Highbrow Magazine - wealth https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/wealth en Passive Income Is Not a Myth, but It May Be a Scam https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23254-passive-income-not-myth-it-may-be-scam <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/23/2023 - 18:37</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1passiveincome.jpg?itok=F0dU1J7T"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1passiveincome.jpg?itok=F0dU1J7T" width="480" height="353" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">It turns out we’ve all been doing it wrong. Commuting, selling our labor for money, even getting an education – all overrated. There’s a better, easier, faster way to make money. It’s so easy, in fact, that many people can’t figure out how to do it because they don’t trust how easy it is. It requires so little work, that they can’t wrap their heads around how much money they can make doing next to nothing. It’s passive income and it’s everywhere right now. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">The concept of passive income is not <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">new</a> (nor is it new to warn against it), but it’s a trend that’s become ubiquitous in social media and content platforms, easily garnering millions of views. Passive income is <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">defined</a> as unearned income—as opposed to income gained through labor—that is acquired with minimal to no effort, often through the use of automated processes. It popularized the idea that millionaires have <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">seven</a> streams of passive income that help maintain their wealth. But how passive is the processes to generate this kind of income, actually? And is it even a genuine source of income? </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">For the wealthy, it is. For everyone else, passive income is akin to a scam. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2passiveincome.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Investing is the most widespread <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">method</a> used to generate actual passive income. It can also generate significant profits. But it’s generally advised that, given the high risk of losing capital, money that can be invested should be money that someone can afford to lose in the first place: their spendable income or perhaps even a portion of their ongoing savings. Historically, there have been predatory schemes that purposefully advertise to draw the financially desperate and financially illiterate, with the promise of easy investment gains even though the investment process itself is sometimes deliberately complex (more so than investing in and of itself already is). And in reality, good investing requires active participation – keeping up with global affairs, remaining knowledgeable of economic and market trends, etc. In other words, this is work that needs to be done to expect a profitable and ongoing return on investment. Has anyone ever met an investor or a day trader who is chill? As it is, investing is not always viable for most, and this is why profitable investments to the tune of millions are usually reserved for those who are already wealthy.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Perhaps a more suitable name for this concept would be “<a href="about:blank#:~:text=Leveraged%20income%20is%20the%20idea,once%20will%20generate%20recurring%20profits." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">leveraged</a>” instead of passive income. Most, if not all, of the passive-income ideas that are floated around the internet require an up-front cost, oftentimes a very high one. Real estate, for example, is indeed considered one of the <a href="about:blank#:~:text=80%25%20of%20the%20respondents%20agree,only%2011%25%20a%20year%20ago." style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">safest</a> forms of investment that can yield a profit down the road. The idea to generate passive income from this is simply to buy a house and then just rent it -- and let that rent money take care of the mortgage with extra to put in your pocket. But the prospect of buying a house, of course, is out of reach for a lot of people. Plus, it ignores the costs of maintaining a house; and not just the bare minimum of keeping it livable for tenants, but to retain tenants as well.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Meanwhile, there are several other venues that are often cited as being “the best” passive-income ideas. And there are several reasons as to how each of those options are not, in fact, passive. Most troubling though is that none of these options offers sustainable, long-term income without someone being actively involved in their development and operations. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3passiveincome.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Content <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">creation</a>, for example, is often listed as an easy side hustle that can generate passive income. This includes things like starting a podcast, or a YouTube channel, or even a blog. That content creation is considered at all passive is misguided, for starters, and that it can easily generate income is misleading. Content creation, in this context, means continually producing and publishing content meant for mass consumption (as opposed to, say, the occasional viral TikTok). It needs to happen continuously because maintaining or driving up engagement is the only way that a content creator can actually generate any kind of income, thus negating anything “passive” content creation is supposed to be. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">One statistic <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">measured</a> that nearly 90 percent of content in YouTube will never reach even 1,000 views. By contrast, only 0.77 percent of the entire content on YouTube reaches 100,000 views per video. In other words, this tiny microcosm of content, in a platform that sees over 122 million users every single day, could be making any actual income in any meaningful way from content creation. Not to mention that in addition to making content that is continuously engaging, even if someone has the technical skills needed to make that content available (knowing how to film, properly light and edit a video, SEO tagging, etc. - all measurable skills that require active participation to learn), the cost of proper equipment can easily add up quickly --which is why even content creation requires some sort of upfront investment, both of time and money. