Notes from the edge of civilization: Sep. 24, 2023
Media dude experiences sticker shock. Surveys say Americans don't trust government and don't want jabs. Many Brits embrace a nanny state. Bread meets circus.
Inflation was in the news this week, but not just because the Federal Reserve decided to leave interest rates unchanged.
A New York Times columnist, David Brooks, brought inflation into odd focus on Wednesday by tweeting about the sticker shock he experienced at a Newark Airport restaurant.
"This meal just cost me $78,” he quipped, displaying his plate of a hamburger with fries and some wilted lettuce. “This is why Americans think the economy is terrible."
What Brooks failed to note was that his alcohol tab was worth close to $60. The restaurant’s owner, Maurice Hallett, weighed in on social media with the full story the next day, explaining to rival newspaper The New York Post that the tweet and bill had nothing to do with inflation or “a terrible economy”. Rather the journalist must have ordered two double shots of whiskey each costing around $28. A burger and fries at his airport restaurant costs around $17.
Hallett quickly turned his newfound fame (Brooks’ tweet garnered 38 million views!) into a business opportunity, offering customers at his Trenton, New Jersey, location a ‘D Brooks Special’ — a burger, fries, and a double shot of whiskey for $17.78. While the booze will be a lost leader for Hallett, he says he’ll keep the special on the menu to drive traffic to his off-airport location. God bless American ingenuity.
Meanwhile, Brooks took the chance during a media appearance on PBS to apologize for misleading the public, saying: "I was insensitive. I screwed up. I should not have written that tweet." He explained how his tweet made him, “look oblivious to something that is blindingly obvious… that an upper-middle-class journalist having a bourbon at an airport is a lot different than a family living paycheck to paycheck. And when I’m getting sticker shock it’s, like, an inconvenience. When they’re getting sticker shock, it’s a disaster."
Brooks and his ilk would very much like Americans to accept the fact that inflation is actually going down and the economy is doing fine, thank you very much. People just think the economy is terrible because it costs so much to get a hamburger (or heat your home, or fill your car, or buy some eggs).
In Brooks’ case, we can only surmise the bourbon and burgers were expensed to The Times, because like so many laptop warriors, the disconnect from reality comes from not having to spend their own money. Airport+meal+alcohol=expensive. That’s always how it has been for as long as we’ve been traveling at Collapse Life. Traveling on a budget? Pack a sandwich and avoid airport markups.
The real lesson from Brooks’ tweet is the confirmation that it is justified to turn away from the delusional priestly class in mainstream media.
While we’re talking about a misguided priestly class, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the pandemic and Russia are to blame for high prices. Wait, we thought inflation and the economy were in a great place? Given that all is well, Yellen is perplexed as to why 3 out of 5 voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the economy.
No doubt she would also have a hard time explaining why so few Americans are lining up for the new COVID shots the administration is pushing just in time for cold and flu season. In a recent poll from The Economist/You Gov, 40% of respondents said they don’t want the new shot and another 25% said they weren’t sure. The public officials flummoxed by this reluctance to jab may want to look at this other survey, which shows near-record low levels of public trust in government.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me,” the public seems to be saying.
Staggeringly, 1% of Americans say they do still trust Washington to do what is right “just about always”. Wow! These same folks might find kindred spirits on the other side of the Atlantic given a study on governmental roles from Britain’s National Centre for Social Research. The findings suggest 34% of Brits believe the government should definitely provide a job for everyone who wants one. Nearly 70% of the Brits in that same poll believe it’s definitely the government’s job to keep prices under control, and 63% think the government should provide industry with the help it needs to grow.
Where to even start with these results?
As Thomas Jefferson famously said, "the government you elect is the government you deserve.” Let’s hope the nanny state these people elect is able to control the price of diapers since they seem so keen on being infantilized.
People who rely too heavily on the government are reminiscent of the proletariat in Roman society. Left with little opportunity for productive employment, the proletariat looked to the state for free food and entertaining spectacles. This is where the term “bread and circuses” comes from.
This week on Collapse Life we looked at how social media trends and so-called ‘challenges’ have become today’s bread and circuses and how these seemingly innocuous pastimes can actually lead to a dangerous degree of social decay, atomizing us from each other and from our natural environment.
These simulacra distract us from our mundane existences, from the ever-tightening control grid, and from the constant whittling away of our decency, liberty, and justice.