The edition of the Sunday New York Times delivered to my neighborhood has these two pieces. One made the front page, one was back on page 28.
| Out of Work and Trying to Stay Positive | A Family's Billions, Artfully Sheltered |
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| “[Dionne Henry] had to miss her father’s funeral in Jamaica last year because she could not afford to go. Fresh fruits and vegetables are now a luxury. She keeps her hair short, cutting it herself to avoid the expense. Her only new clothing in more than two years has been a dress her sister paid for and a $25 blouse she bought for an interview..” | “In 2006, Ronald S. Lauder, who is now worth $3.1 billion, paid $135 million for the Klimt painting Adele Bloch-Bauer I.” |
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“Ms. Henry receives $351 a week in unemployment benefits, which are set to expire in January. She pays $896.51 a month in rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. After she first lost her job, she fell a month behind on rent. Then last year, Ms. Henry, who is single and without health insurance, had surgery to remove uterine fibroids, and she fell behind again. The surgery cost $7,000, and she still owes $5,000. After her rental debt grew to $3,394.16, Ms. Henry’s landlord filed evictions proceedings. A lawyer referred Ms. Henry to the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. She received a grant of $1,543.12 from the fund and was able to save $1,851.04 as eviction proceedings dragged out in housing court. A judge eventually ordered her landlord to accept the back rent and to allow her to remain in her apartment.”
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..His vast holdings — which include hundreds of millions in stock, one of the world’s largest private collections of medieval armor, homes in Washington, D.C., and on Park Avenue as well as oceanfront mansions in Palm Beach and the Hamptons…” |
And the point is? Billionaire bad, poor girl from Jamaica good?
The tax system was created by rich people to protect rich people, where is the surprise in that? And that rich people can, and do, hide and shelter their money is no surprise either. Some rich people are rich because they are not stupid, and others are rich because their parents, or grand parents, were not stupid. Still, what is the point of this blog post?