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Another oft-cited advice for passive income is through <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">licensing</a> fees. This, technically speaking, is good advice - except that there is nothing passive about it. The idea here is to generate a continuous flow of income through licensing fees by, for example, creating music that is then made commercially available. No clue who thought that creating music was in any way passive to begin with; but in order for something like music licensing to be lucrative, it requires extensive and arduous work. New music must be produced constantly, and licensed enough times to generate revenue. To make matters worse, the music licensing business is extremely <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">competitive</a>. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Along the same veins, several passive-income sites have recommended <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">writing</a> an <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">eBook</a> to collect royalty fees. This, like music licensing, isn’t necessarily bad advice – but it’s a lot of work for someone to write a book, assuming that they can write efficiently in the first place. But modern technology has provided an easy turnaround. Passive income “advisers” mention that someone can easily write an eBook using <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">artificial</a> intelligence, specifically using a platform like <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ChatGPT</a>. That is - feed the AI <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">whatever</a> you need to teach it, then tell it to write an eBook for you. Upload it to Amazon or other à la carte eBook publishers and voilà - easy money, next to zero effort. The thing with this though -- the scary thing -- is that this could potentially work to an extent. This is sound advice both from the tech and the minimal-effort perspective. And it’s why it also highlights the messy part of all this, the underbelly of this “advice” for passive income: that nothing matters except the money. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4passiveincome.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">To be clear: Money matters. A lot. But the context in which this content is being created leaves all the humanity out of the creation. Which can be smart, sure. But is there any value to it, then? Maybe it doesn’t matter in the end. And that’s why all this so-called advice about passive income seems hollow and, worse, weaponized. It speaks to our insecurities especially when we’re vulnerable: financially desperate and looking for ways out. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Because what it boils down to is that all this is in fact easy and if you don’t take advantage of it, you’re a <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">fool</a>. Someone who just doesn’t have what it takes to take such easy steps to get rich fast. It’s not that the math doesn’t add up -- you just don’t understand scale. It’s not that sometimes things don’t pan out -- it’s that you haven’t cracked the formula and gave up too early. It’s not that it’s actually easy -- you’re just foolish for having thought that in the first place.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">Passive-income influencers frame any other type of success as a moral <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">failure</a>. For them, having a 9-5 job is the real scam – being exploited in this capitalist world when there’s this supposed easy money to make right there for the taking. And gleams of truth of that renunciation of capitalism aside, this perspective both ignores the pitfalls of the active work that still needs to be done to generate “passive” income while condemning more common, and still honorable, ways of trading time for money. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">This messaging, it turns out, is important. In it, there’s more than a little reminder of the way that, for example, self-help content markets itself, as well as other ventures that are risky at best and predatory at worst:  MLMs, <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">payday</a> loans, rent-to-own, etc. Like these, it’s essential for passive-income content and messaging to speak to our human desires of getting money quick, of owning stuff (or the perception of it), or of not having to answer to anyone but ourselves. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><img src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5passiveincome.jpg" /></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">In theory, it would stand to reason that generating passive income should be a one-man effort: rolling up your sleeves and getting down to business (but without putting in the elbow grease, because this is supposed to be passive after all). Taking risks upon yourself and likewise reaping the benefits on your own. </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif">But passive income advice content is frequently marketed with byproducts to buy. In other words, there’s always a catch in order to move forward; a first step to take that involves some kind of purchase. It may be an online course that teaches you more about passive income; or an e-book that outlines the ways to start a YouTube channel; or a kit about the best equipment to buy to start a podcast. Many of the sites linked throughout this article, in fact, do just that. Never mind that if these coaches indeed make a living with their passive income streams, then they would not have a need to be selling a product on the internet; they would probably say that it’s just their altruistic nature.</span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"> In this sense, it’s really not any different from products and services that promise an unlikely <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">outcome</a> when all they are is smoke and mirrors and snake oil. Consumer protection <a href="about:blank" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">agencies</a> warn against this kind of messaging: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. If they overpromise, avoid at all costs. And it all does indeed turn into a scheme when it stops being meaningless, if oftentimes harmful, advice and it becomes a predatory industry itself. This is the way in which passive income is a scam.  </span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Author Bio:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong><em>Angelo Franco is</em> Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief features writer.</em></strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></span></span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><strong>Image Sources:</strong></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--</em><a href="https://thebluediamondgallery.com/laptop01/y/youtube.