The Rich, They're Not Like You and I...

[Elvis]

I own 2 cars for instance. They're both over 20 years old and their collective mileage is over 400,000 miles. Yet they both run. To many people of the world this is great wealth. Do they look at me the same way I look at, say, Bill Gates? If they don't why don't they? Should they? I am at least aware, but does being aware make it okay?

Partly it's that people are trapped by a society built around cars, and LA is the most notorious example, yes? I grew up near Bellevue, Washington, a "new" city incorporated in 1960, the first city specifically designed for the automobile. If you were just a person, not a car, you had to walk across eight lanes of traffic to get to Bellevue Square mall, the great consumer temple. But pedestrians were rare. (They've since made Bellevue more walking-friendly but shiny cars still rule).

[Nordic]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/02/r ... on-closet/

A criminal complaint filed this week
against a wealthy New York woman
alleges that she kept an
undocumented immigrant as a house
worker for years, paying her just 85
cents an hour for nearly constant labor,
and making her sleep in a walk-in
closet.
The immigrant, identified only as
“V.M.” in documents filed by
prosecutors, was reportedly promised
$1,000 a month to come live with
Annie George at her vast estate in New
York. The woman came from Kerala, a
state in India, only to discover that her
job at the 30,000 square foot Llenroc
mansion was one of servitude, with
17-hour days seven days a week, with
no days off even when she was sick.
She cleaned the mansion from top to
bottom, cooked for the family and
watched over George’s five children
for approximately 67 months before
the National Human Trafficking
Resource Center received a tip about
the woman’s working conditions.
Federal agents swooped in to her
rescue last year, and now George, 39,
is facing a criminal prosecution.
Prosecutors note that the woman’s son
recorded a conversation with George,
during which she suggested that the
family tell investigators that the woman
was a relative staying at Llenroc
mansion as a guest. George allegedly
remarked that if her son mentioned
that his mother worked there, it could
“become a big crime.”
The criminal complaint was first
spotted earlier this week by The
Smoking Gun. George appeared this
week before a federal judge and is
currently free without bond. The court
papers do not specify what the
woman’s immigration status was,
merely calling her “illegal.”
The mansion was recently sold for just
$1.9 million, a far cry from the original
asking price of $12 million.
The United Nations and other groups
suggest the number of forced laborers
and sex slaves around the world today
could be as many as 27 million
people, more than at any other point
in human history.

[stefano]

Just came across this mindfuck, a company that makes leather goods from human skin. Wallets from €9,000, belts from €10,500. If you just like the idea you can get a bracelet ("crafted from the skin overlying the chakra") for €500.

Human leather is made from real full thickness human skin. Just like animal leather products, produced from lesser animals, our raw human skin is transformed into the finest grade human leather by using a traditional tanning process. However, human leather is the finest grain leather that is obtainable.

It is free from defects and has the smallest grain size which makes it the smoothest, softest leather on Earth.

Human leather has been used by anatomists, tannists and medical scholars over the ages to bequeath life to their work and writings. It had been lost in modern times as a working material, partly due to social and religious taboos. However, we as a group, have decided that humans can benefit from being reintroduced to their brethren in an elegant and artistic form.

Human leather is produced from skin sourced from normal everyday people. These people have bequeathed their skin to us prior to their death. There are a few areas of the body, (back and abdomen) that have uninterrupted skin coverage, and are therefore the best for processing into human leather. However, this is an expensive business, as the raw material is not cheap to produce or process. We value our donors and we reward their beneficiaries and next of kin very handsomely. In fact, we have had to turn away some potential donors, as we can accept only the highest quality human skin.

We cater to a small but highly discerning clientele. They are amongst those lucky few who have everything they could possibly desire. Our supply is restricted and we prefer to keep it that way as we are the only firm in the world that crafts these special products.