This Neiman-Marcus men’s “outfit” consists of the following:
*$940 Just Cavalli sport coat
*$390 Brocade pleated shirt
*$365 bleached jeans
TOTAL COST: $1,695.00
Strange that we have a nation where some people can afford to buy this crap, but we have to beg to buy school books for children.
Here in Van Nuys 
Where can I get those terrific shoes? Betcha they won’t be more than, oh, say, $995.00.
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Steve Westly has some good ideas for making textbooks affordable. Check them out for yourself. (http://www.westly2006.com)
He can’t design like Cavalli, but he can help the rest of us.
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I can give a reasonably plausible explanation as to why there’s thousands of dollars to spend to look like a derelict (a Neiman-Marcus derelict, no less) but no money for schools. But liberals and conservatives will agree that they both hate the answer.
There’s no money for schools because the U.S. has chosen to adopt a Third World mentality. What is that? It’s complex, but a relevant trait is an unwillingness to develop social capital. Social capital consists of large-scale projects that enhance commerce, health, education and entertainment for the population. A small colonial elite lords over a foreign economy but does not identify with the native population enough and keeps it out of its social circle. The elite organizes society around its own self-enrichment, and social capital does not develop because the elites do not perceive it in their self-interest to do so. This can manifest itself to class hatred, where the high purpose becomes keeping the other in its place.
The United States, outside of the South, had spent a great deal on social capital throughout much of its history. Conservatism was not an anti-government movement until George Wallace ran for president. There was always anti-government libertarianism, but it was a fringe movement until it formed an alliance with Wallace white-identity politics and was co-opted by the Republicans via the Southern Strategy, leading to what is modern-day American conservatism.
Since the conservative consensus is hostility to social capital (for different reasons), that is why there’s the $1,700 derelict outfit and schools naked and shivering.
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Andrew,
* Obviously, very few people, for various reasons, do not buy attires as pictured. However, the few people that design, tailor, and sell the items need to live on wages themselves. They do “sell” and survive on a value not to be forsaken; they simply make something they think is nice and not Old Navy, the GAP or A&F.
** The many people you have NO luck begging money from for children’s books or even simply hot lunch are more often those who don’t buy Neiman Marcus either, but from the WalMart, the Gap Inc., …etc. But, does that value make them bad people? I certainly hope not. The lack of mooney in many scool districts is a problem beyond fasion in department stores. It is also beyond a problem that skin deep Marxism can interprete let alone solve.
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