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Blue Diamond Gallery</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Investment Zen (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/investmentzen/28903989602" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Ivan Radic (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/26344495@N05/52024579446" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Marco Verch Professional Photos (</em><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/30478819@N08/50341292302" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Flickr</em></a><em>, Creative Commons)</em></span></span></p> <p><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif"><em>--Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan (</em><a href="https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=290632&amp;picture=sell-ebook" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>publicdomainpictures.net</em></a><em>)</em></span></span></p> <p> </p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/passive-income" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">passive income</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/making-money" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">making money</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/youtube" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Youtube</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/investing" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">investing</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jobs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jobs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/online-jobs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">online jobs</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/social-media-jobs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">social media jobs</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/media-influencer" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">media influencer</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/money" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">money</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ebook" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ebook</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wealth" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wealth</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Angelo Franco</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">In Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 23 Jan 2023 23:37:24 +0000 tara 11618 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/23254-passive-income-not-myth-it-may-be-scam#comments Greed, Destiny, and Death at Sea Haunt ‘The Glass Hotel’ https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10806-greed-destiny-and-death-sea-haunt-glass-hotel <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/books-fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Books &amp; Fiction</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Sat, 08/22/2020 - 08:03</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ocean.jpg?itok=_ycuLzA9"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1ocean.jpg?itok=_ycuLzA9" width="480" height="276" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>The Glass Hotel</em></strong></p> <p><strong>By Emily St. John Mandel</strong></p> <p><strong>Knopf</strong></p> <p><strong>320 pages</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Fans of Emily St. John Mandel’s 2014 post-apocalyptic novel, <a href="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/5510-best-books" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Station Eleven</em></a><em>,</em> may be forgiven for wondering if she could top that achievement with her new novel, <em>The Glass Hotel.</em> With a sense of wonderment, it’s possible to report that, yes, she has.  </p> <p> </p> <p>Broadly speaking, <em>The Glass Hotel</em> revolves around two events:  the collapse of a Bernie Madoff-like Ponzi scheme in 2008 and, years later, a woman falling (or being pushed) from the deck of a container ship at sea. In between swirl a variety of interconnected subplots and a host of living, breathing secondary characters. And, as with <em>Station Eleven</em>, the author enjoys (and is seemingly peerless at) shuffling time and point of view in ways that subtly enrich the text, while never disorienting the reader as to <em>where </em>and <em>what </em>is going on.</p> <p> </p> <p>Vincent, the self-admitted “trophy wife” of financier Jonathan Alkaitis, is catapulted overnight from a subsistence existence into what she calls the “kingdom of money.” While having virtually everything she’s ever wanted, Vincent can’t shake uncomfortable feelings triggered by this “strange new life.” And before it all comes crashing down, she understands why she clings to everything wealth can buy:</p> <p> </p> <p>“What kept her in the kingdom was the previously unimaginable condition of not having to think about money, because that’s what money gives you: the freedom to stop thinking about money. If you’ve never been without, then you won’t understand the profundity of this, how absolutely it changes your life.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1mandelbook.jpg" style="height:500px; width:333px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Early on, there are indications that the surface gloss of Mandel’s prose might frustrate a reader starved for details (“They went out to the terrace, which had Italian pretensions”). But such concerns are quickly dismissed as the narrative unfolds in subtle and surprising ways.</p> <p> </p> <p>The author is particularly adept at generating sympathy for her characters, including Jonathan, the mastermind behind the grand financial scheme that ultimately bankrupts investors. Despite his conviction and a life sentence of 170 years, Jonathan doesn’t see himself as any sort of criminal genius:</p> <p> </p> <p>“It’s possible to know you’re a criminal, a liar, a man of weak moral character, and yet <em>not </em>know it, in the sense of feeling that your punishment is somehow undeserved, that despite the cold facts you’re deserving of warmth and some kind of special treatment. You can know you’re guilty of an enormous crime, that you stole an immense amount of money from multiple people and that this caused destitution for some of them and suicide for others, you can know all this and yet still somehow feel you’ve been wronged when your judgment arrives.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Years later, as Jonathan descends into dementia, the reader comes to magically agree that, in spite of his terrible crimes, he <em>does </em>deserve “warmth and some kind of special treatment.”