Life styles of the rich and richer
antrim |
anti-capitalism |
opinion/analysis 
Wednesday October 19, 2005 22:34
by banker
If you live in south belfast, you might as well be living in a totally different country, to the rest of belfast.
If you live in south belfast, your experience of belfast, would be totally different to that of people who live, in the new lodge, lower north belfast, shankill and the Falls.
What makes south belfast different is its oppulence and wealth, with numerous upmarket trendy cafes, and posh supermarkets like sainsburys and m&s, to cater for the idle, stress free lifestyle of the insular rich.
Why is it the rich get everything given to them, even when they don't need it, cause they're already rich. Costcutting supermarkets like Sainsburys which sells cheap organic food is located in the heart of middle/upper class south belfast.
The rich who can afford to pay more for their food, in reality get to pay less, for cheap organic food,whilst everyone else must make do with processed food from lidl, tescos and iceland.
Asda one of the cheapest supermarkets for food and clothes will be locating its store in upmarket surburban Bangor, so once again the rich get to pay less for their groceries and basic goods.
Taking a closer look at the lifestyles of rich professionals who live in south belfast, we see these people are already living the insular , disassociated capitalist american dream. The insulated rich devoid of community spirit, living their highly competitive, empty, insular lives, take their social cues and social values from sky news, this morning and from american teeny bopper soaps which reinforce individualistic competitive, capitalist angst.
The inward looking nuclear capitalist family sees their neighbours/other families not as friends but as rivals, with whom they must compete for clothes, school places and social status. So there is much trivial bitterness, if Mrs jones has the most up to date sofas etc. It is heart warming to see rich bastards fighting each other,over neighbourhood boundaries etc.
Even though the rich are so nasty, amoral and weird, they actually believe they are morally superior to people who live in the New lodge, shankill etc
It is sad to see working class people from poor areas aspiring to copy the competitiveness, snobbiness, coldness, and false nicities of the rich, the middle class and the SDLP.
Comments (5 of 5)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5Looking at south belfast we see that Queens University exerts a considerable influence over the area.
Queens attracts a load of gormless students, who have no idea about trade union rights in jobs etc
Queens students are responsible for forcing down the local wages and conditions in south belfast, by taking up jobs which in the past may have gone to permanent south belfast residents.
Instead employers in the service (of the rich) industries are able to take advantage of hooray henry students who are desperate for beer money, as mummy and daddy will be forking out for most of their other bills.
At the same time a whole service culture dedicated to pampering the rich, has sprung up out of a guillible privatised student workforce, again forcing down wages and conditions to exploit this transitory student labour at the expense of real wages and jobs for permanent working class south belfast residents.
Sounds like you're a little bit jealous there pal.
And their women are better lookin' too.
You sound green with jealousy, mate. Nothing wrong with those who can afford it getting a little bit better than the rest.
We aren't in Communist China, you know.
You can't blame others for being well off and enjoying it. Also you are completely stereotyping. The issue, and point you should be focusing on is the lack of investment and community development in the poorer areas of the city rather than launching a silly tirade against those who happen to be more affluent, whatever your opinion on them.
Sounds like a first year student absorbing loads of new left-leaning ideas and confusedly trying to formulate a persoanl philosophy - complicated by middle class guilt.
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