Elizabeth Warren on 'Politics of Envy' | American Values in Three Groups | Big Drop in Young Driver's Licenses

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Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Jean Paul Gaultier’s gold bullion bar.Designer Gold

Texas-metals company Dillon Gage Metals has gone all the way to Paris, recruiting French designer Jean Paul Gaultier to create the first limited-edition designer bullion, currently trading at $1,826.33 for a one-ounce gold bar.

Join and learn from our ongoing discussion of American Values, that include the Traditionals, Moderns and Cultural Creatives with an explanation of our core person: the Smart Sensuality woman and men who share her values.

Politics of Envy

This read caught our idea shortly after reading Charles M. Blow’s Bitter Politics of Envy? which addresses Mitt Romney’s ‘Today’ show defense of his comments that President Obama divides Americans ‘with the bitter politics of envy’.

“Are there no fair questions about the distribution of wealth without it being seen as envy, though?” ‘Today’ pressed the presidential candidate. Romney responded, “I think it’s fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and discussions about tax policy and the like.”

What we believe should be a national discussion about the country we live in, Mr Romney wants to confine to quiet back rooms.

Blow continues on, quoting Elizabeth Warren who articulates an ideal vision of American capitalism that resonates with us. It’s the one Anne grew up with and embraces:

“There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there, good for you. But, I want to be clear: you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that marauding bands would come and seize everything at your factory and hire someone to protect against this because of the work the rest of us did. Now look, you built a factory and it turned into something terrific or a great idea. God bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of the underlying social contract is you take a hunk of that and pay forward for the next kid who comes along.”

That is the corporate Contract With America: societal symbiosis. We create a society in which smart, hard-working people can be safe and prosper, and they in turn reinvest a fair share of that prosperity back into society for posterity.

Everyone benefits.

More DFR

Craig McDean W Magazine Feb 2012

Wheels Not So Hot

Is a key American value under assault? Do young Americans no longer view wheels and a driver’s license as key to their independence? Or can they just not afford cars and insurance anymore? The University of Michigan study explains:

In 1983, a third of all licensed drivers in the United States were under age 30. Today, only about 22 percent of drivers are twentysomethings or teenagers. Further, more than half of all drivers in 1983 were under age 40, but today that number has fallen to less than 40 percent.

Researchers speculate that digital life reduces the need for actual contact among young people and actually interferes with texting and other electronic communications.

For state legislators insisting that young voters have a driver’s license or an ID issued by that agency, increasingly large numbers don’t have any contact with driving. A GM executive reported that in a focus group young drivers expressed a desire for cars that are safe, affordable, compatible with all the latest digital technology and kind to the environment.

Bye, Bye Mademoiselle

Catherine Deneuve by Francois Mori, AP 5/21/2011Henceforth, the women of France’s Cesson-Sevigne population of 16,000 will be addressed as ‘madame’ regardless of age or marital status, writes the LA Times.

We’re not sure if Catherine Deneuve prefers to be called an actor, rather than actress, but she’s on record saying the once-married, 68-year-old prefers being called ‘mademoiselle’. Luckily, she is exempt from the new law, as an actress.

Mayor Michel Bihan, elected in 2008 on a sexual-equality platform, told the BBC, “It just seemed like the natural step for us. It’s symbolic: a signal, a gesture, but one among many.”

French feminist groups, Les Chiennes de Garde (The Watchdogs) and Osez la Feminisme (Dare Feminism), argue that the title should be removed from business and state forms, saying that ‘mademoiselle’ is not only sexist and condescending but ‘intrusive’ exclusively into a woman’s private life.