</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/1money_kalhh_pixabay.jpg" style="height:600px; width:600px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>The novel’s fragmented structure can sometimes seem as if Mandel’s juggling too many storylines, then letting them fall and scatter where they may. But this, too, carries the ring of truth. We all lead fragmented lives and existence is never more vividly felt then in those moments when a person’s life changes forever.</p> <p> </p> <p>Rich characterizations, fluid handling of both time and perspective, flashes of great humor, and near-flawless dialogue—that’s a lot to ask of any novel, and <em>The Glass Hotel</em> has it all.</p> <p> </p> <p>About halfway through, I stopped taking notes and simply gave over to the reading experience. The feeling is much the same as reading <a href="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10333-best-books" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>The Volunteer </em>by Salvatore Scibona</a> last year. It’s unlikely I’ll read a more elegant, engaging and immersive work of fiction in 2020.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Lee Polevoi, </em></strong><strong>Highbrow Magazine’s <em>chief book critic,</em> <em>is the author of a novel, </em>The Moon in Deep Winter.</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Image Sources:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><em>--Knopf</em></p> <p><em>--Kalhh (<a href="https://pixabay.com/illustrations/money-businessmen-silhouette-man-1078268/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Pixabay</a>, Creative Commons)</em></p> <p><em>--</em><a href="https://pixnio.com/people/female-women/sunset-sky-red-dress-water-woman-boat-water" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><em>Pixnio</em></a><em> (Creative Commons)</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/emily-st-john-mandel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Emily St. John Mandel</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/glass-hotel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">The Glass Hotel</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-books" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new books</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-novels" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">new novels</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-authors" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american authors</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fiction" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">fiction</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ponzi-scheme" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ponzi scheme</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wealth" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wealth</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Lee Polevoi</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Sat, 22 Aug 2020 12:03:05 +0000 tara 9773 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10806-greed-destiny-and-death-sea-haunt-glass-hotel#comments How the iPhone Became the Perfect Status Symbol https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4306-how-iphone-became-perfect-status-symbol <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 09/19/2014 - 14:17</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3iphones.jpg?itok=CKi4m3zx"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/3iphones.jpg?itok=CKi4m3zx" width="480" height="257" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p><strong>From FirstPost.com and republished by our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/09/status-insanity-why-the-iphone-is-the-perfect-status-symbol.php">New America Media</a>:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Commentary:</strong></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p>In India the iPhone makes your life complicated before it makes it simpler.</p> <p> </p> <p>A friend got an iPhone because she could not call Uber cabs on her Blackberry. That solved a pressing problem -- how to call a cab if she's out for drinks and it's rather late. Unfortunately now she is terrified she will leave her über-expensive golden phone in the cab in a tipsy haze. So she has to plan her social life very carefully. If there is any prospect of drinks on the horizon, she leaves her iPhone safely at home thereby defeating the whole point of getting it in the first place. Smartphone, indeed.</p> <p> </p> <p>I don't have an iPhone and have never had one, but it does not mean I will never get one. I have not avoided the iPhone because I disapprove of Apple's labor practices in China or any such high-minded reason. I do own a Mac and love it. And I have a Blackberry which I have no particular love for, and is not cheap either, but I stick with out of sheer inertia.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am just a bit of a status symbol Luddite. By the time I finally get something cool it's already well past its coolness expiry date. Some people are just not early adopters. Oh, the iPhone is on Version 6? Where has the time flown?</p> <p> </p> <p>I also refuse to use up my precious Internet bandwidth in India to watch the iPhone and iEverythingElse launch in far-off San Francisco, live on my Safari browser. What other status symbol inspires that kind of insanity? I just don't get it. Why are so many people watching the launch of a product that most of us cannot even afford, though Apple sales did go up 400 percent in India after it initiated its installment and buyback schemes?</p> <p> </p> <p>It goes without saying that the iPhone is a status symbol. But it's a revolutionary status symbol. Unlike that Hermes Birkin bag, it's a status symbol with really cool whiz bang upgrade-able features. That makes it a status symbol that actually does something instead of just sitting there, being a status symbol. And while we might have to bluff as we pretend to appreciate the finer points of 15-year-old single malts versus 18-year-old single malts, everyone can actually enjoy an iPhone, if not for its features, then just for its sheer aesthetics. "It's not a status symbol to me," says a friend who wants one. "It's just quite nice-looking like the iPad. And it takes slow-motion videos."</p> <p> </p> <p>In fact, Apple has made aesthetics a status symbol in itself.</p> <p> </p> <p>"A Blackberry is far easier for office work," admits a new iPhone user a bit sheepishly. But the iPhone is way prettier. "You flaunt an iPhone, but you don't flaunt an Android," the VP of a digital media company wisely told Bloomberg explaining why Apple could get away with pushing its older models in India counting on our appetite for brand "cachet at affordable prices". "Affordable" of course being a relative term here.