The story of literal "American Jesus".
A good story, a good criticism of American culture as a whole and the internal desire of all Americans for some savior or politician to expunge them and save them from their national and personal sins.
Enjoy! One of my favorite issues from a comic of all time.
Edit: I've been told he's been accused of sexual assault, scratching my previous comment on being thankful he didn't end up a shitty person. Genuinely had no idea.
Show
I read the article citrussy_capybara linked and the previous article it links to, as well as checked out the Tortoise Media page about their podcast, but I can't find any mention of a groundskeeper. what'd I miss?
They had a family living on their property and "helping out" in exchange for living on the property. It says she was doing pottery, but I read that as she was also doing general maintenance and such too.
That's a very common situation in a lot of wealthy neighborhoods. I know tons of people out here who live in small above garage units with their families on masion grounds and usually have a specific task like personal trainer or tennis coach, but are also expected to maintain and manage the house when the owner isn't there for free because they get that guest unit for free.
It sounds like a good deal, but remember that the guest unit is always there and costs the millionaire owner nothing, but they can leverage that free asset to coerce labor out of more desperate people.
oh you meant like caretaker and I thought you meant landscaper or gardener. I just didn't put two and two together and thought there was another testimony I missed. yeah her story sounds horrible
Yeah, I always just call it groundskeeper because when I did it they made me mow lawns and scare off trespassers and stuff. It really should be illegal to have that sort of contract. Even if it's "unofficial".
The fact that it was an unofficial contract is what gave him so much power over her.
Hey, I do the same thing! Not for mansions, though.
I didn't really do it for a mansion either lol, just took care of a property for a local landlord/real estate company. Had to spend a bunch of money fixing the home up and doing free labor in the lots nearby that they were planning to sell.
After about 2 years, they booted me out and sold the house for like 600k. When we moved in it was nearly abandoned and in pretty rough shape.
Alienation at it's finest.
It's not really alienation as much as it is theft. In fact that was the least alienated I've ever been from the products of my labor.
The fact that it was so visibly and obviously theft is why alienation exists, because of everyone had their labor taken so blatantly revolution would inevitable. Early capitalism took so long to develop because the systems for alienation from labor didn't exist yet.
You take care, own and work on a property that is all yours in but name; even have people you live with there and in the split second all of that is stripped away from you because you never actually owned it.
But you are right, they aren't exclusive. Alienation from theft. It'd be hilarious if you avoided signing the contract and declared squatters rights at the end.
We could have, but it wasn't worth it. They know exactly how to take advantage of people in desperate situations.