Cpt. J.S. McCain III has come under a lot of unwarranted criticism recently.
May I say, first of all, that I respect and honour McCain's service to the USA, its air force, and the Douglas Aircraft Company.
Two of McCain's recent responses to questions have come under extensive criticism, particularly on the intertoobs:
1) that he was unable to remember, precisely, how many houses he and his wife happened to own at that precise moment, and;
2) that to be considered "rich", rather than middle class, required an income of order $5 million per year.
These responses are much misunderstood, and I'd like to clarify, not that I speak for John, of course, but I think I understand where he is going.
1) The housing market is in trouble, you might say it is collapsing, at least in certain regions of the country.
Clearly, it is the duty of any patriotic american, with the means to do so, to buy houses to prop up the market.
Rich people ought to buy several houses, now, particularly in the Phoenix area and SoCal. And Florida - er, maybe after next week.
More so if they happen to have cash on hand and don't need to wait for the whole 20% down/credit check/bank approval stuff.
In fact, if the 250,000 or so people with incomes above $1 million per year would only buy a few houses each this year, as spares or something, the whole housing market thing would be somewhat rectified.
Further, with employment weak, the extra servants required to keep the extra houses in state suitable for visiting at short notice by the owners, their relative, children's college buddies or old girfriends, would go along way to ameliorating slack demand at the bottom of the market.
(Oh, and can you pick of a few in the Borough here - just as a favour to some friends - market has been a bit stagnant, don't want prices to start coming down too much...)
2) The middle class/rich boundary is what we call a "forward looking statement".
In order to avoid asset deflation, which would psychologically impact the 250,000 people who bought the houses in part 1) above, we need some healthy price inflation for the next 4-8 years. By the end of which, $4.5 million per year may well be comfortable upper middle class income.
And there may be as many as 250,000 tax payers at that income, or higher.
See.
Now cut the guy some slack. He spent several years as a POW.
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I have no problem with McCain having married rich*, or owning several homes. The problem comes when you own several homes while you are are accusing your opponent of being an elitist.
Romney defended McCain the other day, saying that McCain earned his homes, while Obama didn't. So I guess dumping your hospitalized first wife to run off with a rich heiress is now considered "earning."
How does owning several homes make you an elitist?
To me, elitism has much more to do with attitude and hubris than property. I know some elitists who only own one home and make less than $100K a year.
I cannot wait to watch Obama tonight, I hear the stage is spectacular!
Nice sarcasm. That is, I assume it's sarcasm hehe.
Joel, then maybe you'd like to answer how drinking green tea makes you elitist. It's not like Obama started this dirty useless crap over inconsequential issues.
The fact is that this guy Mccain is born to a father and grandfather admirals, and married some rich dumb heiress and only got where he is because of his family connections. And he's calling a kid who was raised by a single mom and his grandparents, went to some of the best schools on his own merits and married a woman with a similiar background an elitist? Fuck that. And damn even the fact that anyone's arguing about this nonsense when we've got real problems in this country. And they won't be solved with dumb crap over who's a celebrity.
How does owning several homes make you an elitist?
You correctly note that this is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition. But think about it: how many people who are not professional landlords can afford the upkeep on multiple properties? McCain is definitely not a professional landlord. Consider also that several of these properties are, shall we say, high-end (like that $4M+ condo), or that his household staff costs about $270k per year (several times my annual income, and I'm relatively well off, thankyouverymuch). We're clearly talking about someone who has a lot of money and is not afraid to advertise the fact.
But as Tegumai said, that's not the worst of it. Flaunting it when you've got it is one thing. Doing so while accusing your opponent of being an elitist is, at best, a case of the pot calling the kettle black. And so far, I haven't seen any evidence to back up the charge against Obama.
Being a member on a elite is relatively well defined: both Obama and McCain are in the economic and intellectual elites.
Both went to highly selective schools and did well, eventually becoming Senators, which are relatively well paid, and members of a highly select institution.