</p> <p> </p> <p>Best of all, this is a status symbol you can carry everywhere. You do not have to awkwardly try to insert it into a conversation -- like the name of the club you belong to or the American business school your child attends or the car you drive. You can just fish it out of your pocket and look at the time. Or like my friend, the new iPhone user, post a picture on Facebook and coyly say "Because I can now take selfies." That is classy.</p> <p> </p> <p>That's what makes it a godsend for a status-obsessed society like India. It fuses what has become the ordinary Indian necessity ,aka a mobile phone ,with high-end luxury and in a way, strips it of any consumer vanity guilt in a country where as stories constantly remind us that two-thirds of the population lives on less than $2 a day. If you routinely post photos of yourself on Facebook flying first-class on international flights you are an insufferable show-off. But if you post photos with your new iPhone you are just on the cutting edge. It's a status symbol that you can always justify -- ineed that Uber app, I want to shoot Hyperlapse videos, I have to take Instagram photos.</p> <p> </p> <p><br /> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4iphone.jpg" style="height:416px; width:625px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Of course, now you can take selfies and Instagram photos on other smartphones too (except my rotten Blackberry). But the iPhone gives you that discreet extra stamp of authentication that smugly sets you apart. No wonder in China, after the iPhone skyrocketed as a status symbol, a lucrative new side business emerged according toMinyanville.com: the selling of fake "has logged in via iPhone" signatures for users of the massively popular instant messaging program Tencent QQ.</p> <p> </p> <p>In China, writes Josh Wolonick, an iPhone transcends mere luxury becoming "symbol of wealth, but also of ability and of a kind of Western independence that is taking hold, along with capitalism, in the People's Republic of China." And those fake iPhone signatures "allow China's working class to share, however minutely, in the prestige of China's new American status symbol."</p> <p> </p> <p>All this is happening in a society where I actually use the phone far less as a phone. Most people who need to get a hold of me email, text, WhatsApp or BBM messenger. Eight out of 10 times when my phone actually rings, it's someone trying to sell me life insurance. And I ignore it. Soon we might come to an age where we wonder why an iPhone is even called a phone -- just as some once wondered why a floppy disk was called floppy.</p> <p> </p> <p>Technology was supposed to be in the service of man. But when in a world of Google Glass and Apple's Watch, technology becomes a status symbol and it quickly turns into an extension of our egos. The 'i' in iPhone is now the operative letter. And soon we will have the cool new Watch with its dizzying array of icons and ability to tap-communicate with your Watch-ed loved one across the room. As comedian Ellen DeGeneres quipped: "So excited for the Apple Watch. For centuries, we've checked the time by looking at our phones. Having it on your wrist? Genius."</p> <p> </p> <p>There's irony somewhere in this but until Apple comes up with a product called iRony, and livestreams its launch we won't get it.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><strong><em>Sandip Roy is a writer and cultural editor for Firstpost, where the original version of the above essay first appeared.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>From FirstPost.com and republished by our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2014/09/status-insanity-why-the-iphone-is-the-perfect-status-symbol.php">New America Media</a></strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iphone" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">iPhone</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iphone-6" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">iphone 6</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/apple" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Apple</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/smartphones" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">smartphones</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/status-symbold" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">status symbold</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wealth" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wealth</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/social-status" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">social status</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandip Roy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Wikipedia Commons; Google Images</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 19 Sep 2014 18:17:45 +0000 tara 5207 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/4306-how-iphone-became-perfect-status-symbol#comments The American Spirit, Lost and Found https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1489-american-spirit-lost-and-found <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 08/23/2012 - 16:43</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1mediumfoundingfathers.jpg?itok=CTfaf-7x"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1mediumfoundingfathers.jpg?itok=CTfaf-7x" width="480" height="315" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> Devotees of “original intent” behind the words of our Founding Fathers are often those who conflate American liberalism with socialism. While they regard the Constitution and the Federalist Papers as holy writ, they tend to ignore the spirit of collective optimism contained in the final and inherently liberal sentence of the Declaration of Independence.</p> <p>  </p> <p> On July 4, 1776, quill pens in hand, John Hancock and 55 comrades proclaimed the core intent of the United States of America in putting their names to an elegant document ending with a defiant notion of communal society, an idea that shook the world: </p> <p>  </p> <p> And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, <em>we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor</em>.</p> <p style="margin-left:1.0in;">  </p> <p> Back then, such daring social compact existed nowhere else but in 13 rustic colonies willing to take up arms against the oppression of King George III. Even today, the spirit of John Hancock and his gang of aristocrats——whose cohorts included Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John and Samuel Adams: optimists all who risked their lives and property as signatories to revolution——is rare.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Regrettably, that optimistic spirit——that spirit that drives all American progress——has been at historic odds with an uncharitable impulse among the American people: a selfishness that paradoxically afflicts both the afflicters and the afflicted, as we see in this election season.