fantapolitica
humorous look at Italian politics (bilingual)Wednesday, April 16, 2008
OK Now* the US Class War has Begun
or rather the non rich are fighting back. The spot heard round the world. The Bosses tea party. The storming of the pastille
* I have been known to jump the gun on this one, but this time it's for real.
Via Kevin Drum
update: I posted here by mistake. Now I have to try to explain the ad to Italians.
First, most Italians know that the US doesn't have a national health care system. Rather those who have health insurance are old or poor (and get public health insurance) or get it from their employers. This means that people can't quit (dimetersi) without losing their health insurance.
Note that the boss is younger than his subordinates. Very few Italians suffer this indignity as Italy is almost a pure gerontocracy.
Note the guy who hates the copier almost as much as I do is reading the classified ads while photocopying his culo. In the US there are pages and pages of want-ads where employers advertise seeking employees -- trying to get people to accept jobs and work for them. This really happens. On the other hand, you can get fired for photocopying your butt in the USA.
Note the comment on foam (schiuma). This scene is set in a Starbucks. The blond woman is, by US standards, grossly over-groomed indicating that she is rich and compulsiva (yet the barista is much better looking and, in particular, if she were to photocopy . The foam is foam in a giant cappucino which is not called a cappucione but a "latte".
US snobs like to pretend that they are European by calling coffee milk. Think of how Italian snobs miss use English words when trying to show off (I especially like "management" with the accent on the first e which is silent in English and "feeling" whose meaning in Italian is closer to simpatia than to any actual English word*). To me calling caffé "latte" indicates a limited command of language. In the USA it is they key signal of not being populare.
*I said closer not close.
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