First a word before returning to our scheduled program .....

"Hey there baby" -I wish I could say that like Cassandra Wilson. It was wild night with hurricane Sandy, it seems we're all okay here but like I said before I'm a 100 miles (160 km) inland so we were saved from the worst of the storm. Once the roads are clear of fallen trees and flooded sections I plan to drive down to the Atlantic City Area. 

For friends and family back in New Jersey. At least Atlantic City has the advantage of averaging 3-5 feet above sea level instead of the ninth ward of New Orleans that averages 15 feet below sea level.

The Cult of Money

What I'd rather write about is being creative, living the good life and just making the most out of this time here together but one thing keeps coming up -money. There aren't many subjects that don't have a major economic element to them.

There are few things that always bothers me about money. It seems the more you have the cheaper you get. As one friend, who is a talented painter, lamented that he dislikes selling his work to well off patrons. Most of them look at his art as investment and rarely ever enjoy his work as art. He hates the constant haggling over prices but what he found ever worse was all the requests for free art to be sold at charity auctions and dinners. Not that he's against charity but he resents being asked to contribute his work for an event where clueless people pat each other on the back for being generous enough to eat, drink and snap-up a painting at deeply discounted price -for the benefit of "poor" people. 

Who are the "poor" people? Over the years I've known a few families that have money; and asking them about poverty is provocative question that tells you more about a person's viewpoint than real economics. What amazes me is level of ignorance that some people have about the lives of others -like if you own an $80 microwave oven from Wal-Mart, then you're not poor.  

One thing that I enjoy about New York City is it's place where rich and poor live close and at times even rub shoulders. As cities like Huston, the poor live on one side of town and the rich on the other with several neighborhoods in between that are economically stratified and equally segregated. At least on the surface money as become the "fair" way to measure the worth of a person -and the idea of equality a messy inconvenient thing.

A few of my childhood friends have done well for themselves. They can laugh and joke about their struggles, the hard work and lucky breaks. What scares me is their children, most them young adults with very soft hands and very hard hearts. These kids have seen very little outside of their private schools, ivy league colleges and tight circle of equally privileged peers. 

In one household where I am welcomed or maybe better said where I am welcomed by my friend Dan (not his real name ) and barely tolerated by his wife. Both have come from modest backgrounds, done well in business and have become locally prominent GOP leaders. Over coffee Dan's wife digressed into a little monologue on how entitlements are bankrupting the nation and how recipients of food stamps are the new welfare queens. That was very hard to listen to. I know people who needed food stamps and I think it just as important to protect citizens from destitution as it is to protect them from terrorism. The other reason why this was difficult to hear that crap was I knew Dan's wife had a past. She was married once before and her husband left her. While trying to make ends meet and raise a child as a single parent, she collected food stamps and went government funded job training classes that started her on a successful career path. Out of diplomacy I said nothing, it would have messed with her myth of the self-made woman.

Like any cult, the cult of money has its own mythology. Segregate the members and repeat the same stories over and over until it's taken in as Gospel truth. Segregation is very important because you don't want outside facts and experiences challenging the cult's core beliefs. Over the last 20 years I have seen a rapid acceleration of  the "gated community" mentality. It's compounded with the fear of a diminishing future that could only be saved by giving more money and special breaks to the "investing class" -instead of asking if the problems we have now is because we already give too much to the top 1%.

Out of all the possible irritation thoughts in history this one rates right up there with tulip bulb speculation in 17th century Holland, though it could have even more devastating consequences. The concentration of wealth does not create jobs unless it takes risks and creates new industries. In the past great pools of wealth usually create an atmosphere of risk aversion. Look at Medieval Europe, a thousand years of where 90% of the wealth was owned by 1% of the people (the people with royal tittles). In reality Medieval Europe was a pretty dark and brutish time where progress stood still, most people were slaves or serfs and ancient world of the past represent a better place than the present. It wasn't until Renaissance things began to really change, a period of time when wealth started to be created from the bottom of society instead of one royal family declaring war on another royal family. It was the development trade guilds that start a small middle class that lead to the Enlightenment a couple of centuries later. The royalty of  Europe was further hammered by the industrial revolution where the middle class iron monger became the dynamic generator wealth.

The middle class of America has lost faith in itself. Poverty is made more scary and punishing by ending entitlements and aid. And everyone but the top 1% is made to work harder and longer for less.

It has been said the nature abhors a vacuum -and power abhors an unfettered back. Money is power and the money elite are looking a lot like the royalty of Medieval Europe. In the American Revolutionary War, the founders of the United States threw off the aristocracy of English rule. Maybe it's time to curb the power of our own homegrown aristocracy -they don't have royal tittles but exert the same level of power over the average citizen.

Before the elections this November 6th -everyone should see this movie -The Yes Men Fix The World. If your political views are firmly set either right or left, this movie will only confirm your world view but if you have a doubt this movie will give you something to think about.