watching PBS’ version of Dickens’ Little Dorrit (damn that seems like a shit ton of apostrophes)
There are only a few methods the rich use to fuck over the poor, but we keep falling for them. Over and over and over and over. In Little Dorrit’s case, I smell a Victorian ponzi scheme in the making.
Also, Victorians like Dickens and Gaskell use the term “speculation” with a snear, the same way southern women use the word “cute”. At one point the main character wants to invest in a bank that is doubling people’s money in a year. His partner snears “Isn’t that speculation?”. Main character assures him that it’s not, it’s “investment”. Same thing, new word. Not unlike “mortgage backed securities”.