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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / Two dollars and a warm bucket of spit

Two dollars and a warm bucket of spit

by DougJ|  October 13, 20105:23 pm| 41 Comments

This post is in: Media

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I have about 6000 miles on American Airlines that are about to expire, so I’m trying to use them. That’s not nearly enough for a flight, so I tried checking out magazines. For 2 bucks and 300 miles you can get a full year subscription to the Atlantic or Time. You can also get 254 issues of the Wall Street Journal for 2600 miles.

A 25 dollar Starbucks gift card is a little over 6000 miles, by contrast.

But, hey a paywall is going to save all these guys, right? They’re all making so much money on hard copy subscriptions that they’ve got to find a way to do that on the internet too.

(I discovered that I can just give the miles to charity so that’s what I’m doing in the end.)

Update. And, of course, the only time I actually read hard copies of magazine is during “those excruciating 10 minutes during take off and landing when those asshole flight attendants make me turn my iCrap off“. So there’s a certain logic in this type of promotion, I guess.

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41Comments

  1. 1.

    Citizen Alan

    October 13, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    For 2 bucks and 300 miles you can get a full year subscription to the Atlantic or Time.

    How many miles does it take to by a roll of toilet paper?

  2. 2.

    fasteddie9318

    October 13, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    Are you a masochist? Flying is already a bad experience; why would you want to compound your agony with a subscription to any of those rags?

  3. 3.

    fasteddie9318

    October 13, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    @Citizen Alan:

    How many miles does it take to by a roll of toilet paper?

    Didn’t you keep reading?

    You can also get 254 issues of the Wall Street Journal for 2600 miles.

    Unless you wanted an unused roll of toilet paper, in which case it’s probably a lot more than 2600 miles.

  4. 4.

    Suck It Up!

    October 13, 2010 at 5:30 pm

    I visit this coupon site for moms and they put me on to a US Airways deal where you just sign up and automatically get 1500 miles. Once those miles are posted, you could then use them to get free magazines. I got two subscriptions so far. Can’t decide which to use.

    Does AA give you the option of donating your miles?

  5. 5.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    October 13, 2010 at 5:32 pm

    @Suck It Up!:

    Yes, there’s some way to donate the miles that my sister found for me. She’s better at finding stuff in the internets than I am.

  6. 6.

    Zifnab

    October 13, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    A 25 dollar Starbucks gift card is a little over 6000 miles, by contrast.

    Well, with the way commodities have been rising…

  7. 7.

    taylormattd

    October 13, 2010 at 5:35 pm

    no, no, no. None of these shitty mags. Use the miles for whatever pathetic discount you can get, and then book a trip to Mexico in February. For reals. You can get some cheap flights, get even more miles, and get hammered on exceedingly cheap beer and tequila while staying very near a beautiful beach for a marginal sum.

  8. 8.

    geg6

    October 13, 2010 at 5:37 pm

    OT, but I am feeling some strange feelings at the moment.

    A former student of mine (started at my campus and then will be finishing up at the main campus this spring) has just accepted a job offer. The starting salary is awesome, he will be working out of a regional office in South Beach, and he is just ecstatic, based on the email he just sent me to tell me about it.

    I’m very happy for him. He’s a great kid whose potential I saw the very first time I met him. He was a leader while at this campus and has continued to be one at the main campus. He worked with me all through 2008 to get students registered to vote, in canvassing and phone banking, and in GOTV among the students here.

    The only problem? It’s as a private banker in the Assets Management Division of JP Morgan. I do not want this guy to turn into one of those asshole Masters of the Universe types. He’s too good for that. Talk me down, people. Is it possible that he can do that and still be the wonderful person I know he is or is he doomed?

  9. 9.

    Mark S.

    October 13, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    Teen Vogue?

  10. 10.

    John Bird

    October 13, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    You should fly with me and Bill Kristol. We use our miles to rescue sex slaves because WHERE ARE THE AMERICAN FEMINISTS ON THIS ISSUE. WHERE ARE THEY.

