It's good to be rich
Smugger S.W.
PLOUTOS: CHRONICLES OF THE SUPERRICH
Smugger: "Free money!"
Responses:
"What?"
"This is scary..."
"Thank you!"
"Uh, I don't need a dollar."
"No thanks."
"There must be a risk."
"Why?"
"I'm good."
"I'm late for class, but what do I need to do?"
Smugger: "Please read the contract...do you agree to the terms?"
Response: "Yes I do."
Smugger: "Put your hands on the squeegee."
Contract
If you accept this dollar bill, you agree to the following:
$- I will put this currency into circulation within 24 hours by transferring it to another individual I assume earns less than I do annually. This legal tender could be put into the hand, added to a tip, or pinned to this note and passed on. In all cases, I will make an active decision to uphold this contract.
$- I will consider what physical, outward signs lead me to assume this individual earns less than I do.
$- I will consider the element of BATHOS inherent in the fact that I live in a society that exhibits massive disparity between rich and poor yet allows for $100 to be given away in such a manner, without causing undue hardship or inconvenience to the donor.
$- This project carries the potential for accusations of defacing legal tender under Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 17 of the United States Criminal Code:
"Whoever mutilates, cuts, defaces, disfigures, or perforates, or
unites or cements together, or does any other thing to any bank bill,
draft, note, or other evidence of debt issued by any national banking
association, or Federal Reserve bank, or the Federal Reserve System,
with intent to render such bank bill, draft, note, or other evidence
of debt unfit to be reissued, shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than six months, or both."
We posit that the actions carried out today do not exhibit such "intent to render" this currency "unfit to be reissued," but rather enhance the experience of wealth redistribution. We assert such under the Authority of Aesthetic Experience, Title 22, Part 7, Chapter 4.
Your participation and receipt of this bank note means you accept this potential risk with enthusiasm and gratitude.
Smugger B.M., B.F and S.W.
Daylight smugging with Z.H.
IN GOD WE TRUST
"Ploutos (or Plutus) was a son of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, who bore him after lying with the hero Iasion in a thrice-ploughed field. He was blinded by Zeus so he would distribute wealth indiscrimately and without favour towards the good or the virtuous." Our American Plutus is a Cyclops, myopic even in his blindness. The son of Demeter would not favor the good or virtuous, but the Pluclops can favor only the unscrupulous, the hoarding trolls, and the system they uphold which upholds them, and only them. The 400 could truly blind The American Plutus. It could start tomorrow, tonight, next year, but it's possible.
Plutus is blind (indiscriminate), lame (slow to accumulate), and winged (quick to disappear)
A presentation in conjunction with the 2011 GC Symposium on Global Citizenship: Putting a Face on Poverty
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