This reading list is the result of a conversation that started innocently enough on the SFBG's blogs, in a post about homelessness in Golden Gate Park and, tangentially, the Spanish American War. When the SFBG's Tim Redmond that "We can fix that. It costs money. Money comes from taxes," SFist_Mattymatt responded with distressed skepticism. Frankly, he was a bit of an asshole.
Stephen T. Jones, the paper's city editor, responded via email, and after some conversation, provided a reading list for the aspiring Marxist. We asked if we could post the conversation here, which we've done, minus anyone's contact info. We've also refrained from adding commentary to the emails, and in fact specifically promised not to be glib. This was an incredibly difficult thing for us to do (and as you can see, our accompanying illustration utterly fails this commitment), but it seemed like the nice thing to attempt since our "attitude and wordplay" is a point of some contention.
Ironically, both parties involved in this conversation probably believe that it proves totally opposite things about themselves and each other. But we won't say what those things are -- for if any commenting is to be done on this state of affairs, it is up to you, the readers.
-----Original Message-----More after the jump!
From: mattymatt
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2007 11:57 PM
To: Steve Jones
Subject: [Politics] New Comment Posted to 'Yes, Chuck, enough is enough'
A new comment has been posted on your blog Politics, on entry #1883 (Yes, Chuck, enough is enough).
Oh dear God. Tim wrote "Money comes from taxes." Funny, I thought money came from work, and taxes are what take money AWAY.
On 10/10/07, Steve Jones wrote:
Money comes from government mints...