  11. 11.

    taylormattd

    October 13, 2010 at 5:39 pm

    @Mark S.: win.

  12. 12.

    daveNYC

    October 13, 2010 at 5:40 pm

    Can you get the Financial Times?

  13. 13.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    October 13, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    @geg6:

    One of my best friends is very high up at a big bank and also a major donor to Mother Jones. A lot of the people he works with are assholes, but, all in all, they’re not as bad you’d expect.

  14. 14.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    October 13, 2010 at 5:41 pm

    @daveNYC:

    No.

  15. 15.

    Greg

    October 13, 2010 at 5:42 pm

    @geg6 I worked for a year at JPMorgan. He is doomed if he stays.

  16. 16.

    Cynicor

    October 13, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    When American took over TWA, I had like 50,000 miles that quickly turned absolutely useless. I couldn’t upgrade my tickets with them, and I didn’t want to fly American with them.

    I eventually swapped them at points.com for an Amazon gift card, and used that to buy a new flash for my camera.

  17. 17.

    geg6

    October 13, 2010 at 5:45 pm

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:

    Thanks, Doug. I was working myself into a panic attack at the thought that my wonderful student would be next banker writing a GBCW letter to the NYT, telling us all that his going Galt will mean that all us peasants will die! simply, die! from lack of his productivity.

  18. 18.

    Violet

    October 13, 2010 at 5:48 pm

    @geg6:
    Depends how long he stays there and/or in the industry. The longer you’re around certain types of people or situations, the more they affect you and you change. There are good people in all fields, but it’s a challenge to keep the environment you’re in from affecting you. Don’t be to hard on him. He’s got a good job in this crappy economy, which is especially hard on new grads. That’s a great thing.

    Who knows, maybe he’ll stay until his college debt is paid off, go to grad school and change careers completely. Or maybe he’ll make a mint and use it for good. I don’t know a lot of people who are still in the field they were in when they got out of college. Your first “real job” doesn’t have to be the only thing you ever do. In fact these days it’s very unlikely it will be.

  19. 19.

    John Bird

    October 13, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    @geg6:

    He has to go into it with a strong sense of moral rectitude that has already been tested and won out. Probably the ideal way for this to happen is if he already went through a period of being a self-interest-driven asshole and was punished, instead of rewarded, for it.

    But as someone in the public sector who has some friends on Wall Street, the culture of the place is driven by who can demonstrate the most amoral behavior while retaining the much-coveted favor of “contacts”. You aren’t just driven to act amorally; you’re driven to show off your amoral behavior to your fellow workers and intimidate them with how beyond good and evil you are. Voicing moral concerns out loud marks you as extremely weird.

    My in, last time I hung out with those guys, was a firm handshake and the statement that it’s always good to meet other people who live off of the taxpayers. They thought that was funny, for a bunch of reasons that aren’t very fun to think about, but I think mainly because I slipped a knife into them within the first ten seconds and they didn’t expect that sort of skill at confidence-undermining from someone outside the fold.

  20. 20.

    John Bird

    October 13, 2010 at 5:51 pm

    @Violet:

    Who knows, maybe he’ll stay until his college debt is paid off, go to grad school and change careers completely. Or maybe he’ll make a mint and use it for good.

    –every banker and lawyer on Earth, to themselves, until they die

  21. 21.

    geg6

    October 13, 2010 at 5:54 pm

    @Violet:

    Actually, this is pretty much what he always wanted to do. He’s already done 3 internships with various large banking institutions (BoA, BNY/Mellon, and JP Morgan) and he knows what he’s getting into. In fact, he knows better than most as he is an African American, not your usual stereotype of a banker.

    I’m thinking he’ll make a mint, do some good in the world, and, if we’re all lucky, go back to New Jersey (his home state) and run for governor. I’m choosing optimism for once.

  22. 22.

    Violet

    October 13, 2010 at 5:56 pm

    @John Bird:
    Well, I know one personally who did quit just after he turned 40.

  23. 23.