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Outlandish wealth and tax policy are much at issue this year——in particular, tax rates assessed against the wealthy: Mitt Romney’s 13.9 percent bite in 2010 for instance, versus more than double that which Uncle Sam removes from the average Joe’s pocket. Some would say that such a schism was hardly the original intent of John Hancock, et al. And yet, the divide is co-championed by the usual suspects and a low-information proletariat, as revealed by Thomas Frank’s 2004 book, <em>What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America</em>.</p> <p>  </p> <p> At the moment, it is difficult to maintain a positive view with respect to America’s future, for we seem mired in yet another dreadful Gilded Age. (Take note of the peculiarly optimistic ring we Americans apply to injurious epochs.)</p> <p>  </p> <p> In his syndicated newspaper column of June 10, 2012, Columbia University’s Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote of alarming dystopia, “America has the highest level of inequality of any of the advanced countries, and its gap with the rest has been widening.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics, continued, “In the ‘recovery’ of 2009-10, the top one percent of U.S. income earners captured 93 percent of the income growth. Other inequality indicators——like wealth, health, and life expectancy——are as bad or worse. The clear trend is one of concentration of income and wealth at the top, the hollowing out of the middle, and increasing poverty at the bottom.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Matt Taibbi, the profane chronicler of Wall Street oligarchs for <em>Rolling Stone</em> magazine who is unlikely to be recognized for politesse by the Nobel Committee, speaks of misdirected anger and jealousy on the part of American proles.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Establishment Democrats who would defend such riffraff are accused by the Republican super-PAC set of fomenting “class warfare,” a disingenuous locution that has not so much divided the rich from you and me——as divided you and me from you and me.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “We have met the enemy,” observed the cartoon character Pogo in 1971, “and he is us.” Or as Taibbi explained in February of this year, “It’s not envy of the rich. That’s not what good peasants do. It’s envy of the poor slob next to you, the one you closely resemble; who has the extra nickel you don’t.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Stiglitz and Taibbi reflect the reasoning of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis (1856-1941), who came of age during a previously gluttonous period of corporate greed, commencing with northern victory in the Civil War and ending with the collapse of Wall Street during the “panic” of the 1890s. From this, Brandeis drew a lesson in need of remedial study and review: “We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumroosevelt_0.jpg" style="width: 641px; height: 484px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> In the wake of the Gilded Age of 19<sup>th</sup> Century came the Progressive Era of the early 20<sup>th</sup>, personified by Republican President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (1858-1919), who famously destroyed corporate monopolies, reformed banking laws, and promulgated the “Square Deal” to increase equitable standing on the union side of labor relations.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Following yet another in the long line of Wall Street crimes and grubby shenanigans, Teddy’s cousin, Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, carried progressivism forward by way of “New Deal” creations such as Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Glass-Steagall bank reform act.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The Roosevelts’ bipartisan accomplishments were attacked from the start, and have been attacked ever since, by the participants of organized selfishness, headquartered in——where else?——Wall Street. Consequently, and over time, banking and labor laws were greatly eroded. Case in point: At the behest of President Bill Clinton and fellow Democrats under corporate subsidy, Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999——thus removing strictures against the very kind of Wall Street speculation that caused the stock market crash of 1929, and in 2007 ushered in the Great Recession from which many will not recover.  </p> <p>  </p> <p> Nonetheless, there are voices of uplift in the land that hark back to the Declaration of Independence, and its spirit of defiance -- voices that speak truth to arrogance and corrupted power. These are the voices to revive our occasionally flagging American spirit, a spirit birthed in audacious rebellion against the mightiest political, economic and military empire extant in July of 1776.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumaynrand.jpg" style="width: 328px; height: 407px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Two centuries and three decades later, in 2006, the historian and activist Howard Zinn wrote, in the rebellious fashion of our Founding Fathers, “The struggle for justice should never be abandoned because of the overwhelming power of those who have the guns and money, and who seem invincible in their determination to hold on to it. That apparent power has, again and again, proved vulnerable to human qualities less measurable than bombs and dollars: moral fervor, determination, unity, organization, sacrifice, wit, ingenuity, patience.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> To which the British comedian Ricky Gervais would add: the jaunty spirit of his American cousins. In a clever video for the website <a href="http://www.openculture.com/2009/03/ricky_gervais_on_american_optimism.html">Open Culture</a>, Gervais compared us to his countrymen: “Americans are slightly smarter, they’ve got better teeth, they have more ambition, they’re slightly broader, and they’re more optimistic. Americans are told they can become the next president of the United States, and they can.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> We should rely on these things noted and admired by both Zinn and Gervais as markers along a path of departure from a national malaise that grips so many. We may depend as well on the hypocrisy of those who militate against all things progressive and Rooseveltian (Franklin or Teddy), for sooner or later the stink of hypocrisy ripens, forcing us to clear the air. (Fair warning, tea baggers!)</p> <p>  </p> <p> Rank hypocrisy is the realm of Ayn Rand (1905-1982), progenitor of a “moral philosophy” that celebrates laissez-faire self-enrichment while excoriating poor and middle-class “parasites,” “looters” and “moochers” who collect any manner of public welfare benefits——or even earned government entitlements.