By albrt
This week is Naked Capitalism Funding Week, and I wanted to briefly share some of the reasons why I support Naked Capitalism and why you should too.
If you already have reasons for supporting Naked Capitalism (which you probably do), You can access the donation link directlyPlease donate generously!
For those of you who like a bit of chit-chat and a sales pitch, my parents grew up in the 1950s. They were close to WASPs, and liberal in the sense that they embraced what later became the foundation of the professional-managerial class. My mother, who perhaps had the greatest influence on my worldview, was an unorthodox thinker in her own way. She voted for Nixon in 1972 and later became a semi-radical feminist, far to the left of legends like Betty Ford and Geraldine Ferraro.
All three of my parents were college professors (at least briefly), so when I turned 18 in the early 1980s, I rebelled the only way I knew how: by refusing to go to college at first, and then dropping out several times. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, I worked many jobs, most of which didn’t pay well. I was a cook, a bartender, a night auditor for a hotel, a member of a worker-owned collective, an editor for a small town newspaper, a union organizer, and a 411 operator, and this is far from an exhaustive list. Eventually, I decided that I wanted to go to law school. I got my bachelor’s degree and did very well on the standardized tests for law school applicants. I was rejected outright by several Ivy League universities, but I received scholarship offers from third-tier universities and did well at one of them.
After all, there were very few places where I felt like I belonged: third-rate law schools, naked capitalism, and the local bar (as long as I remembered to tip properly). The community of unorthodox thinkers is why I support naked capitalism. Click on the tip jar linkGive your snow leopard kitten a hearty meal to help replenish the area.
The 2007-2010 financial crisis hit me halfway through my 20+ year (so far) career as an attorney. Looking back, I have only hazy memories of it. As the crisis approached, I was reading Naked Capitalism and other bubble-related sites. That’s one of the main reasons I was able to stay solvent when others around me were racking up debt and buying more homes than they needed or could afford. As those of us who were around during the financial crisis can attest, information coupled with skepticism and common sense can be extremely helpful when others are losing their bearings.
That’s a very practical reason to support Naked Capitalism. Click on the link to go to the donation pageNaked Capitalism depends on your support!
Unfortunately, most of the United States, especially the elites in positions of power, never seemed to fully recover after the financial crisis. The stock market recovered, but our culture and politics did not. We are slipping into what Jim Kunstler called a “long emergency,” where there seem to be two or three emergencies of the same magnitude as the financial crisis at any one time.
I’ve reached a point in my career where I can resolve most legal issues myself; that’s good for me. Unfortunately, I lack expertise in many other areas, and the media, which Sarah Palin aptly called “lamestream,” is increasingly untrustworthy. Naked Capitalism cuts through the layers of corporate and government drivel, providing the links and context we need to understand at least some of what’s going on in the world. Naked Capitalism is as relevant today as it was during the financial crisis, despite (or maybe because) it seems increasingly unclear what’s going wrong.
No one else has been able to do what Eve, Lambert, Connor and Nick have done.
Last year, Yves was kind enough to accept a blind submission, and so I started posting online again. Over the past few months, dealing with the complex needs of my elderly parents has kept me busier than usual, but I hope to be more productive in the near future. One benefit of working closely with my elderly parents is that it helps me see things objectively. Writing here and elsewhere will be a higher priority for me going forward, while I still have coherent thoughts to post. In the short term, I plan to do more posts about identity in our culture and politics. This will include aspects of identity that arise from ascribed status, and how we can build a functional identity from applied heuristics (simplified mental models of how the world works). I may also do some legal posts about the Fourth Amendment and bodily autonomy.
If you are interested and have not yet clicked on the link for a better reason, Click the link now! Your support is essential to continuing this important, independent work.