    Mike Toreno

    October 13, 2010 at 5:58 pm

    You can keep from losing your miles pretty easily by signing up for idine or Dining for Miles or whatever it’s called. Register various credit cards for the different programs you have and when you use a registered card at a participating restaurant, you will get a few miles. That keeps your miles alive. Another approach is to shop through portals (you should never buy anything online without checking to see if you can do it through a portal). Pick a portal associated with your airline or hotel program or whatever, route to the online retailer through the portal, and make your purchase; you will pick up a few miles (or a lot of miles for a large purchase).

    So you didn’t need to lose your miles at all. However, if you don’t fly AA that often, 6000 miles is not an amount worth fooling with, so donating them to charity was a good choice.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    October 13, 2010 at 5:59 pm

    My wife got a one semester free subscription to the WSJ when she started her MBA. We declined to continue it, but they kept delivering until the middle of the second semester of her second year. Newspaper is good for cleaning windows and mirrors.

  25. 25.

    John Bird

    October 13, 2010 at 6:00 pm

    Here’s one rule for dealing with Wall Streeters – they are the sort of people who don’t know when they don’t know about something. Like many doctors fresh out of med school, they think they know everything about any body of knowledge because of obscene hours and high pay.

    So you can really lead them along with conspiracy theories that apply to their beliefs.

    Casually assert inside knowledge of a plan to, say, seize the assets of their employers after the next elections.

    Listen to what they do for a living and state, a few mixed drinks later, that the Democrats are planning on making it illegal in some basic way.

    Feign ignorance yourself about the topic, and just say you read it in one of the newspapers these guys dissect to divine commodities prices from reviews of Sex and the City 2.

    There is no end to the fun, really. There are plenty of Ivy Leaguers on Wall Street who actually believe in a White House conspiracy to take their money and give it to a homeless crack addict.

  26. 26.

    Mark S.

    October 13, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    OT Small Government Conservatives Put Up Non-Racist Billboard In Colorado

  27. 27.

    John Bird

    October 13, 2010 at 6:06 pm

    @Violet:

    Hey, and I know a few big city trial attorneys who are die-hard Legal-Aiders now.

    The problem is that EVERY person in these fields sleeps better at night by telling themselves that they’re just doing it until they pay off their school debt.

    Then, for most of them, they become accustomed to a lifestyle that they will never abandon, dare never abandon at risk of their coalescing self-image. On young Wall Street, this is even worse – thousand-dollar martinis and burlesque clubs that don’t open their doors to well-meaning moralists, and dinner parties with bosses who have garages the size of airplane hangars (next to their airplane hangars).

    My friends on Wall Street and my friends in the infantry have one major thing in common: they’ve seen all the movies, and talk openly with their friends about emulating the characters that are supposed to embody amoral excess in their chosen careers. It’s manly to go overboard.

    At least the Mafia guys look at Hollywood and claim to imitate the myth of fairness and nobility in organized crime.

  28. 28.

    AK the official business and economics editor emeritus of Carmen Road Elementary School

    October 13, 2010 at 6:08 pm

    In 26 comments virtually every good comment has already been made.

    I’ll just have to wait for the next thread.

    Donating them is great!

  29. 29.

    arguingwithsignposts

    October 13, 2010 at 6:10 pm

    DougJ, what song is that title from? Or is it another cultural reference I’m missing?

  30. 30.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    October 13, 2010 at 6:13 pm

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I think I read the phrase “warm bucket of spit” in Sean Willentz’s teatards-as-Birchers piece.

  31. 31.

    Violet

    October 13, 2010 at 6:16 pm

    @John Bird:
    I know the type well. I worked with that crowd out for a little bit straight out of college. Thousand dollar bottles of wine were standard not an exception. They were expected to go out a minimum of four nights a week. The lifestyle and money is intoxicating. It’s hard not to get swept up in it. And it’s really fun when you’re 22.

    @geg6:
    Well, stay in touch with him. After the excitement of the new job wears off he may be longing for more meaning in his life than just closing the next deal and selling more than his cubicle mate. He sounds like a real go-getter. He has to start somewhere to make a living. Might as well pay down those loans quickly and open up a few more options along the way.

