Posted on 01/28/2007 11:48:56 AM PST by BronzePencil
It sits on top of a hill, overlooking a busy road -- a big, pink stucco house that dwarfs all the houses around it. It is conspicuous consumption at its worst, or at its best, depending on your point of view.
It's not the biggest house around. There are many bigger -- one just a few miles from where I live, not on top of a hill but practically on the offramp of a highway. So many smaller houses have been knocked down to make room for these Goliaths. This is called progress.
I don't understand who lives in these massive homes or who can afford them
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
So what are we supposed to do with this information?
And what about Ho Chi Kerry's and the Kennedy's estates?
Mail this to John Edwards, c/o Two Americas, Chapel Hill, NC.
MILLIONS are living on the streets? The space aliens must have accidently dropped her in Mexico City when they were done probing.
"It's remarkable how little growth has trickled down to ordinary families," economist Paul Krugman wrote recently in The New York Times Magazine.Drivel.
Welfare people would probably be insulted today if you expected them to live in that average 1954 house -- with one tiny bathroom, no color TV, a fridge that would fit inside today's fridges, a kitchen that would fit inside today's bathrooms.
There were always wealthy people who lived in pink houses on hilltops. Today there are lots more of them. And most everyone else is way better off -- economically -- then people were in 1954.
The real problem is moral decline -- among rich and poor.
live in a town that has million-dollar houses. And yet our schoolchildren have to pay to ride the school bus, to play school sports, to participate in school plays, to play in the school band, to take part in any extracurricular activities. Our library might be forced to cut back its hours. This isn't unique to my town. It's happening across the state.
Instead of worrying what people do with their own money...journalists should start investigating what the government is doing with your money.
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Is that your place? Looks new.
Nah, they took one look at her and passed on the "probing".
The Globe should call up Edwards and get a quote from him. I have nothing against big houses or people building/buying what they can afford, Edwards, however is just a typical liberal hypocrite.
It should be noted that that is John Edwards' house.
" My parents wouldn't make it today -- not without an education, not without family to help them. And that's the big difference between then and now. Then you could work hard and work your way up. Now, you can work hard your whole life and never get ahead."
I wonder if the author has thought about some other differences between her parent's and todays young couples trying to get ahead. I bet that her parents
a. Never bought anything on credit and if they did have an account with local merchants and the bill was paid weekly. And by local merchants I mean the grocer, butcher, hardware store and other necessary purchases not the big screen TV market.
b. Only went out to eat once every 6 months if that. If they did go it was to the local Italian or other mom and pop restaurant where a home style meal was enjoyed not a $50.00 a person nouvelle cusine travesty.
c. Went and bought new things without a second thought. They most likely darned socks, restiched hems, saved buttons, saved screws, nails, bolts, repaired, reused and refitted. Their favorite label for kid's clothing was
" HANDMEDOWN "
People can still work hard and get ahead, it happens every day in this Country. What is lacking is the self discipline that makes it possible. It is not the Government job to make sure you have the maturity and foresight to handle your finances. It sure as hell can not handle its own.
What nonsense. Then again, in highly taxed & regulated, liberal cities, I don't find a 'wealth gap' too surprising.
Is that the Edwards place?
This is an environmental disaster. How many trees died to print this stupid article? If people can't afford the houses they live in, they will soon lose them.
The average yearly salary was $2,500 too. Funny how that never gets included in the equation.
That's because you live in one of the most heavily taxed states in the east, you ignorant twit! You forget all the union and local government graft and kick-backs! What's the annual salary of a school janitor up there?? Last time I looked, NY's school janitors were earning close to $100K!
That connection between the big house and the barn is the clumsiest thing I've ever seen. I can just imagine how the construction on it progressed: "I might get thirsty on the way back to the house so put a waterfountain in the hallway; no wait, put a refrigerator, er, a kitchen--eat-in kitchen down the hall. Hey, can you add a mud room too, mmm, and put the washer and dryer in there too so we don't hear it during our family time. Add a storage room just down from the mud room for our extra stuff that don't fit in the barn. Oh, attach the doghouses to the corridor so they can get in and out of the house without us opening the door. Thanks.
"If the Left obeyed the 10th Commandment, maybe they would learn to obey the 10th Amendment."
--rottndog
That's a nice big house - when I grow up, I want a nice house like that!
As Johnny Boy said in 2004, there are two Americas. There is the $600 million America of John Kerry, the kept Ketchup boy. And there is the $75 million America of John Edwards, the shyster lawyer.
John Edwards "Two Americas"
Uh, Beverly? You write for a newspaper, right? There's this thing called "research" that used to be popular for journalists before they committed word to page. If you don't understand who lives in them, why not...ask a few?
