Stylish bike rider, French Quarter, New Orleans

My Xootr folding bicycle, Trinity River Bottoms, Dallas, Texas

View From the Levee

Why is the 1 percent suffering from this peculiar mass delusion? Well, actually, it’s not that hard to understand. Because if you’re reading this article, chances are that you are in the top 1 percent of global income. And chances are also that you really don’t feel like a tycoon.

The cutoff for the global 1 percent starts quite a bit lower than the parochial American version preferred by pundits. I’m on it. So is David Sirota. And if your personal income is higher than $32,500, so are you. The global elite to which you and I belong enjoys fantastic wealth compared to the rest of the world: We have more food, clothes, comfortable housing, electronic gadgets, health care, travel and leisure than almost every other living person, not to mention virtually every human being who has ever lived. We are also mostly privileged to live in societies that offer quite a lot in the way of public amenities, from well-policed streets and clean water, to museums and libraries, to public officials who do their jobs without requiring a hefty bribe. And I haven’t even mentioned the social safety nets our governments provide.

So why don’t we feel like Scrooge McDuck, rolling around in all of our glorious riches? Why do we feel kinda, y’know, middle class?

Because we don’t compare our personal experiences to a Tanzanian subsistence farmer who labors in the hot sun for 12 hours before repairing to his one-room abode for a meal of cornmeal porridge and cabbage. We compare ourselves to other Americans, many of whom, darn them, seem to have much more money than we do.

Es café macerado en ron, posee todas las propiedades organolépticas del ron, pero tiene grado de alcohol

Now this is a blast from the dim, dizzy, foggy past.

B-Cycle Bike Share stand, Fair Park, Dallas, Texas

It has been cold here – but it hasn’t been this cold.

Inherent Vice Looks like it is more Thomas Pynchon than Paul Thomas Anderson. And I thing that is a good thing…..