The Affluent Society

The poor will always be with us . . . so spend it before they gang up and take it away from us. And in the meantime, let 'em starve. I gotsa have my perks:

For the first time, there are more than 1 million owner-occupied homes in the United States worth $1 million or more, according to a Census Bureau survey published late last month.

Once a symbol of unusual wealth, million-dollar dwellings now seem like a dime a dozen in some places. San Francisco alone has more than 20,000 of them. There are another 46,000, or so, in Orange County, Calif.

Link.

All this opulence in the heart of a Christian country like ours kinda reminds me of C.S. Lewis' observation about how much a Christian should give to charity. He didn't use a percentage formula, opting instead to say that, if a person's giving didn't cause him at least a small degree of discomfort or want, then it probably isn't enough.