Compliments of Look at This Fucking Hipster

Thanks to PJs for pointing out this article which I missed last week. Apparently, hard times in America have forced parents to stop subsidizing their precious little art school dropouts loafing about in NYC. From NY Times:

Famed for its concentration of heavily subsidized 20-something residents — also nicknamed trust-funders or trustafarians — Williamsburg is showing signs of trouble. Parents whose money helped fuel one of the city’s most radical gentrifications in recent years have stopped buying their children new luxury condos, subsidizing rents and providing cash to spend at Bedford Avenue’s boutiques and coffee houses.

For 18 months after graduating from Colby College, Jack Drury, 24, lived the way many Williamsburg residents do: He followed his passions, working in satellite radio and playing guitar. He earned money as a bicycle messenger and, on occasion, turned to his parents for money.

It's about as difficult to have sympathy for these skinny-jeaned layabouts as the "Funemployed" and the bankers' girlfriends who can't get anymore bottle service...especially since people younger than them are dying for our country.

Maybe they should consider not living in the nation's most expensive city or take my father's advice of "Get a Job, You Bum". But knowing these people (and don't deny they all voted for Obama) they're just waiting for their share of the stimulus pie.

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Portrait of Poverty: Distressed Girlfriends of Investment Bankers

You know who's really got it tough after the economy took a big dump? No, not laid off workers in the manufacturing sector from metro Detroit. I'm talking about wealthy Manhattanite chicks who can't get "bottle service" at swanky clubs in SoHo. Their website [Dating a Banker Anonymous] reveals the Dickensian like conditions:

This whole messy ordeal has advanced my Botox start date by at least two years. Like every other DABA girl, the economy was wreaking havoc on my relationship and youthful good looks. Phone calls went unanswered, Hamptons invitations un-extended, plans canceled (including, but not limited to, expensive opening night tickets to the ballet, which were scalped instead of being graciously offered to me and a galpal), and so forth and so on. Until – the horror of all horrors – my FBF lost his job, which I guess technically downgrades him to just my BF.

In general, being an attractive woman is an excuse for just about any sort of egregious behavior. But not this time! At first you might be led to believe that this site is high satire and ask yourself "Are these broads for real?", but a NY Times article reveals that this is indeed not a joke. NYT:

About 30 women, generally in their mid- to late-20s, regularly post to the Web site or attend meetings.

“We do make light of everything on the blog and it’s very tongue in cheek,” said Laney Crowell, 27, who parted ways with a corporate real estate investor last month after a tumultuous relationship. “But it all stems out of really serious and heartfelt situations.”

The Huffington Post sympathizes with the plight of these money-grubbing wenches to the surprise of no one.

This is why America will fail. People are fast becoming accustomed to lavish lifestyles and expecting government intervention and external forces to make it all better. I suggest sending these women to live in the garbage dump in Phnom Penh, Cambodia so they can learn about real hard times. As an aside, I'm going to take a shot in the dark here, and assert that most of these women voted for Obama.

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Glenn Reynolds and Megan Mcardle both come out as proponents of changing the age to legally party-down to 18. From WSJ:

I will make one policy proposal. Some of my fellow libertarians hope that the Obama administration will put an end to the drug war. I hope so too, but I'm not too optimistic. Instead, I propose a smaller step toward freedom -- eliminating the federally mandated drinking age of 21. This mandate was a creature of Elizabeth Dole (who is no longer in the Senate to complain at its abolition), and it has unnecessarily limited the freedom of legal adults, old enough to fight for their country, to drink adult beverages.

Might be a tough battle, since the MADD nannies have already come out against even military members aged 18-21 drinking on bases. I suggest we start there, as one brave SC statesman has done against a sea of opposition by those who can't mind their own damn business. Then the seriously encroaching Reagan-era federal law that prevents Highway funds to states if the drinking age is below 21 could get nixed. After that, our puritan country could be in the clear to start treating people over 18 as adults like every other goddamn nation in the world.

It can't come too fast either, because it seems college kids are eschewing booze for intoxicating Obama rhetoric! From a Higher Ed study of my alma mater (by way of Reason):

The proportion of students who describe themselves as “middle-of-the-road” politically continues to decline, hitting an all-time low of 43.3 percent, while the proportion who describe themselves as liberal and far left grew to 31 and 3.2 percent, respectively. “This is the largest percentage of students categorizing themselves as liberal since 1973,” states the survey. The survey finds that 20.7 percent of freshmen characterize themselves as conservative, down slightly from 23.1 percent the year before.

The report finds increasing support among freshmen for liberal causes — including same-sex marriage. Support for environmental causes continues to grow.

Freshmen are also, apparently, partying less in high school. In 2008, 18.8 percent say they partied an average of six or more hours a week, half the 36.8 percent total in 1987.

Unlike Obama's Keynesian economic beliefs of the power of "stimulus", a massive binge on Natural Ice will only fuck you up for one night instead of prolonging the pain and agony of a depression for 8 years. While the computer science nerds are sipping on their Obamaesque Pepsis, cooler college kids could be guzzling booze and talking about the collapse of the dollar under a Democrat-controlled congress...or just have unprotected sex, whatever. Is this shameless policy promotion to woo young people politically? You betcha!

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