houses and the bankers' houses with admiration. >> and respect. >> aspiration. >> and said, wow. >> okay. those people work so hard. and you work hard, that will happen to you. >> so that is the scene for this part of this portion of the piece that you wrote. i spent this past weekend driving through neighborhoods much like the type my parents took me through on sunday mornings so long ago. but the large homes with driveways filled with mercedes and bmws seemed like relics from a different age, much like the $1500 shoes from that "new york times" recently reported were flying off of the shelves of certain manhattan boutiques. the images of the massive homes and $100,000 cars seemed to clash with the morning headlines announcing a downgrade at the united states credit rating and the death of 30 u.s. troops in an endless expensive war. while america stumbles toward default, millions of americans