Saturday Night at the Movies: Slippery Little Suckers
Education Without Character, Continued
Two stories of note in the world of real estate this week. First, this account of Wall Street investors buying up entire residential housing communities, often sight unseen, so that what used to be “starter homes” young families could afford are instead transformed into profitable short-term rentals. Second, this investigation into a Texas developer making his fortune building neighborhoods for illegal immigrants while (allegedly) partnering with cartels.
Which brings us to our movie for the week. After a couple Jimmy Stewart classics, I bet you weren’t expecting a silly and highly family-inappropriate modern rom-com about a hooker with a heart of gold, but that’s why I get the big bucks. Ok, I get no bucks - so no complaints!
Yet I’m choosing Pretty Woman not for the, er, unlikely romance, but for a subplot that has always stuck with me. Before we get to that, if you would like a more edifying approach to women of ill-repute, I cannot recommend more highly this Alistair Begg sermon, to a room full of prison inmates, on Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well. The bottom line: only bad people go to Heaven. You’ll have to watch the whole thing to find out what Begg means by that (his sermon starts at the 19:30 mark of the video).
Back to the movie that made Julia Roberts a household name. If you haven’t seen it in a while, it is worth returning to for Richard Gere’s character arc. He is a wealthy businessman who makes his living preying upon struggling companies, buying them up, destroying them, and selling off their parts for big profits. This is viewed as perfectly normal in his elite world, and he doesn’t have any qualms about it - until meeting aforesaid kind-hearted courtesan. Under Roberts’ influence, will Gere grow a heart and start helping to build small businesses up instead of sabotaging them for short term gain? You’ll have to watch to find out!
I wrote this week about the danger of education emphasizing grades over character. Gere’s corporate raider is a case in point. You might think he’s a work of cinematic fiction… but return to those business stories I linked up above, and you’ll see he’s about as real as it gets.
If you are at all like most Americans, you are likely near record low levels of trust in our leading institutions, from Wall Street to medical experts to Congress. Yet here’s the thing about that elite (well, most of them): they got good grades! You don’t become a leading epidemiologist or a corporate consulting bigshot without a decent academic pedigree. You just don’t need to worry about having a soul - since we have so thoroughly expunged the Biblical moral heritage from our schools that you can excel academically without even having to fake a conscience. The end product? An elite who care more about short term profits and the like than the health and welfare of their own communities. Why, why, he shouts getting back up on his soapbox, would you ever want to drug your child to better conform to this soulless system?
In any case, did I mention that Hector Elizondo is always charming? Thank you for bearing with my rants, and I hope you enjoy the movie!
I was going to make a chipper comment pulling together housing, a movie-subplot and Jimmy Stewart by saying that in our home “It’s a Wonderful Life” (uncut version) is an annual holiday fav. But the links in your post really bummed me out, even though I was already aware of the corporate mass acquisition of new homes.
You see, the head of our household is one of the country’s most accomplished nonprofit affordable housing developers—Harvard even made him a life-time fellow. As I’ve been married to this guy for a quarter century, I have a special appreciation for just how distressing those links are. The “development” North of Houston is truly alarming.
The urgent need to address these problems is why I am seriously considering RFK Jr’s run. He does plan to close the border and seems quite aware that it is creating almost insurmountable problems and human misery. He is also clear that every nation must have a secure border — how ridiculous is it that a candidate for President even has a to explicitly declare that as a policy?
Bobby Jr has clearly and repeatedly stated that he wants to prevent “the Blackrocks of the world” from turning the younger generation into mere renters.
At the same time, he is proposing a 3% mortgage product for first time homebuyers. For the hardworking low income families my husband’s nonprofit serves that would be huge.
Anyway RFK Jr is going to be in the west Austin area tomorrow from 1-3. If I didn’t have obligations at home, you bet I’d be heading out there after “the early service” at church.
My son, has been assigned a report on an entrepreneur for his 7th grade class. Every single person on the list is one of the billionaire class: Bill Gates, Musk, etc. For the girls we have Rihanna, Billie Eilish (whom I know nothing about), and the founder of Spanx. I suppose I should not be surprised that these folks are what passes for role models these days, but, for what claims to be a Catholic school, I was quite disappointed by the lack of focus on character.