Ivy Blindness

[Yehonala]

It occurs to me that a surfeit of money, and the associated life within an invisible plastic bubble that seems to accompany it, may explain much of our curious political lunges. I have nothing against money (you can test this by sending me a lot) or people who have it. But it has side effects.

Two incidents come to mind, of no shattering import but serving as windsocks. First, a politician I barely know, but of import in the making of national policy, told me recently that he had never been in Washington’s subway, though he lives in Washington. Second, there was the astonishment of the senior Bush on observing the technology of a checkout line in a supermarket, into none of which had he apparently been. He didn’t know how to buy groceries.

http://businesslinkshere.com/IvyBlindness.aspx

[KamaAina]

1. Yale '85 here

I know how to buy groceries, and I've ridden the DC Metro several times, though I do not live in DC. In fact, I came within a few hundred bucks of qualifying for subsidized housing here in "Cantaffordya". :scared:

The Ivies have changed considerably since Dubya's day. In fact, Yale toughened its admissions standards for legacies the year after he left. It still doesn't hurt to have the right name, but now you also have to prove you're smarter than a boiled potato. Coincidence? I think not.

[Warpy]

3. One of my best buddies in Mass. was a Harvard legacy

but yes, he was a lot smarter than a boiled potato. In fact, he'd left most other legacies in the intellectual dust. He was an historian with a trust fund and that trust fund afforded him the same shit lifestyle we wage slaves all had. He could not only buy groceries, he could cook them when he got them home.

However, yes, old money is generally pretty clueless and resent any attempt by we mere mortals to educate them. They pay other people to know things for them. They're often extraordinarily generous, but don't ever tell them what you need. That seems to spoil it.

I know that legacy admissions standards have tightened and that the "gentleman's C" is no longer automatically granted, that a legacy has to show up for class, at the very least.

Considering the timing, I don't think it's coincidence, either.

[Jamastiene]

2. A lot of people might be offended by that article, but

there is a lot of truth in it.