The Money River...
Because of everything that's been going on in the wake of Katrina -- the looting, the violence, the timing and extent of the Federal response, I've been hearing/reading a lot of debate on the nature of what it mens to be poor. The following selections from Kurt Vonnegut's "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" will explain it better than I can:
(from a dialogue between Eliot Rosewater and his Senator father)
"The Money River, where the wealth of the nations flows. We were born on the banks of it -- and so were most of the mediocre people we grew up with, went to private schools with, sailed and played tennis with. We can slurp from that mighty river to our hearts' content. And we can even take slurping lessons, so we can slurp more efficiently."
"Slurping lessons?"
"From lawyers! From tax consultants! Fron customers' men! We're born close enough to the river to drown ourselves and the next ten generations in wealth, simply using dippers and buckets. But we still hire the experts to teach us the use of aqueducts, dams, reservoirs, siphons, bucket brigades, and the Archimedes' screw. And our teachers in turn become rich, and their children become buyers of lessons in slurping."
"I wasn't aware that I slurped."
Eliot was fleetingly heartless, for he was thinking angrily in the abstract. "Born slurpers never are. And tehy can't imagine what the poor people are talking about when they say they hear somebody slurping. They don't even know what it means when somebody mentions the Money River. When one of us claims there is no such thing as the Money River I think to myself "My gosh, but that's a dishonest and tasteless thing to say..."
"It's still possible for an American to make a fortune on his own."
"Sure -- provided somebody tells him when he's young enough that there *is* a Money River, that there's nothing fair about it, that he had damn well forget about hard work and the merit system and all that crap, and get to where the river is. 'Go where the rich and powerful are,' I'd tell him 'and learn their ways. They can be flattered and they can be scared. Please them enormously or scare them enormously, and one moonless night they will put their fingers to their lips, warning you not to make a sound. And they will lead you through the dark to the widest, deepest river of wealth evr known to man. You'll be shown your place on the riverbank, and handed a bucket all your own. Slurp as much as you want, but try to keep the racket of your slurping down. A poor man might hear."
(from a dialogue between Eliot Rosewater and his Senator father)
"The Money River, where the wealth of the nations flows. We were born on the banks of it -- and so were most of the mediocre people we grew up with, went to private schools with, sailed and played tennis with. We can slurp from that mighty river to our hearts' content. And we can even take slurping lessons, so we can slurp more efficiently."
"Slurping lessons?"
"From lawyers! From tax consultants! Fron customers' men! We're born close enough to the river to drown ourselves and the next ten generations in wealth, simply using dippers and buckets. But we still hire the experts to teach us the use of aqueducts, dams, reservoirs, siphons, bucket brigades, and the Archimedes' screw. And our teachers in turn become rich, and their children become buyers of lessons in slurping."
"I wasn't aware that I slurped."
Eliot was fleetingly heartless, for he was thinking angrily in the abstract. "Born slurpers never are. And tehy can't imagine what the poor people are talking about when they say they hear somebody slurping. They don't even know what it means when somebody mentions the Money River. When one of us claims there is no such thing as the Money River I think to myself "My gosh, but that's a dishonest and tasteless thing to say..."
"It's still possible for an American to make a fortune on his own."
"Sure -- provided somebody tells him when he's young enough that there *is* a Money River, that there's nothing fair about it, that he had damn well forget about hard work and the merit system and all that crap, and get to where the river is. 'Go where the rich and powerful are,' I'd tell him 'and learn their ways. They can be flattered and they can be scared. Please them enormously or scare them enormously, and one moonless night they will put their fingers to their lips, warning you not to make a sound. And they will lead you through the dark to the widest, deepest river of wealth evr known to man. You'll be shown your place on the riverbank, and handed a bucket all your own. Slurp as much as you want, but try to keep the racket of your slurping down. A poor man might hear."