Rich Man, Poor Man Polenta

Rich Man, Poor Man Polenta

F. Scott Fitzgerald said “the rich are different from you and me.” But are they really?

We are told  that the rich are spending their money differently due to the BMD (Big Melt Down). They are being more discreet. Wearing less obviously expensive clothing, taking mass transit. In fact, the rich supposedly don’t like to flaunt their excesses any more because it’s not socially acceptable.  One woman is quoted saying she disguised a $1000 Gucci handbag as a gift so that her family wouldn’t get on her case about spending so much money on a purse.  Hmm. I guess lying about what your buying qualifies as spending your money differently.

In any case, it’s also implied that to live on $500,000 is difficult suggesting the reader should supply a  measure of empathy…let’s see, a measure in this case would be what, a pinch? a quarter teaspoon?

Furthermore, the press seems to suggest that  people-invariably those in  banking – who saddled themselves with expensive overhead because that’s what’s you do in those circles,  are more pitiable  than the poor shnooks who signed on to mortgages they could neither understand nor afford. I guess we’re supposed to have pity directly proportional to how much money someone loses, not how  much they don’t have to begin with.

It must be so hard, they imply, to give up a luxurious lifestyle, whereas if you never had it in the first place, well, what’s to give up? So you move out of your too large, barely furnished, spanking new house in a recently developed burb and slink back into a studio apartment in a crappy neighborhood, saddled with the prospect of going bankrupt. You haven’t really lost that much, have you? After all, you only lived beyond your means for about 5 years, whereas the super rich have lived beyond their means for what? forever?

Common wisdom in the form of the evening news would have us believe that people who signed onto mortgages with terms they didn’t understand, were ignorant, stupid, or both and should have known better, been more responsible.  And it is not so subtly implied deserved what they got.

Yea, as if all those Wall Street wheelers and dealers really understood what they were selling. Did Iceland know what it was buying? Could anyone explain how  Madoff made his billions? Credit Default Swaps? Can anyone tell us where the TARP money went? Even Alan Greenspan admitted to not understanding what was happening and he’s supposed to be brilliant.

The fact is, everyone was duped from the top down. The rich and poor were chasing the same American dream, except that the rich should know better. They tend to be better educated, savvy in the ways of leveraging themselves, and have assets they can sell to cover their debts, unlike the poor who had only the (highly leveraged) roofs overs their heads.

Were the rich misled like the not-rich into assuming huge amounts of debt to support a lifestyle that they too thought was theirs by right? I don’t think so. They took on debt willingly, gluttonously, as a way to advertise and promote their success, their right riches.

They led all of us to believe that endless buying and selling were what kept the endlessly inflatable economy afloat. What’s more, everyone could be rich!

The not-rich couldn’t believe their good luck at getting something they thought was out of their reach. But even the rich were duped by the likes of Bernie Madoff who exemplified the old axim “if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.” (I like the “probably” as if there exists a chance that one day someone will find something that isn’t too good to be true: like chicken schmaltz that’s not fattening.)

Shame on all of us for thinking that there exists a bubble that couldn’t, wouldn’t burst. If there is one more certainty beyond death and taxes it’s that nothing lasts forever; you just may not live long enough to see it (whatever “it” may be) expand, contract, wither and die or be replaced by something else.

The rich are not different, they just have more money to lose than the rest of us.

Rich Man, Poor Man Polenta

Serves 4

Pair polenta with a luxurious tomato sauce and two cheeses and you have a Wall Street lunch or a Kensington High Street side dish. Polenta may originated with the masses but it’s now the darling of the upper classes!

1 cup cornmeal

4 cups chicken stock or water

1 1/2 cups rich, thick tomato sauce

1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes

1/4 cup grated ricotta salata

1/4 cup grated mozzarella

1. Generously grease a 10″ oval gratin pan with olive oil.
2. Pour the stock into a large saucepan set on the stove, and whisking constantly pour in the cornmeal.
3. Turn the heat onto medium high and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking constantly.
4. When it is rapidly boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low and stir every 4-5 minutes, being sure to get into the corners of the pan so that the polenta doesn’t stick and burn.
5. Cook, whisking frequently, for another 20 minutes to a half hour until the mixture thickens and gets creamy. If it seems stiff, add 1/4 cup cold water and return to a simmer, still whisking often.
6. The polenta is done when you no longer feel the separate grains on your tongue, but instead has a smooth, thick consistency of softened ice cream.
7. Pour into the prepared dish and chill for 2 hours.
8. Preheat the oven to 350F.
9. Heat the tomato sauce mixed with the hot pepper flakes over medium heat for about 10 minutes.
10. Cut the polenta into squares. This allows the sauce to seep down between the slices.
11. Top evenly with tomato sauce, then sprinkle on the cheeses.
12. Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is golden brown.
13. Can be served hot or room temperature.

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