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Her “objectivist” essays and schlock novels——<em>The Fountainhead</em>, <em>Atlas Shrugged</em> and the ilk——are required reading for staffers employed by Congressman Paul Ryan, the newly anointed running mate of G.O.P. presidential candidate Mitt Romney and author of a House budget bill that would abolish Social Security and Medicare as we have known these programs. (It so happens that Ayn Rand collected both Social Security and Medicare——slyly, by way of her marriage license, as Mrs. Frank O’Connor.)</p> <p>  </p> <p> With his Independence Day essay for JewishJournal.com, Professor Marty Kaplan of the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California prescribed an antidote to despairing of the hypocrisy and peasantry and plutocracy nowadays: evidence of a spirit beating in the hearts of the young that promises a refreshingly old American worldview.</p> <p>  </p> <p> First, Kaplan defined the rot: “For a while now, my mood about America’s prospects have been grim. Big money has swamped our politics. Power has been concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. Extremism has been mainstreamed. Fact-based reality has increasingly little bearing on public discourse. Institutions like education, the media and self-governance have grown sclerotic, pernicious and dysfunctional. Faced with looming catastrophes like climate change, we’re——oh, hell, there I go again, talking myself out onto a ledge.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Then, Kaplan recounted a handful of the hundreds of impressive young men and women he had recently met. “In an ironic age, idealism is scarce; in a new Gilded Age, it’s fragile,” Kaplan’s essay concluded. “But it’s the muscular idealism abounding in a new American generation that got me down from my ledge.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Thomas Adcock, a contributing writer at </em>Highbrow Magazine<em>, is a New York-based journalist and novelist.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-spirit" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american spirit</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/optimism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">optimism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/pessimism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">pessimism</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/founding-fathers" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">founding fathers</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/declaration-independence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">declaration of independence</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/matt-taibbi" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Matt Taibbi</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rolling-stone" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Rolling Stone</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wealth" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wealth</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/poverty" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">poverty</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/american-politics" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">american politics</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/politicians" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">politicians</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ayn-rand" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ayn rand</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/mitt-romney" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Mitt Romney</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/paul-ryan" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Paul Ryan</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/democrats" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Democrats</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Obama</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/fdr" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">FDR</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/bill-clinton" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Bill Clinton</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Thomas Adcock</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 23 Aug 2012 20:43:04 +0000 tara 1448 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1489-american-spirit-lost-and-found#comments 99 Percent to NYT’s David Brooks: Get Real https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/99-percent-nyt-s-david-brooks-get-real <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/16/2012 - 12:02</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumdavidbrooks.jpg?itok=qCU81RNf"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumdavidbrooks.jpg?itok=qCU81RNf" width="480" height="240" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a>: In his January 9 <em>New York Times</em>  column, “Where Are the Liberals?”  conservative commentator David Brooks chides the venality of Democrats, as well as Republicans, for “perpetually soiling the name of government for the sake of short-term gain.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> He correctly indicts supposedly liberal Washington Democrats for being missing in action to counter “Wall Street excess and the unpopular and sometimes embarrassing” machinations of the Republican Party. President Obama, he urges, should campaign like Martin Luther, perhaps virtually nailing the truth to the door of Congress.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In his presumptively even-handed tone, Brooks declares that is corrupted by “renters,” special interests who have mired America’s leaders in conflicts of interest. Washington needs to be “cleansed and purified. Make the tax code simple. Make job training simple. Make Medicare simple . . . Simplify the legal thickets that undermine responsibility.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> And who are the renters? Along with Wall Street—you know, the 1 percent most of us think of as the owners, not the renter--Brooks pillories old people.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Paraphrasing a recent <em>Washington Post</em> op-ed by conservative elder pundit George F. Will, Brooks writes that “in 2009, the net worth of households headed by senior citizens was 47 times the net worth of households led by people under 35. Yet seniors use their voting power to protect programs that redistribute even more money from the young to the old and affluent.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Wealth and Diverse Boomers</strong></p> <p> Of course, one accumulates wealth over a lifetime, so it’s not surprising that the over-50 demographic holds a lot more of it than their children. But, especially in this recession, what part of that 47 times multiple doesn’t belong to the top 1 percent? Do Wills and Brooks consider the ethnically diverse 78 million aging boomers, many of whom would be affected by proposed Medicare cuts, such as by raising the Medicare eligibility age?