Good News, Bad News
Obama will make history just by being elected, but will have to deal with the wars, the coming recession, and anything else that goes wrong. He has shown himself to be ready for challenges, but the remnants of the right will mount a nonstop, none-too-subtle, racist campaign to discredit him at every turn. As Orlando noted, some people are already writing his obituary, but even as a former Edwards guy, I’d rather see Obama in charge during these tough times than anyone else on the scene.
This is unrelated, but:
Joe the Plumber: It shows that those who are wealthy want to pay less taxes; not more. Small business has benefited a great deal, while those who work for a living have not. The idea of the Bush tax cuts was to have wealth come down from above; but, wealth went into wealthy’s pockets. When you see a real decline in income and jobs over 8 years; it is quite obvious that low taxes on the wealthy does not “trickle down”. These people had their chance to spread the wealth; but, they didn’t. - NY Times commenter Nick
That rings a bell for me. My wife has been working for her son, a very talented decorative painter. They did a great job painting the interiors of this ordinary McMansion to look like an Irish castle. Last night she told me that the client refused to pay his last bill.
That rich people don’t pay is almost a given among small contractors. Tracy Kidder related the negotiations over the last bill in his book, House, which chronicles the entire history of a particular house project in Northampton MA. Despite a spirited effort to overcome obstacles by the builders, their well-to-do clients had no intentions of paying in full.
I tell a story about starting out as an architect. My boss didn’t want to bother with house commissions, so he handed them off to his staff to do on our own time. The senior guy got a wealthy restaurant-owner client and a fancy house; I got a steamfitter and a fairly ordinary house. But while I heard him arguing, trying to get paid for his work, my client paid me in full, and recommended me to his friend, and then another friend.
Interesting. I'm reading Katherine Graham autobiography, and one thing she mentioned about her wealthy mother was that she was "mean" about small debts and salaries for the domestic staff. This was even more surprising given that her mother did not start out wealthy and that this went on during the depression.
It must be a learned behavior, and it epitomizes their unhealthy disdain for the other 95% of us. That disdain was in full view on McCains face during the debate last night.
October 16, 2008 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have several Contractor friends who tell the same story. The wealthier clients presume that they can get away with this sort of thing, as they presume that the Contractor won't come after them through legal channels for the payment.
October 16, 2008 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good points. The only three times I ever got burned in 30 years of contracting happened in Orinda, CA, at the hands of filthy rich people.
The interesting (appalling?) thing about each of these occasions was that in all three cases these folks had absolutely zero shame about what they were doing to me, and had absolutely no fear of the property liens I had on their homes.
Funny thing is, after all these years, I have no idea what ever happened on those liens. Never heard a thing.
Good post. Rec'd.
October 16, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's worse than you can imagine. I have known many people who interact with celebrities, particularly those who construct stages at rock shows. They try not to pay the bills either -- and some of these rock stars have been listed as valued over $1B. Any most are ones that it would break your heart -- because their personnas are all about peace and love and not being materialistic.
On the flip side, I've also seen contractors try to get away with all kinds of cost cutting measures after the fact -- or worse, claiming a job is done when it isn't. Usually some clear engineering analysis -- and threat of going to local government boards -- sets them straight about what the job really entails.
Moral to the story: a non-trivial amount of humanity decides that they don't have to play by any particular rules. And it isn't correlated to shirt collar color.
October 16, 2008 1:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
It might not start out that way, but you have to admit that it's a tendency which leads to accumulation. It's a kind of "climb the ladder, then kick it over" attitude. The color of the shirt collar doesn't precede it, but I'd bet it's a lot more common among those who have more wealth than less simply for the reason that it is a wealth hoarding tendency.
October 16, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've seen an outrageous sense of entitlement from all levels. And quite often, the more recent the wealth, the more obnoxious behavior.
It's complex... but what certainly is true is that "status" doesn't equate with "integrity"... or "class".
October 16, 2008 8:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
Moral to the story: a non-trivial amount of humanity decides that they don't have to play by any particular rules. And it isn't correlated to shirt collar color.
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Absolutely. I've done handyman, painting, carpentry, electrical, plumbing work for lots of very rich doctors and lawyers and never once had a single problem. On the other hand I worked for several contractors and more than half cut corners to make a bit more on the job. If I were to go just on my experience I would say its the working class that is more likely to rip someone off. But I don't think that's the case, just a coincidence of my individual experience. Some people simply are less honest than others and shirt collar color doesn't give you any information about who they are.
October 16, 2008 5:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great post. Some of the wealthiest people in this country are the most selfish, somehow not understanding that stepping on people actually makes them less money in the long run, despite the paltry savings of today.
On a side note, we will be looking for an architect once we can afford to start remodeling our 1908 Victorian row-house in DC. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later and plans are certainly the first step.
Among some other strange coincidences - my best friend grew up in Altoona and married a girl from Hollidaysburg. I spent ten years in the Navy as a broadcaster and photojournalist.
October 16, 2008 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I used to live in DC - Cleveland Park - and I have a few architect friends still working there.
October 16, 2008 1:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Cool. I'll throw out comment when we get closer to needing some plans drawn.
October 16, 2008 2:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Makes you wonder if being a cheating, crooked bastard is how to get rich in the first place...
October 16, 2008 4:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/32250.html
October 16, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
There isn't a man in a mansion,
that an accurate pen can't puncture
-ELP
October 16, 2008 8:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Loved Kidder's House.
In my own experience, observations of two sides of the wealthy client coin:
1) a Euro-trash client who stiffed a Vietnamese immigrant family for a year's worth of faultless painting on his yacht; and,
2) a cheerful, Saudi-enriched Brit who loved hand drafting so much that he commissioned, and paid on the nose for, unnecessary drawings for the pleasure of looking at and appreciating them.
Did not know that you are an architect, Donal. Stories to be shared at your convenience.
October 16, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
Did you read Soul of a New Machine or Among Schoolchildren?
October 16, 2008 7:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, but will rectify oversights immediately. Thanks.
October 18, 2008 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the people who say that morality doesn't correlate with shirt collar are basically right.
But I still think that Donal has a point.
Just to give my own tiny perspective on this: I'm a college teacher, and I've worked both at small, fairly obscure colleges and at big, well-known research institutions. Guess where my colleagues were (on average) more fun and more humane?
I've slowly come to the conclusion that the qualities it takes to "get ahead" in life don't correlate very well at all with the qualities that make good human beings.
I know this is banal. I could have saved myself 20 years of painful discovery just by renting "It's a Wonderful Life." But somehow I found it impossible to believe all those great mid-20th-century liberal pieties until I rediscovered them for myself.
October 16, 2008 10:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
My anecdotes strayed from the point of the comment I quoted, which was that rich people don't really let much money trickle down, and I certainly have had bad experiences with blue collar folk. So while I wasn't saying that all rich are bad, I do agree that many of them put financial considerations ahead of all else.
October 17, 2008 9:14 AM | Reply | Permalink