[lbo-talk] the cushy life

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Turbulo at aol.com wrote:
>
>>Doug wrote:
>>
>>Damn, I want a cushy life, and I'm a socialist because I think
>>everyone should have a cushy life! Yeah, I know, the world is
>>imperfect, and universal cushiness is therefore elusive, maybe even
>>impossible, but what's wrong with security, comfort, and pleasure as
>>ultimate political goals. That doesn't mean complacent or stupid; my
>>idea of cushiness includes the time and capacity for intellectual and
>>aesthetic engagement. But there seems to be a kind of leftist who's
>>suspicious of pleasure, who exudes a Calvinist lust for suffering,
>>because it's somehow ennobling. (A variant: the belief that poverty
>>is ennobling, and wealth is corrupting. Why would anyone be a
>>redistributionist if that were true? To hell with all that, I say.
>>
>>                     ***********
>>
>>There's nothing inherently wrong with comfort or inherently noble
>>about poverty. But under capitalism
>
>Yeah, I know. That's why I prefaced the comment with "I'm a 
>socialist." I'm fully aware that what I was evoking is impossible 
>under capitalism. Why do leftists love to re-assert the obvious so 
>often?
>
>Doug

Because you don't seem to tire of repeating a deadly cliche that 
leftists take a dim view of pleasure.

Judging by your exchange with Jordan about mortgages, though, you 
appear to discount pleasure in the present mortgaged to an uncertain 
future.  :->

Why shouldn't people buy houses any way they can and enjoy them now, 
and if a perfect storm hits, unite as debtors and demand a moratorium 
on foreclosures of owner-occupied homes?
-- 
Yoshie

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