Reply to: sasguru hits mainstream press

[thunderlizard]

Nero was certainly a populist as well as an egomaniac (a bit of a Mugabe figure in some ways) & it would kind of fit if he'd had his palace built as a job creation scheme.

I've never heard that particular conspiracy theory for the fire before - I suppose they'd be the Roman Christians that St Paul was writing to. You can tell they were hard liners from the tone of the opening couple of chapters. Plus this was before the Gospels were finalised, so lots of room to speculate on their theological position.

[Gibbon]

Rome already had its best days behind it when Nero came to power.

Although many would argue that it was betwwen Nerva and Marcus Aurelius.

[AtW]

Rome already had its best days behind it when Nero came to power.

[Gibbon]

I meant Augustus lived in a modest house and left Rome with a unified government and military and the foundations for empire to replace the squabbling triumvirate system that he'd started with. While Nero built himself a massive palace and the state immediately fell to bits after he'd gone.

On that I would agree. But we have to be careful with Nero, the building of his Domus Aurea could also be seen as a way of providing work for the unemployed after the great fire destroyed much of it. Also him being the last of the Julian/Claudian clan to be emperor he had to be vilified to atone for the spilling of imperial blood. There is some scholars who think the christians did set fire to Rome to hasten the end of the world and so the second coming of christ. At that time his was expected to come again within Peters lifetime.

[thunderlizard]

Augustus and Nero

I meant Augustus lived in a modest house and left Rome with a unified government and military and the foundations for empire to replace the squabbling triumvirate system that he'd started with. While Nero built himself a massive palace and the state immediately fell to bits after he'd gone.

[Jeebo72]

Big homes, nice cars, luxury holidays... what their friends don



Break out the violins.

"I worked in film and was earning £1,200 a week. "

I assume the lazy biatch was on a two day week. If she hadn't been such a lazy cow, she might of had some savings.

[Gibbon]

Good point Gibbon. It's Augustus versus Nero on this issue.

Not quite, Augustus allowed Antony to proscribe Cicero, for which in my opinion he is damned, and together they proscribed thousands to get their hands on money to pay the troops etc. Far more than Neros killing sprees amongst the sentate and other aristocrats.

[thunderlizard]

Good point Gibbon. It's Augustus versus Nero on this issue.

[Gibbon]

Having a Stoical outlook and Epicurean tastes can armour a man against many of lifes' misfortunes and prevent folly.

[AtW]

£50,000 on a shed for example.

eco shed

[SupremeSpod]

Good point, well made.

Always has amazed me how a pay rise to some people immediately equates to how much debt they can furnish. Madness.

Aspiring middle classes are the real problem with this country, all show. 10 bob millionaires. Real entrepeneurs tend to live quite humbly - have you seen the house that Warren Buffet lives in? Very modest. Same with Duncan Bannatyne (probably a tax fiddle, but I digress).

As far as not having symapthy for these people I would go one step further - I actually get a touch of Schadenfreud when I read these stories

Have you seen the size of his villa in the South-of-France though?

[DimPrawn]

Good point, well made.

Always has amazed me how a pay rise to some people immediately equates to how much debt they can furnish. Madness.

Aspiring middle classes are the real problem with this country, all show. 10 bob millionaires. Real entrepeneurs tend to live quite humbly - have you seen the house that Warren Buffet lives in? Very modest. Same with Duncan Bannatyne (probably a tax fiddle, but I digress).

As far as not having symapthy for these people I would go one step further - I actually get a touch of Schadenfreud when I read these stories

£50,000 on a shed for example.

[HairyArsedBloke]

Good point, well made.

Always has amazed me how a pay rise to some people immediately equates to how much debt they can furnish. Madness.

Aspiring middle classes are the real problem with this country, all show. 10 bob millionaires. Real entrepeneurs tend to live quite humbly - have you seen the house that Warren Buffet lives in? Very modest. Same with Duncan Bannatyne (probably a tax fiddle, but I digress).

As far as not having symapthy for these people I would go one step further - I actually get a touch of Schadenfreud when I read these stories

Aye.

[AtW]

Not enough income to "describe ourselves as wealthy", yet they acquire 15 acres and 14 horses?

Have some aspirations Nick

14 horses, FFS. Even the Queen Mother only owned ten at the time of her death. (Guess how she got her house and spending money.)

She borrowed the money from bank?

[Shimano105]

These people are the moral equivalent of a sixteen-year old girl who gets pregnant so she can get a council house and live on benefits. In fact, they're worse than that: if they managed to make enough money to have access to that level of debt (I refuse to call it "credit"), they must have been intelligent enough to have realised what kind of hole they were digging for themselves if they hadn't been blinded by greed. At least the teenage girl is probably too dumb and too socially disadvantaged to have had any other options. Also, she's only after housing and spending money, not a pony.

Good point, well made.

Always has amazed me how a pay rise to some people immediately equates to how much debt they can furnish. Madness.

Aspiring middle classes are the real problem with this country, all show. 10 bob millionaires. Real entrepeneurs tend to live quite humbly - have you seen the house that Warren Buffet lives in? Very modest. Same with Duncan Bannatyne (probably a tax fiddle, but I digress).

As far as not having symapthy for these people I would go one step further - I actually get a touch of Schadenfreud when I read these stories