The Way We Live Now: putting on the squeeze. The big squeeze, the main squeeze, the tight and juicy squeeze. If you're not squeezing, you're getting squeezed. And if you ain't got a bartender, the squeeze business can be rough.

The first rule of surviving in hard times is, if you don't have the cash to hire some dude to play "bartender" at your little party in your apartment, well, you don't need to be having a party in your apartment. This goes until the revolution comes, at which point most people who adhere to rules suggested in the NYT Styles section will be thrown up against the wall. Then, the rules will reverse.

But until then, bartender or nada.

People are grown up now. There's no pussyfooting around in mama's big any longer. If you're old enough to go to war for your country then you're old enough to be scammed by some shady "for profit" college, that's what Roosevelt always said. If you're old enough to get shot, then you're old enough to pay for your own ambulance. It's about accountability and justice and probably several variations of the American Way.

As a child (mentally), what you don't see are the great men working behind the scenes to make this country great, for people less fortunate than them. These great men work in the finance industry. And what are we doing to them. We're putting the Big Squeeze on them, with historically low interest rates.

Thomas Jefferson and his patriotic slaves would be ashamed of our thoughtless neglect of financiers. We're losing WWII all over again. This time, with money. The important thing.

[Pic via]