the bourgeois circle jerk"

e.KHYM...another for you.

I know, right? Save it for the coffeehouse poetry slam, César Chávez. This is a money column. Give me some advice on how to allocate my 401(k). All I’m trying to point out, though, is that there’s a growing class chasm everywhere you look these days, and it’s especially stark when you think about something as basic as food. And all those purple potatoes people like me buy at $10 a pound—in addition to putting a little money in a farmer’s pocket (which is an undeniably good thing), they also represent consumerism at its most rarefied. And while we buy this food for excellent reasons—because it tastes better than what we’d find in a supermarket; because the range of choices is infinitely greater than it is in the produce section at Safeway; because the experience of going to the Greenmarket and milling around with your neighbors and chatting up the misanthropic beef guy or the lesbian cheesemakers is a much more pleasant experience than being shuttled through a human maze where every turn leads to corn syrup—it also seems, at least for me, that one of the biggest reasons I’m willing to pay ludicrous prices for this food is that it confirms my sense of myself as a do-gooder.

So why do I feel like what I really am is less a do-gooder than a charter member of the virtue-buying class? I suppose part of it is because people tend to define themselves through their purchases, and in grim economic times, as flagrant consumption becomes morally suspect (seriously, when you see some guy in a massive SUV now it’s like looking into the eyes of a serial killer, is it not?), we invest certain purchases with exaggerated moral value. I’m not just some lucky duck who can afford to choose between all these delicious foods, I’m part of a movement! I’m a locavore! I’m helping farmers and I’m reducing carbon emissions and I’m ensuring that my kids will never be touched by pesticides! Except I’ve also grown elitist and judgmental, and/or occasionally ashamed, when it comes to regular supermarket food (I’ve actually apologized to someone for feeding his kid Dannon yogurt), and for my monthly tab at the Greenmarket, I could lease a BMW. I imagine there’s a better way to use my money.


....“Americans have a way of thinking that shopping can change the world,” he said, “as if when we feel guilty it’s all a matter of going to Whole Foods and buying the right labels.”