  32. 32.

    Jacquelyn

    October 13, 2010 at 6:55 pm

    @DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:

    You could donate them to your very own commenter, Satby, who is leaving for Haiti on 29 Oct for 2 weeks with Global Volunteer Network to help rebuild after the earthquake!!!

  33. 33.

    PurpleGirl

    October 13, 2010 at 6:56 pm

    DougJ: Donating the miles to a non-profit is a great idea.

  34. 34.

    AK the official business and economics editor emeritus of Carmen Road Elementary School

    October 13, 2010 at 6:56 pm

    John Vance “Cactus Jack’ Garner – one of FDR’s VPs said the office was ‘not worth a warm bucket of warm piss’ which the village reporters of the day cleaned up and published as ‘spit.’

  35. 35.

    beulahmo

    October 13, 2010 at 7:00 pm

    Take the coffee. By far the best deal.

  36. 36.

    Barb (formerly gex)

    October 13, 2010 at 7:16 pm

    Anyone notice that Obama aide Jarrett referred to being gay as a “lifestyle choice” when addressing gay teen suicides?

    For the record, I find that as offensive as possible. To in anyway imply that those kids chose to be gay and chose to allow themselves to be bullied until they no longer had the will to live is beyond the pale.

    Fucking assholes.

  37. 37.

    Mnemosyne

    October 13, 2010 at 7:24 pm

    @Barb (formerly gex):

    You mean the comment where she said this:

    We’ve got to stop condoning this in the school, and acting like this is a rite of passage or something that we can’t do anything about. My goal that evening was to really put a spotlight on the issue, to highlight it and make it very personal. So that people would understand, as a Mom, I wasn’t there just as a Senior Adviser to the President. I was there as a Mom who has a daughter who I want to grow up in a country that really symbolizes the “more perfect union,” where we are inclusive, where we are tolerant, where we appreciate our differences. And part of what makes us so strong is that we are a diverse country and that we should be setting an example for our children of civility & tolerance, and we should put a stop to all of this bullying that’s going on in the schools that’s causing these needless, needless deaths of our youth.

    Yeah, what a fucking monster she is with all that shit about stopping the bullying.

  38. 38.

    Angry Black Lady

    October 13, 2010 at 9:23 pm

    My friends are always shocked and horrified that I don’t keep track of my miles.

    What’s the point? It’s just one more thing I’m going to feel guilty about forgetting. Fuck it. That’s what I say.

    You know what else I say? That goddamn Delta credit card commercial where they’re all “you can get ALL THE MILES and you can check two bags for free!”

    thanks, fuckwads. it USED to be that i could check ALL THE BAGS for free.

    flying sucks now. remember how you could just mosy up to the gate to actually greet your friends and family?

    stupid terrorists.

  39. 39.

    burnspbesq

    October 13, 2010 at 11:00 pm

    @geg6:

    Welcome to the real world. Money talks. And liberal money writes checks to expiate its guilt. Call him every year and shame him into increasing his contribution to the alumni fund.

  40. 40.

    gwangung

    October 13, 2010 at 11:05 pm

    @geg6: This is very late, but there’s an interesting thing in this article.

    The take away is

    Piff found that if higher-income people were instructed to imagine themselves as lower class, they became more charitable. If they were primed by, say, watching a sympathy-eliciting video, they became more helpful to others — so much so, in fact, that the difference between their behavior and that of the low-income subjects disappeared. And fascinatingly, the inverse was true as well: when lower-income people were led to think of themselves as upper class, they actually became less altruistic.

    Wealth isolates. And if you’re not careful, it makes you into a dick. But remind them of their humanity, where they come from, most* will allow their charitable side to shine through.

    *the exception being asses like James O’Keefe.

  41. 41.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    October 13, 2010 at 11:09 pm

    @Angry Black Lady:

    I use that credit card and I have to say, it’s pretty good. It gets me to Silver Medallion status pretty fast so half my domestic flights I get upgraded to first class.

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