Comments on: A hurricane’s inequality

By: f.fursty

f.fursty — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 22:27:15 +0000

This post should be entitled: Welcome to Bloomberg’s New York. It’s hard to imagine a person who more personifies this world, with his utter cluelessness about how the bottome fifth — actually, make that the bottom 99% — actually live.

By: tommurphy

tommurphy — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 23:48:18 +0000

Those who put all their wealth into their car could sleep in their car, surrounded by their wealth, right?

By: LysanderTucker

LysanderTucker — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:28:20 +0000

So why does “Manhattan’s richest fifth made 40 times more money than its poorest fifth”?. It’s always looked at on the surface, not the history of it. Let’s take the same sampling and go back a few generations to see who had continuous privilege and who did not in their families. Then lets begin looking at that privilege and see why that is. The anecdotal story is useless unless the entire picture of inequality (that is to say inequality of liberty, not the false sense of equality we’ve all been fed) is looked at from its beginnings.

Let the power stay out permanently. Then we’ll see who rises and falls in a society and what the basis for it is.

By: zotdoc

zotdoc — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:15:57 +0000

aren’t all those folks who livew on the jersey shore the “1%” ? How does this fit into your story?

By: tougar

tougar — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:06:11 +0000

“How can I make sure that my relief donation gets to these folks?”

Deliver it to them in person.

By: Sanity-Monger

Sanity-Monger — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 18:39:27 +0000

An excellent essay, Mr. Rhodes. $9,681 MEDIAN for the bottom quintile ??? !!! Am I reading that right? So not only did these folks get stuck at work, stranded from family and friends, but they likely have no renter’s insurance or receipts for their meager second-hand belongings. Yeah, life’s fair. How can I make sure that my relief donation gets to these folks?

By: randburg100

randburg100 — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:45:11 +0000

11:43 am UTC

An excellent and insightful article.

Whilst learning about this disaster, I was thinking about a similar subject: the reported differences in survival rates between passenger classes on The Titanic, and the controversy over the underlying reasons behind that. Then, I imagined the streets of New York, with various service personnel risking their lives to help the wealthy to evacuate safely.

Your article has colored in the dim outline of my imagination!

If a disaster like this can bring political factions together to actually start solving problems again, synthesizing their various approaches together into something greater than the sum of their parts; or, if the wealthy can gain at least a little insight through a few days without electrical power — then perhaps some good can come out of this.
Posted by matthewslyman | Report as abusive

One slight flaw….nothing will be learned, nothing will change….if it hasn’t in 100 years since the Titanic went down, 2 World Wars – the latter driven by the financiers….the human race is nasty, greedy, ego-centric and destructive..

By: matthewslyman

matthewslyman — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:43:57 +0000

An excellent and insightful article.

Your article has colored in the dim outline of my imagination!