Ordeals and Travails

 I didn't blog last night because I ended up passing out on the living room floor, sometime after 11.  I woke up at 2:30 -- lights on, laptop on sleep -- and shut everything down and went to bed.  Alas.  The day started with a trip to the dentist, as I had to go in for a permanent filling and ideally putting on a permanent crown.  Things didn't go as planned, as first they tried to tell me that they weren't sure they could save the tooth -- after the fricking root canal!  Thankfully, though, they did, and inserted the permanent filling.  Next was an hour of excruciating...well, maybe not pain (though there was some) but incredible discomfort as they tried to attach the crown.  Eleven X-rays were taken; I guess the tooth next to it was a bit off in shape, there wasn't much room, the odd shape of the tooth remnant... I was there more than two hours (an hour at most I was assured), and each time it was the same; drill around the tooth (still sore from the root canal), play with the crown (more soreness), X-ray... finally they stopped and decided to make a new crown, so I have to return.  It was draining in every way, and it will be a long time before I return to any dentist.

Then it was home to plow through work (I had a project due Monday, which I turned in today), take a pain pill (I filled the root canal prescription), take the antibiotics (to prevent another infection like the last one), and rue my misfortune.  To be sure, I did reflect upon the wonders of modern dentistry; even a century ago, it would have been a pull and much pain, and now... well, it is remarkable what they can do.  But it is remarkable what they cannot do, or at least some of them.  

Topping it off...drove to the gym and it was closed -- water main break.  Not that I needed a workout, but I sort of wanted one, just to clear my head.  Alas.  I saw on social media that they are open now, so that long national nightmare is over.

Today I went to see Matthew Desmond give a talk about his new book at the Parma Snow library (I also got a copy as part of the deal, which has been added to the book pile).  I didn't realize they literally have an auditorium back there for this sort of thing -- I think it seats at least 150.  Let's just say that it was not a Parma crowd, and considering the number of Hope and Changers and PSRCHers there, I am glad we have CCW in Ohio.

Anyways, the speech was fairly good; I agree with a lot of what he says, but I think 1) A lot of the policy/tax choices we make to support what he calls affluence, are, to me, one of the few ways government actually support the middle class; and 2) a lot of what he recommends isn't even done by the people of his ilk, so why does he think anyone else will do it?  He even made a comment about how people never complain about their mortgage deductions.  I openly laughed at that one (my neighbors were less than amused), because I used to make the same joke at Freedonia -- none of them ever gave their tax refunds back or paid more than their fair share, and I suspect Desmond did not, either.

He also doesn't talk about housing supply; we simply have not built enough housing in this country, which makes it so expensive... I realize he is, ugh, a sociologist, so this salient point is over his head, but...you cannot put people into non-existent housing.  Some of what he recommends would work -- I think an excess profits tax would be fine (especially now), I think raising wages for the lower classes would work (but it would drive automation; I can only imagine the Luddite rage of fast food workers when the robots arrive).

Another thing he tends to gloss over, but something that has become more crystallized in my mind from my food pantry experience.  Namely, many poor people make bad and dumb decisions, and many of them... you really don't want as neighbors, or in your neck of the woods.  I think it is fair to say that yes, poverty does create these behaviors, but I also think that in an equal number of cases people cause their own poverty.  As I often say, behold the universality of Gresham's Law...