McCain's considerably more elite economically, his family lives on unearned income and has substantial assets; Obama comes from low income background and has only recently entered the top 1% in net income, they are still relatively asset poor, though well above middle class average, but continue to rely on earned income for their lifestyle.
Physically both men were probably in the top 2-3%, as Obama was a collegiate sport player, and McCain qualified for fighter-bomber pilot training (and survived the hardship of prolonged POW status).
Socially McCain is elite, and Obama is not: McCain has the old money and family connections - the Obama grandchildren will have those, but they and their children do not, they have only their immediate cohort of college associates and coworkers.
However, being elite is not synonymous with being elitists.
There are elites who disdain elitism, and there are non-elite who strongly support elitism (typically with the concurrent aspiration of joining an elite).
From what I have seen of their stated positions, Obama is assuredly not elitist, and McCain has some sense of being elitist but aspires to broader populism.
Oh, and the blog post was sarcasm... with a touch of the serious, as with all such.
Cash rich americans could, in fact, collectively mitigate the instantaneous housing crisis by becoming retail real estate investors rather than holding their cash reserves back for future investment opportunities - piecewise this could imply significant short term losses, in aggregate it might mean collective benefit and long term profit, if they could play co-operatively, which they can't.
Price inflation is currently significant, and the likely near term fiscal policy seems to be to let price inflation grow in the hope of moderating deflationary forces without triggering hyper-inflation spiral. So, $5 million does not buy you what it used to - it barely buys a professorial chair in most places. Less so in the future.
married some rich dumb heiress
Interesting thought. Do you consider all rich heiresses dumb, do you consider rich heirs dumb? Or maybe, it's just those who disagree with you that are dumb? Does that make you an intellectual elistist?
McCain's ranking of 894 out of 899 in his class at the Naval Academy constitutes "did well"?
Cindy Hensley McCain is by all accounts not dumb.
She went to USC, Kappa Alpha Theta and BA (Ed) MA (Spec Ed) and was a cheerleader.
She appears to have preserved her inherited wealth, and done some good work along the way.
She is rich, and she inherited the bulk of the money.
As a first approximation rich heirs have a normal distribution in intelligence for their cohort. As a second approximation they tend to have above average intelligence in the mean, due to better diet, medical care and opportunity for exposure to intellectually stimulating environments and activities during development.
The less intelligent rich heirs tend to be more noticeable, leading to a distinct observer selection bias in estimates of the intelligence distribution.
It is not a sign of intellectual elitism to attribute stupidity to disagreement per se.
Class rank is just one metric.
He graduated. He got into and completed pilot training. He went career and retired as Captain.
So, yeah, that is doing well.
Steinn - McCain is a "Reverse Ace" - the ONLY One in the US - and has crashed 5 multi-million dollar air-craft in his career. He would have been washed-out and beached, except his Grandfather and father were both Admirals.
and BTW - STAY OFF OF HIS LAWNS!!*&%
that is an elite, of sorts...
note carefully which service I acknowledged him for.
"As a first approximation rich heirs have a normal distribution in intelligence for their cohort. As a second approximation they tend to have above average intelligence in the mean, due to better diet, medical care and opportunity for exposure to intellectually stimulating environments and activities during development."
You mean like Paris Hilton?
Wait, bad example. ;)
Stealing drugs from a medical chartity on the other hand, Very dumb.
http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2008/06/background-on-c.html
Owning multiple properties isn't necessarily elitist. Owning enough property that you can't keep track of it? I'd call that a little out of touch.
Stealing drugs from a medical chartity on the other hand, Very dumb.
As someone who has had issues with drugs, I can't say to much about that other than I understand that scamming is one way to feed the addiction. Cindy's actions were loathsome, but I've seen people steal morphine from dying family members. I know if it weren't for the addiction, these would be good people.
It's good she seems to have gotten away from it.
Cindy McCain is not running for president.
Not to digress, but being part of an elite is not the same as being elitist!