There are people with German ancestry, sure. But having parents or heritage from a country does not make you a countryman. People in Indiana who don't speak German, haven't lived in Germany for a substantial part of their lives, and don't know much about Germany aren't Germans. This is probably a good example of that.
I've been here for years, they kept deadbanning my original accounts because I say things people disagree with. I imagine it'll happen again fairly soon.
By the way, your average karma is kind of low, you might want to try bringing that up. You've had over a year with this account!
I do not disagree, but I think grandparent's point is that a magazine filled with profiles of billionaires and ads for luxury goods is maybe not the most credible publisher of criticism of materialism and the evils of the idle rich.
I think most rich people want to believe that they are not merely rich people—they want to believe that they are working (if they work) and spending for a higher purpose than mere consumption. The article does not condemn the citizens of Dubai for having money; it condemns them for being both cruel and crass (the Russian word nekulturny comes to mind).
Vanity Fair is a bizarre magazine. One day they'll publish a penetrating article by Michael Lewis on the Irish financial crisis. The next day they'll have a great article about a team of English mountaineers, two of whom died on Mont Blanc. Then they'll turn around and do a huge cover story on Justin Bieber. If they publish something I care about, I'll find it extremely interesting and well written, but the other half I find completely inane.
I took the requisite 30+ minutes to read the Lewis article on Ireland's finance problems, and thoroughly enjoyed it. And by having lived in Ireland for the last 3 years, I can say his analysis makes perfect sense to me. The nouveau riche still need some time to figure out how to spend their money wisely.
I like Vanity Fair subscribe to the magazine. It's named after a 19th century novel by Thackeray, a satire on society. I find that the magazine, like the book, mocks society and points out it's flaws, being hypocritical and opportunistic.
At the same time the magazine itself is opportunistic, and perhaps hypocritical. It's a very interesting magazine. Lots of good reading.
Yeah, I built myself a (non-mac) computer in 2003 for about $1,000, and am using it as I write this. I wouldn't have set aside that money to buy Apple stock, and I have no idea the stock value of the various component vendors (the intel components were a few hundred at most).
If you're going to buy a computer anyway, you'd be measuring the Apple anyway, not the entire product cost. That is, if an equivalent Apple machine cost $1,500, then the money I could have spent on Apple stock by building my own is $500, not $1,500.
You can get any of the sauces they put in the burgers on the side to dip your fries into also.
On a related note, I recently at at 5 guys and it was 2x as expensive and about 1/2 as good as in-n-out. Anyone who says it's better is absolutely nuts. They expanded too fast.
Cognitive dissonance of realizing a lowly engineer (you know, something those immigrants do) can make more than an attorney. Apparently he wasn't paying attention during the last 20 years.