</p> <p>  </p> <p> The 2011 report, “Plan for a New Future: The Impact of Social Security Reform on People of Color,” from the Commission to Modernize Social Security, shows that among pre-retirees ages 50-64, “Large racial gaps remain with single white men and women owning twice as much as single non-white men and women.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> This racial wealth gap, says the report, limits the inheritance that Brooks’ profligate seniors can pass on to the next generation. According to the study, “While 1 in 4 white Americans will receive an inheritance, only 1 in 20 African-Americans will; and they will receive only 8 cents to the white inheritor’s dollar.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> How are older workers and still-older retirees faring, given all of their alleged political power? Last fall’s report, “Retirement on the Edge: Women, Men, and Economic Insecurity After the Great Recession” found that among those 45-59, half of men and two-thirds of women worried they won’t be able to afford health care. Also, four in 10 respondents were afraid they could not afford a nursing home, and large majorities were concerned they won’t have enough money to live on in their old age, especially if Social Security is cut or eliminated.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Those aged 60-plus in the survey were only moderately less worried. For instance, over half of women of that age said they fear not having enough money to live on. And Hispanic adults in the survey were particularly troubled, with 6 in 10 Latino women doubting they will be able to afford health care in retirement. And 7 in 10 believe they won’t have sufficient funds to live on.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumnytimes.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 381px; " /></p> <p> <strong>Half of Seniors Struggling to Get By</strong></p> <p> Has Brooks seen work by UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research showing that older adults need twice the federal poverty line to make ends meet? That’s because the federal measure was never updated to include things like the costs of housing or health care. The UCLA center determined that 47 percent of California seniors are struggling to get by.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Also, last week the Scan Foundation sent out a PDF summarizing “Ten Things You Should Know About Aging with Dignity and Independence."</p> <p>  </p> <p> This graphic says, for example, “70 percent of us who reach the age of 65 will need some form of care or services in our lives, for an average of three years,” but “43 percent of Americans over the age of 55 have less than $25,000 saved for retirement.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Does Brooks know that Medicare does not cover these long-term care costs? If he read his newspaper’s “New Old Age” blog, he might have seen the recent “Mad As Hell,” piece about the growing frustration of American women stuck with the lioness’ share of eldercare demands—and with little support or long-term care coverage.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In his past columns, Brooks has consistently called for bipartisan compromise including cuts to Medicare. Last November, for instance, Brooks praised Mitt Romney as the only “serious” GOP candidate. He lauded Romney’s proposal for Medicare to give seniors vouchers to buy insurance—the plan pushed by ultra-conservative Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., but with the option of taking traditional Medicare.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Brooks has embraced government vouchers to support private insurance, but he also opposed having a government-run public option as part of health care reform. Moreover, he dismisses the idea of controlling overall health care costs, as if every part of the disastrous U.S. health care system—including Medicare—won’t continue to hemorrhage money and poor health outcomes without healing the system’s underlying disease.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Young and Old Hit by Recession</strong></p> <p> Larry Polivka, who heads the Claude Pepper Center at Florida State University, said in an email interview that although the economic gap between the generations has grown over the last 30 years, especially during the Great Recession, this gap resulted from economic losses among those under 35.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “In fact, the 65-plus population has absorbed economic losses as well, but not as great as those suffered by younger people,” Polivka explained. Excluding home equity—a major source of senior wealth--the median net worth of Americans 65-plus falls to $25,209, and only $2,033 for the younger group – about a 12 times difference, far from 47 times, but not much for any age group in the 99 percent.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Poliva concluded, “In short, the older population is not thriving at the expense of younger people. They are also facing serious economic challenges that are made even more pressing by the fact that they have fewer years and opportunities to recover from losses suffered not just during the Great Recession but also since the beginning of the great wage stagnation over 35 years ago, when male workers were actually making more than they do today.</p> <p>  </p> <p> David Brooks says he wants to “simplify Medicare.” Simplify how? I agree—to the extent that the compromised Washington Democrats Brooks accurately describes, should get bold and simplify Medicare by enacting Medicare for All.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/01/99-to-nyts-david-brooks-get-real-not-simple.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/david-brooks" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">David Brooks</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-times" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New York Times</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/senior-citizens" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">senior citizens</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/income-distribution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">income distribution</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/wealth" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">wealth</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Paul Kleyman</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:02:04 +0000 tara 417 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/99-percent-nyt-s-david-brooks-get-real#comments