The Way We Live Now: less like a rich mom and more like a poor mom. Less like a dream realized and more like a dream deferred. Less like Jesus. More like a renegade tax man, out for justice.

In case you were wondering what the main difference is between rich moms and poor moms, rich moms have money and buy their kids lots of toys and on top of all that, they actually get screwed less, income-wise, when they have a baby than poor moms do.

Poor moms are poor.

Statistics can help us to understand our vast world, but they can't explain the foibles of human imagination. Why do we build massive public housing units and shove thousands of people in them when we can't afford to repair them? Why would we buy into an IPO of Harrah's, a casino company, in the worst economic environment for gambling in decades? Why would the party that is ostensibly more Christian be the one most concerned with protecting "sacrosanct tax breaks," rather than, you know, protecting the sacrosanct principle of rich people not being able to get into heaven?

Is Jesus to blame?

He sure is. But in all fairness, he's not magic, no matter what Sarah Fucking Silverman says. No matter what dreams we tiny mortals may have, those dreams shall be deferred, thanks to debt. And all you former middle-classers can, and will, run to Jesus and ask for his help. And Jesus will pat you on the head, and tell you it will all be better. But you'll probably have to wait a while. Jesus has his hands full just trying to preserve all of our nation's tax cuts. Those things, after all, are sacrosanct.

[Pic via]