Date: Fri, 2 May 2008 08:29:06 -0500
From: "Thurman,
Isabel"
Subject: FW: Your
rebate check
How about a little humor for Friday!!
How to use Your IRS Rebate check...
As you may have heard, each of us will be getting a tax
rebate check to stimulate the economy.
If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to
China.
If we spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs. If we purchase a computer it will go to India. If we purchase fruits and vegetables it will
go to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. If we purchase a good
car it will go to Japan.
If we purchase useless stuff it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the
American economy.
We need to keep that money here in America . The
only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it at yard sales, since
those are the only businesses still in the US !
So I've spent my economic "stimulation package" (gross, Garen) on plane tickets, which is a little sad because I wanted to spend it on some kind of local, American crap so it would do what was intended, even though I think the idea was idiotic. I am actually pretty excited that the looming recession is forcing people to fall closer in line with my
own personal mores. In a related thought, I was trying to figure out what it means to be elitist the other day, because there are people who argue that Obama shouldn't be looked at as elitist because he just paid his loans off, or because he's black. I tried to make this argument, swapping him out for myself, and it helped me to realize that when people say elitist, they don't mean any of that. Everyone's got a sibling or a cousing who "made it" and has become rich or successful, but whether or not you resent them for it depends on how well they are still able to connect with you.
So, I can be elitist even though I am pretty much a dirt poor graduate student with unpainted fingernails and a dusty, kinda-dinged-up car, because (and I definitely do project this sometimes, I know) I go around extolling my specific way of life as superior. I will openly make fun of my labmates for wanting to spend their stimulus package on a plasma screen TV, or be rude to someone who I think is wearing a tasteless t-shirt. I do think some people cling to guns and religion, just like I think lots of others cling to shopping, or alcohol. Certainly it's possible to respect other people's values while promoting your own; I sometimes am unsure of what the most graceful but effective way to advocate something is - living by example sometimes seems too quiet. On the other hand, many times in my life, the most persuasive argument I have heard for changing what I was doing was by watching someone else's silent, persistent difference.
It's hard to know if I haven't just settled on Barack Obama person I would most like to be president because he is the most like me, because he is the quietest and the mixed-race-nerd-iest and the youngest. People are allowed to vote that way, right? Simply, for who they like? I'm not sure why I feel like I need to analyze it more. And even if I do look at policy, I end up picking the same guy. I'm just gonna relax and stop feeling like there's a hidden layer I'm unfairly ignoring.
