Relearning How To Weather a Storm

When I lived in New Orleans my bus to the French Quarter passed right by the Red Lobster. There were always lines outside the restaurant. Many times the lines would snake around the block. Now, I don't have anything against Red Lobster. In fact I have fond memories, of when our family would splurge on a lobster. Though, my tastes turned more to crab and now I am a vegetarian, if I ever started eating meat, I certainly wouldn't turn down a free diner there. But it was frustrating to see so many tourist eating there. Red Lobster gets all of its seafood from its own fleet in Alaska. It used to proudly say so in the commercials, which means that if you eat a Red Lobster you none of your seafood will be local, unless of course you are eating in Alaska.

In many ways Ms. Applebaum reminds me of these tourist. She travels widely and has lived various places in Europe, but no matter what where she is she never seems to get out of her bubble. Wherever she is she manages to find people who are exactly like her, think exactly like her and confirm all the things she had been thinking.

Now, lots of people live like this. I would say the vast majority. But it is hardly sparkling bonus to put on your resume for working at a major newspaper, "I can report from anywhere in the world, but it will all be same because I always find a little Applebaum wherever I go.

This article about the financial crisis is a prime example of the weakness of Applebaum's writing. She writes that the coping methods, of thriftiness have been lost though decades of prosperity. But for the vast middle class and the lower classes in the United States there hasn't been decades of prosperity. Whether there has been a slow grinding decline in standard of living.

For example she mentioned recycling for money. I have been taking cans to the recycling center for years on the trolley, and many time the cans paid for a weeks food. If Ms. Applebaum has missed the realities of our generation, here in her own home country, how can she be trusted to observe what is going on in a foreign country.