Reminder: if you are watching cable news the anchors are often rich and not in the same class of the people consuming that media. Tucker Carlson is a literal millionaire, working in a quarantine bubble while telling Americans that they need to get back to work (i.e. die)

Full disclosure: I am also working in a quarantine bubble (shout out to my institutions that are like yeah remote work is possible.) I am not a millionaire.

This is not a critique of millionaires, just a reminder that, the person grilling a candidate on a tax plan based on redistributing wealth stands to financially lose under that tax plan.

Their interests may not be your interest.

ALSO: a lot of people working in national media come from inherited wealth.

(not me, the only wealth I inherited was a 500 dollar bicycle). I REALLY did not understand this and I went to Ivy League and Ivy Plus colleges.

I only grokked this when I booked a cheap flight to Turks & Caicos and a colleague suggested I stay at a 1500 dollar a night hotel where Prince William and Kate honeymooned.

The colleague described it as "kinda pricey" and not "you will need to take out a loan to pay for it."

Reader: I did not stay at that hotel.

I stayed at a "kinda pricey" by normal people's standards hotel that cost about that much for a week, split between me and my travel companion. We cooked our own breakfasts and lunches and ate dinner out.

When people ask how I made it in journalism, I openly say my greatest privilege: I'm from NYC and my parents let me crash in my childhood bedroom - as an adult - while I built a career.

This is a very unsexy answer. But when I finished journalism school I didn't have a job! I would not have been available to interview for PopSci if I wasn't already in NYC. And the only reason I could be in NYC was my parents didn't charge me rent.

And while I'm on this roll: I make more money than my parents made when they retired but I could not easily afford my childhood home. My parents paid 250k for their home in 2020 dollars. Please show me where in NYC in 2020 you can buy a WHOLE ASS HOUSE for that.

If you are very very very lucky you can maybe buy an apartment in the Bronx for that.

My parents benefitted from buying in an era before the financialization of housing. They also had to navigate past incredibly racist realtors to do it. And I grew up surrounded by bigots

So you know TRADE OFFS.

Anyway I am moving out of NYC for a year so I bought a car and it hit me that the cost of that hotel for a week is just about half the price of the (used) car I bought.

I'm trying to be public about the fact that I bought a car as a climate reporter (and a New Yorker - I feel like a traitor). But the past couple of years have been personally tough for me and I need more hiking, camping in my life which necessitates a vehicle.

My insurance is certain I'm going to drive 12000 miles this year and my goal is to disappoint them.