Eat this.

My partner in crime kindly found the most clueless line in the New Yorker last week, smack dab in the middle of John Cassidy's Relatively Deprived,

"Without access to these goods [DVD players, cell phones, desktop computers, broadband internet connections, powerful game consoles, SUVs, health club memberships and vacation homes], children from poor families may lack skills - such as how to surf the Web for help-wanted ads - that could enhance their prospects on the job market."

And I thought we abolished child labor. Not for the relatively deprived, I guess.

And then this is followed immediately by,

"In other words, relative deprivation may limit a person's capacity for social acheivement."

All more or less true, but it's the tip of the iceberg, followed by the totally obvious.

The article meanders close to an argument about what the lack of access to health care does to the relatively deprived, but then wanders off to discuss "stress." Never mind access to education. Or transportation.

Hopefully this puts all the whining and speculation regarding appetizers into perspective.