Lake Forest: the year the United States committed suicide; have-yachts

Perhaps history will look back upon 2022 as the year the United States committed suicide.

I do not claim that this true, but why would the thought that it might be even occur:

January 6.

The Supreme Court decision revoking Roe vs. Wade.

The Supreme Court decision stripping the EPA from controlling green house gas emissions.

The repeated, now almost daily, mass killings and the continued sale of assault rifles to private individuals.

A Congress so paralyzed that one man from a small, poor state can block legislation and jeopardize the future of the planet.

And the year is barely half over.  Surely there is more to come.

On Apple News+ I was able to read a long, interesting and entertaining NEW YORKER article about the megayacht business, ‘The Haves and Have-yachts.’

I googled and found a link to the article which is free for viewing for a limited time, so if you want to read it, do so soon.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/07/25/the-haves-and-the-have-yachts

Here are a few highlights:

In the Victorian era. it was said that the length of a man’s boat, in feet, should match his age, in years.

(Obviously I am seriously deficient.)

Since 1990 the United States’ supply of billionaires has increased from sixty-two to more than seven hundred…In that time the number of truly giant yachts—those longer than two hundred and fifty feet—has climbed from less than ten to more than one hundred and seventy.

The collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991, had minted a new generation of billionaires, whose approach to money inspired a popular Russian joke:  One oligarch brags to another, “Look at this new tie.  It cost me two hundred bucks.”   To which the other replies, “You moron.  You could have bought the same one for a thousand.”