Monday, January 18, 2010

Get To Ray's on Avenue A, While You Still Can


The best egg creams I've ever had come from Ray's Candy Store, which has, according to the NY Times, been open 24 hours a day for almost 40 years. I've been here a hundred times, and I'll be sad to see it go. What's standing between him and staying open until he dies? Two months overdue rent.

The landlord more than quadrupled his rent in 2000, yet he's only two months behind. The landlord's response?

"He owes rent and I asked him for it and he says he doesn’t have it."

... adding that she had no desire to oust Mr. Alvarez, but could not overlook overdue payments.

Yeah. There's nothing she can do! It's out of her hands. The rent is overdue.

If only he had been a hedge fund manager first, before opening the shop. Put aside a few million dollars for a rainy day.

Stupid Ray! He's been serving the community for almost 40 years, keeping his store open 24 hours a day, through blackouts and even the Thompkins Square Park riots, and he doesn't have enough money to pay his rent. His stupid, measly rent! Only $3,500 a month!

What a fucking idiot!

40 years of work and he doesn't have $3,500 a month to pay his rent! I mean, honestly, Ray must be a real fucking idiot to work for nearly 40 years and have nothing to show for it. Nothing in the bank, I mean.

After all, this is America! If you work hard and you're smart, you'll succeed! Your income plus your net worth is a reflection of the value you provide, a reflection of your worth as a human being, a reflection of your intelligence and the amount of work you do.

John Paulson, a hedge-fund manager, bet against the housing market back before the crash. In a single morning, Paulson made $1.25 billion dollars! With other people's money! By betting that the financial system was going to collapse! By betting that hundreds of thousands of people would lose their homes! By betting that millions of Americans would be out of a job!

John Paulson, and many others like him, made record-breaking profits by betting on (instead of trying to prevent) massive, global human misery!

See, that's smart. That's what we need. Right? I mean, clearly, people like John Paulson are much more valuable to us, to society, to humanity, to the planet, than people like Ray. We know this because money is a measure of benefit, of usefulness, of value. And the value of a man willing to bet other people's money to profit from the misery of millions... Well. It's astronomical. People like that are so valuable that they deserve to earn $1.25 billion dollars in a single morning.

But Ray? Providing food and comfort to residents of the East Village with a steadfastness that rivals the most idealistic notions we have of the post office?

Fuck that guy.

Shut his store down and send him out in to the street. He might not even get social security. Fuck that guy! The market has spoken. John Paulson is one of the most important, valuable men of all time, and Ray Alvarez is a piece of garbage.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

stop! this is depressing! money is not a measure of social benefit, charity isn't either. innovation and growth for all is. read about the new social business model being introduced by mohammed yunus.

Anonymous said...

Fuck that landlord! Ray's=total LES staple of my childhood