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America’s Dead Souls

theparisreview.org

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Re: America’s Dead Souls

#61

Post by okareaman »

robocat wrote: post #51

I am in awe of her paragraph: “ Every time I read one of the Russian greats my life transforms into an eerie mirror of the work. I had already experienced a year of obsessive relationship analysis (Anna Karenina), six months beneath the thumb of a powerful boss whose political maneuvers were far reaching and whose requests quickly spiraled into the hellish and fantastic (The Master and Margarita), a week on the run w…

If books by great artists were drugs they'd be illegal or at least strictly controlled.

Re: America’s Dead Souls

#62

Post by Archelaos »

gumby wrote: post #41
Judgmentality wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how this is legal, let alone upheld by a state Supreme Court. How can I be legally responsible for my parents? How would the courts even find me if I don't live in the US anymore (the example case is the courts successfully suing a man who moved to Greece)? I am thankful to you for bringing this to my attention, but my WTF! meter is soaring.

> How can I be legally responsible for my parents? Well your parents are legally responsible for you for a period of time. There are many countries (I am most familiar with Germany in this regard) where the children are considered responsible for the parents. I was not aware this was the case in the USA. In some countries it's quite difficult / impossible to disown or disinherit various relatives.

In Germany, the obligation to pay alimony depends on the child's income. Only when the childs income (before taxes) excceeds 100,000 Euros per anno she/he has to pay something. There exists no obligation to pay alimony for grandparents.

Re: America’s Dead Souls

#64

Post by refurb »

gabereiser wrote: post #58
refurb wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not debtor’s prison?

Imagine being locked up for not paying fines, only to be fined further while your in, and unable to break the cycle...

Right, that’s not great, but that’s not what people mean by debtors prison.

Re: America’s Dead Souls

#65

Post by fineIllregister »

notsureaboutpg wrote: post #49
Judgmentality wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how this is legal, let alone upheld by a state Supreme Court. How can I be legally responsible for my parents? How would the courts even find me if I don't live in the US anymore (the example case is the courts successfully suing a man who moved to Greece)? I am thankful to you for bringing this to my attention, but my WTF! meter is soaring.

Realistically, when parents get old, it is their children who become responsible for them. I feel like this is quite common sense... especially seeing as children inherit from their parents...

Except parents can will nothing to their children if they choose? Many people inherit absolutely nothing from their parents.

Re: America’s Dead Souls

#66

Post by toomuchtodo »

divbzero wrote: post #39
masklinn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik if you accept the inheritance, you accept all of it. Normally the solution is to reject it, at least if you know the estate’s in the red, but you can not pick and choose. We’ve done this for the inheritance of one of my uncles who died severely in debt, as well as his wife and children, everyone of his sibling, nieces, and nephews, had to refuse the inheritance when they came of age. For a few years that was ba…

Beyond refusing the inheritance, could this be avoided by leaving the inheritance to the state in a will? In that case, would the state inherit the debt?

With proper estate planning, you can pass on assets while leaving the debt in a state where it can't be pursued.

Re: America’s Dead Souls

#67

Post by cbozeman »

vkou wrote: post #35
UncleOxidant wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretty damn scary. Are debtor's prisons about to make a comeback too?

Your post implies that they have ever went away. They haven't, there's just a large middle-class America that's largely insulated from the barbarism of its legal system.

I love the fact you're being downvoted, on a website that's mostly populated by people who are mostly members of the upper middle class of America.

Being reminded that you have untold advantages and suffer practically no real disadvantages must be a real mother fucker, huh folks?

Re: America’s Dead Souls

#68

Post by quanto »

A wonderful read on Russian literature, unfortunately tarnished by one unsupported, hard-to-believe claim:

> There are endless articles on why America has failed to curb the pandemic. The truth is simple. People profit from our death. Foreclosure companies, debt collectors, real estate agents, news corporations, health care tycoons, senators, and presidents, to name a few.

So, the American society collectively willingly let people die to make more money? (because they profit from the deaths of others.) Senators make more money if more people die?

I understand that the author is angry at the circumstances around the author's mother's death. However, I don't see what this kind of unsubstantiated claims accomplishes besides detracting from her otherwise well written piece.

Edit: clarifying sentence.

Re: America’s Dead Souls

#69

Post by agf »

quanto wrote: post #68

A wonderful read on Russian literature, unfortunately tarnished by one unsupported, hard-to-believe claim: > There are endless articles on why America has failed to curb the pandemic. The truth is simple. People profit from our death. Foreclosure companies, debt collectors, real estate agents, news corporations, health care tycoons, senators, and presidents, to name a few. So, the American society collectively willin…

Senators and Presidents are more likely to be re-elected by a certain segment of the population if they oppose COVID restrictions of various kinds, yes. And news networks always profit in ratings from a crisis. Both political and ratings success translate pretty directly into financial success.

For the other examples, I have no idea if any of those professions disproportionately oppose scientifically accepted COVID rules. However, if you just relate them to the "profit from ... death" line and not COVID, I think they're all factually correct, those professions do profit from the process of death or its aftermath.

> So, the American society collectively willingly let people die to make more money?

Yes, quite explicitly? Many people publicly made the argument that it was worth more people dying to keep the economy open, though they generally paired that with denying any significant death toll.

I agree the specific association to COVID seems to only serve to anchor the article to current events; it stands on its own without that line. But I don't really think these are unsubstantiated claims in any major way.

Re: America’s Dead Souls

#70

Post by s1artibartfast »

notsureaboutpg wrote: post #49
Judgmentality wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how this is legal, let alone upheld by a state Supreme Court. How can I be legally responsible for my parents? How would the courts even find me if I don't live in the US anymore (the example case is the courts successfully suing a man who moved to Greece)? I am thankful to you for bringing this to my attention, but my WTF! meter is soaring.

Realistically, when parents get old, it is their children who become responsible for them. I feel like this is quite common sense... especially seeing as children inherit from their parents...

Parents choose to have a child and should have the responsibility to care for them. Despite this, there are still mechanisms by which parent can legally abandon their children. Children do not choose to be born, so the moral contract is different. I would agree that most people who were cared for as children should care for their elders, and should want to. But what if they hate or despise their parents. Do they “owe” for what the parents did despite never agreeing to the obligations.
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