The African American community in my hometown of St. Petersburg is currently in an uproar!
Homes that once were owned by stable, working class African Americans are currently being swallowed up by the financial system in which only the billionaires have enough clout to make an impact on the real estate market.
But is "gentrified living" necessarily racist?
I would argue not!
For the most part, those who are labelled "yuppy" really have no money at all.
Yes, the upper middle class can afford the BMW, but with the beemer also comes auto loan payments, mortgages that most upper middle class people cannot afford and a 60 hour work week (either as a nurse, hotel manager, public school teacher, etc.) that drains people of time and energy.
No, rather than the "yuppy" who is probably living with at least $10,000 of consumer debt to fund their car, townhouse, etc., the true problem lies with the "billionaire boys club" of CEO's, banking executives, etc. who attain massive amounts of capital often with mediocre academic records, and all because they just happened to "join the right fraternity" in college (I should know, I was a former "frat boy" who saw many of these low-achieving drunkards with 2.1 GPA's suddenly swoop up all of the "posh" Bank of America and Nations Bank banking executive jobs).
You know, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, and suddenly you're in the billionaire boys club.
Well, my friends, rather than blaming the school teacher, the nurse, the professor, et al who happens to drink scotch and smoke Cuesta Rey cigars (all on a meager budget!), instead, direct the attack at the banker, the CEO who has billions of our dollars stashed away and will only "share" if you agree to paying him 8% - 10% interest . . .
Gentrified living, yes!
Racism, NEVER!
Love & blessings in Jesus,
Rob J King, Cuesta Rey smoker
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2 comments:
"If you want to make a change, you have to start with the man in the mirror"
I don't want to throw cliche after cliche on this, but the solution to the problem is not begging the rich to pay more in taxes or whatever. The solution is to live within our means, at an individual, local, state and national level, and put as much money in savings as possible.
If people are paying 8-10% interest, you should be saving 8-10% of your paycheck for the future. Even 1% going towards future needs will help. Build a foundation first, then start to build the world we want to live in.
New book to read: The Trap: Selling Out to Stay Afloat in Winner-Take-All America
by Daniel Brook
Chad,
You are EXACTLY RIGHT! Yes, PART of the problem is what Virtue Ethicist Thomas Aquinas would label as the vice of "incontinence."
In modern English, the word is used in reference to holding one's bodily functions, but the Aristotelian background labels such incontinence as a failure of character in which one cannot control one's spending, lifestyle excesses, etc.
The reason I can afford Cuesta Reys is because I only pay $600 rent per month for a modest but nice 1 bedroom apartment in historic downtown "Old Northeast" St. Petersburg, rather than trying to pay $1000 for an apartment that I neither need nor can afford.
So, yes, we must ALWAYS look at the "Man in the Mirror" first and as such I do not hold a credit card, and refuse to owe anyone anything, including my own family members.
Blessings in Jesus,
Rob
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