/ernie-banks-former-chicago-cubs-great-dies-age-83
Roger Moore
@Mike G:
Or a meteor strike. Yet more proof that there isn’t a benevolent God taking an active interest in improving the world.
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
A charitable reading — at least, the one I chose — is this: “Yes, you’re quoting some lyric but I won’t be distracted; instead I reiterate my disgust.”
Which was fine by me. You and I had both responded by that point. No need to belabor it, I thought.
And on that note, I am off for the nonce.
Violet
@Omnes Omnibus: Not sure it makes you a snob.
@Omnes Omnibus: He may be downsizing or he may be selling it and buying five more even larger estates. We don’t know. What we do know is he’s rich enough to have bought it in the first place, which was kind of the point of the original comment. He’s rich enough to own the sprawling estate (one of several) and fly off to Davos with his wife, kids and two nannies and turns around and tells others this:
Maybe he’s moving his family into a yurt and becoming a job killer by eliminating the nannies’ positions. I don’t get that impression from this guy, but maybe that’s what’s happening.
Maybe we should keep an eye on Jeff Greene and see if he’s following his own suggestion that, as an American, he’s adjusting his expectations so he has ‘less things’ and a ‘smaller, better existence.’ I’m sure he’ll be skipping Davos next year to concentrate on his smaller existence.
Omnes Omnibus
@Roger Moore: Because the residents and temp. folk in the town are simply collateral damage, right? Fuck them for taking a job there. Right?
Cervantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
One other thing: The Davos area was the center of the League of the Ten Jurisdictions — a thoughtful if short-lived experiment in democracy, a government designed by the common people as opposed to royalty or the nobles. (I’m over-simplifying but, even so, the irony is evident.)
Major Major Major Major
@srv: my namesake isn’t exactly known for making shit work.
SRW1
@Kay:
I don’t think that flip side comes into it, certainly not in this form. What I suspect explains it is that they just about accept the necessity of this education thing, but the big headache is that it’s a cost factor. And at least half of what counts for business acumen is that for a healthy bottom line you gotta be absolutely ruthless about your cost factors.
And besides, the fact that the poor these days tend to be more obese than the steely job creators proves that ‘these people’ can certainly do with less.
Violet
Here’s an article on Mr. Greene’s homes:
There’s a slideshow and descriptions of the homes. He just sold the bachelor pad, though. Not sure how’s he’s going to muddle through with so few houses.
Violet
Apparently Jeff Greene ran for Senate in Florida in 2010 as a Democrat. Lost in the primary to Kendrick Meek. We could have had this guy instead of Rubio.
His party yacht seemed to be quite the place. A former stewardess on his yacht told this story.
Warning: NSFW pictures at the link.
satby
@Kay: And how are all those “free labor” unemployed and retired people supposed to pay for stuff they need to live on? He thinks the unemployed live on sunbeams and air?
The rich are always so positive their obscene compensation is perfectly justified, but us lessor mortals should be grateful to be offered work, even for free.
Petorado
After reading the Friedman quote, I have a strong suspicion that DougJ has a new job driving taxis in Davos.
Jamey
Two nannies = job creator.
My Truth Hurts
There used to be a time in this country when Jeffs comments would be shouted down as practically treasonous.
sm*t cl*de
@schrodinger’s cat:
Why do we like Roubini? Because he predicted the financial crisis
Did he? I remember Roubini before the financial world went titsup, arguing against the idea of regulating the banking sector… he reckoned that self-regulation was better, because bankers were better-motivated than governments to spot problems in advance and deal with them, knowing that they would bear all the costs from failure.
He may well have revised his memories of his prediction since then.
schrodinger's cat
@sm*t cl*de: It was snark, he is a one note kinda guy. Not someone I look up to.
Neldob
@Kay: Maybe he means more people will start voting.
Another Holocene Human
Americans should lower expectations–the enormous houses, the idiotic sumptuary spending on disposable clothes and jewelry, the demand to look like you’re 19-22 at 28-55, the overpowered cars, the exotic pets (“I’m going to keep a man-eating fighting dog in the house!” “I’m going to adopt a wild forest cat that eats raw meat!”) and so on.
But Americans should also raise expectations. Expectations that we can have:
*100% employment
*The end of food insecurity
*Quality universal education
*Free or affordable secondary education
*Human rights even in the most seedy rural fuckhole
*Racial equality
*Social respect
*Living wages
*Safe working conditions
*A safe, sane, just system of crime and punishment in line with Western society norms
Why can’t we have those things … Jeff?!
Yeah, we might have to give something up … like those oversized mortgaged cars and houses. I for one won’t miss that shit.
Another Holocene Human
@Violet: There’s more to that. Kendrick Meek was a Dem party insider sacrifice candidate because Gov Charlie Crist was expected to run and, well, win. But the subterranean warfare between different Florida Republican Party factions broke out into the open and a group of party insiders put up Rubio (as a “tea” candidate but it’s all bullshit, we now know that Rubio has no principles, unlike Crist, but they were on similar places on the political spectrum and Rubio was an insider’s insider who was taking money–from the party–along with all of his buddies).
Greene shows up and starts running a relentless attack campaign against Meek. Now I don’t know this guy from Adam but it’s kind of odd for a California Republican to come in and try to primary an African American Democrat from Florida. I mean weird. Meek won the primary. But his public image was damaged and of course he lacked for money. This is important because now Crist, as Independent, and Rubio, as Republican, are duking it out and pulling similar numbers. There was turmoil among Democrats, to vote for the Democrat or vote for Crist in a three way race. The D’s were in no position, now, to deal with a GOP in disarray. Which makes you wonder if Greene’s entrance was dirty tricks.
In the end, Rubio captured the plurality. Turns out the biography he wrote was a lie and so was his commitment to immigration reform, but what do you expect from someone who uses his position as officer of an organization to grab thousands out of the till?
Greene is scummy and weird.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
My back hurts from work this week making medical scaners at the biotech company that hired me. Greene is just another huckster who bet lucky and doesn’t know shit how things really work. The jobs that are coming back are the high skilled ones, that is the problem with the job market right now. Fucking softwere and robots only works on the crap that is offshored, not the new stuff.
Neurovore
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The trouble is, that from what I have seen in many tech sectors, companies already have a remedy for the “new” stuff. They simply have resorted to filling them with cheaply-paid H-1B indentured servants or permatemps for the things that they cannot offshore or automate. It might not be a good idea from the standpoint of innovation or company growth in the long-term, but the idea of long-term corporate planning died at least 20 years ago.