I’m no economist. In fact, the last time I dabbled in the stock market with a full heart was in high school with Mr. What’s His Face with the orange tan and the tight curls….in Detroit. I love to shatter your ideas of who lives in the D. Truly. But anyways, I played it safe with our class project and put money in places that I liked. The Gap, McDonald’s and HBO. I came out on top. Too bad the money wasn’t real.
But this leads me to a thought I had today. Republicans seem to think that rich people are like superheros with their money…like the more they have, the more they will save the day. I would like to point out a few things that might counteract this idea:
1) The more money you have, the less you have to spend it. I am almost positive Jay Z doesn’t pay for a lot. Sure he buys some property and whatever, but with all the free shit rich people get, all the comping that those restaurants, bars and all that do, there’s no way their stimulating the economy with their presence. Which leads me to…
2) Middle class people tend to want to be like rich people and so they will spend to get the stuff rich people have gotten for free to no money. When I was in high school, I got a Coach purse from my dad. This was a huge deal. This was major. Just like the Cabbage Patch Kid I got. Just like the first pair of Guess Jeans I got. Do you know why I remember these things? Because they were expensive and it took a sacrifice for me to get them. Rich people don’t have these kinds of memories because there is no sacrifice to buy your first pair of Guess Jeans. There is a little read about them in Young Miss (YM) magazine and then there’s a pleading. How do I know? I saw it happen at my rich friends’ house. From that point on, and you can check this in popular urban culture, kids are going to spend to look fly. Fly usually comes from what rich people wear, inspired by what poor or middle class people wear. It’s a viscous cycle. One that most aliens from another planet might be hard pressed to figure out.
3) There is no rich person pedestal that leads to a vacuum of money into the economy. Money hasn’t been real for some time now and guess who know that more than any others? Rich people. They have always been clued into the fact that they deal in little strips of paper they have no respect for but like to see a lot of. Middle class people are the ones who frame their money, who count it out at the store, who can immediately do an equation that reads something like “one pair of new Jordans equals one family night out at the movies or school lunch money for one kid during February.”
A tax cut for middle class/poor people means that we will be free to stimulate the economy because we are materialistic and can always find things to buy (not get for free or borrow and forget to return like you can do in boutiques if you’re rich). I can’t go into Target without dropping paper. I think that it’s possible for somebody like Oprah to go into Fred Segal or Catherine Malandrino and walk out with something she was gifted. That never happens to me at Target.
Republicans think that small business owners are rich people. Small business owners are middle class. Big business owners are rich people. Bernie Madoff was a rich person and he didn’t stimulate the economy. He plundered it. There’s no record of his excessive purchases. Only all the money he stole. In fact, the $63 million dollars that South Carolina schools need to make their buildings functional instead of partially condemned (which I think is something like almost dead but I don’t really have the power to see what “almost dead” could mean) was like a few jewels in Madoff’s wife’s safe. Or what she donated to have that silly cookbook published as if she really wrote it. Or is one tenth of the entitlement they must feel taking other people’s money.
Anyways, all this to say, I think Republicans really don’t know people. They certainly don’t know computers and that’s where everyone is. If you don’t realize that making health records electronic saves both time, money and creates jobs for data entry people, then you probably shouldn’t be Twittering during the first Presidential address of the year about how Nancy Pelosi is like a jack in the box (that is a specific term, an industry term if you will, that one of the Fox “News” anchors used - put it in the box and use that for later to impress your smart friends).
Lastly, I’d love to know how saving people from taxes will help the defecit we all created. Usually at home when I spend too much at Target, that means we have to cut back on snacks at home (or the BF buys them). There’s a give and take there. I haven’t really heard where the give and take comes from in the Republican argument. Just a lot of “this is an outrage” followed by some “we’re not going to take this unemployment money for our unemployed people because then the businesses will get taxed for it” jargon. Well, we are all paying so I’m not sure why any business gets a pass. In fact, they got a big thick envelope if they were a bank or an auto company and so shooting some of that back to a laid off fireman doesn’t seem like a waste of money at all.
Sometimes I think we’re all looking at a different painting. That seems to be the only rationale that makes sense.
This is not a joke: 71-year-old Etta James actually threatened to beat the crap out of Beyoncé Knowles — and it’s caught all on tape!
The war is all over Etta’s song, “At Last ” — Beyoncé sang the tune at Obama’s 1st Inauguration Ball on Jan. 20th … but last week at a concert in Canada, James was still pissed.
While on stage, Etta told the crowd, “Your President, the one with the big ears … he had that woman singing my song. She gone get her ass whipped.”
She continued, “The great Beyoncé … I can’t stand Beyoncé,” according to audio from Crown City Media.
Ironically Etta didn’t kick up this sorta fuss when Beyoncé portrayed her in “Cadillac Records.”
Reps for Beyoncé had no comment.
Man, old people can be cranky. I’m not a Beyonce stan but I was raised right not to be disrespectful for no good reason (sometimes I disobey but not to the point where I expect my Gramma to come down from the heavens and pull a switch out - cause you never know). This Etta James-gate has bothered me. I don’t think its right for an old lady to bash a new kid on the block for now real reason other than you need some gigs to pay your rent and the youngblood’s hustle is working. More so, Obama IS Etta James’s president (despite whatever Her Crankyness says - that goes for all who didn’t vote for him too) so she should whip herself into shape before she talks smack about anything other than music.
Also, she should probably check this joint out from TMZ.com before she spews some other ignorance to a blank stare audience. Cranky old artist doesn’t get you anywhere, Ms. James. She’s almost as bad as my great uncle who used to sit in the back room, watching TV and cussing anybody out who stepped in the kitchen.
If Etta James thinks she should beat down Beyonce for covering “her song,” then by her own logic, Etta has a couple of ass-kickings coming her way too — ’cause Etta’s version of “At Last” was a cover too!
Etta went on stage in Seattle last week and told the crowd she’s gonna lay the smack down on B for “singin’ my song” at Obama’s Inauguration Ball. But not only did the 71-year-old not write the song, she wasn’t even the first — or second — to record it!
Glenn Miller did it first in 1941, followed by Nat King Cole in 1957. Etta got around to recording it in 1961. In fact, Glenn’s version ranked higher on the Billboard Pop Singles chart than Etta’s ever did.
FYI — neither Miller nor Cole ever threatened to beat Etta’s ass — although it’s about time someone knocks some sense into that lady.