Hmm, no mention of the Kennedy compounds in MA and Florida.
Is it just me or are those 2 SUVs out front?
Along with three pickups on the side...lol.
Then came this tract called, Serrano. ALL of the houses look like they were based on one plan yet they're called custom homes. The must go for around a million and they dot the hillside when you go through the area on highway 50. They are what the term McMansion was created for. Not only do they all look alike, they barely have enough room to get a lawnmower between the houses and yet the houses must have at least a 3000 sq foot floor plan.
Now the commute is longer and we have all of the pretentious people who think they live in Beverly Hills. They're ruined the landscape. Anyone who goes by on 50 knows what I'm talking about.
They should never have been approved as they stand now. They ruin the character of the community. The older houses look great because they all look different with different sized lots and different house designs.
Anybody know which charities this writer gave away all but a few thousand of her 2006 salary to?
I bet the huge McMansion is owned by a liberal. Just a guess but going by some of the homes built and lived in by the Hollywood elite it sure fits.
I think it might be psychological. So unsure of their status and anxious that the whole world know of their importance and influence they build " look at me" houses. They wrongly mistake the scoffs of scorn at the tackiness of their ostentatiousness for gasps of admiration.
Conservative are self assured enough to avoid vulgar displays of wealth. Plus we give more of it away. Even without media presence.
And as any Southerner can tell you. The 11th commadment is: Thou shall not be tacky or trashy.
The GI bill was involved too. Lots of people took advantage of that to get ahead, and most of them earned the right. In 1956 my starting salary in the USAF was $78 monthly. I could have used the GI Bill, but did not.
That being said, I despise conspicous consumption as much as I despise class envy politicians, such as two people living in a 5000 square house, etc. Also, rich building tastless houses that don't fit in the community, such as a "castle motif" mansion in a rustic neighborhood os modest country style homes, etc. Just goes to show that wealth cannot buy good taste.
Flame away if you like.
Sheesh! What do the Edwards have against TREES??
I do and I do. It's called property taxes (big time).
I have mixed feelings about this. I know of a neighborhood; older and quite lovely with large homes. A young couple (snots) moved in and bought one of the houses right on the lake (Lake Erie). They tore down the house and built a million dollar monstrosity. Now there are several people that had a nice view of the lake that can't see it anymore, plus it is totally out of place for the neighborhood. Those people have lost a lot of home value. The stupid thing is the young couple's house is so huge there is very little back lot and the ground is eroding so unless they do some serious engineering work, that house is going to tumble into Lake Erie in about 20 years or so.
I see both sides. They have the right to build but our rights as individuals should always take into consideration the prime commandment to love others as ourselves.
"MILLIONS are living on the streets?"
Yeah, that's a howler all right.
At the same time, since I returned to the US in April after a long absence, I have been seeing the trends she's speaking of...or so it seems to me.
I in no way endorse class warfare or the redistribution of wealth. However, this article and another entitled "You Can't Afford a House in a Blue State" show that others also see this trend.
The last time I posted to this effect, knee-jerk posters absurdly and foolishly reviled me as a class-warfare leftist. I am nothing of the kind. However, I do begin to suspect that the free market is not being allowed to function as it should, and I think that is an appropriate topic for discussion.
Unfortunately, every time someone brings it up, he is immediately slimed by conservatives-acting-like-liberals (CALLs), as seen above.
This is the point I made in my post on this thread. I say go ahead and build the mansion but don't put it in the middle of a modest development like some looming tower that prevents all sun from shining down on the little people.
It's ugly.
"I do and I do. It's called property taxes (big time)."
Isn't it the truth.
Boy, I'll bet John Edwards chased a lot of ambulances to earn this monstrosity.
b. $50! Where do you live? Here in Cleveland to eat in a really upscale restaurant it would cost you way more than that for 2 people - about double, if you don't have alcohol.
Drivel.
Agreed.
Oh woe is me. I can barely afford the dog food to feed my family after I pay my cable, SUV, 27 credit cards, download tunes from iTunes, go to the movies, beer, buy things I don't really need, bills.
I wish for every one the level of success they desire and are willing to work for.
For some people that will mean a upscale apartment near all the trendy hot spots, for some that will mean a huge house with a speck of a yard and for some people that will mean a tiny house with a big yard. Whatever makes them happy.
My dream place about an acre with fruit trees and a garden and about 1,200 square feet of house.
How did you get that picture?
Flame away if you like.
No, it sounds pretty tacky to me. Military Road, in the Chevy Chase portion of D.C., is a great example of this: one housing style after another, all proudly maintained as if the surrounding houses were the ones that got it all wrong. You can guess what political persuasion the majority of those homeowners are.
As to the point of yours I didn't quote, I too am suspicious of anyone who has big plans for my money.
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