Two weeks ago, somebody untied Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s $40 million yacht from its mooring. It got me thinking about another opulent display of wealth owned by DeVos: her 22,000-square-foot nautical-themed summer mansion, located in Holland, Michigan. Just a few more years of climate change and it’ll be floating too. — vox.com
Kate Wagner critiques Betsy DeVos’s Michigan summer mansion on her humor blog McMansion Hell. Wagner unpacks not only the architectural design but also the greater social implications of why the education secretary's McMansion is so horrendous. The essay is dedicated to "all of the public school teachers who taught [Wagner] how to write".
35 Comments
How is climate change is going to raise the level of the Great Lakes? They all empty over Niagara Falls, no? Did the author use this form of reasoning when she went to a hideously expensive private school and majored in an obscure, arcane major? Was that Ms. DeVos' fault as well?
satire.
Volunteer is an ironic handle for someone who's so firmly rooted in the defense of opulent and terrible rich assholes .
Lake Michigan is now 3-4 feet higher than 4 years ago.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/ct-lake-michigan-water-levels-met-20170615-story.html http://www.chicagotribune.com/...
https://www.weather.gov/mkx/hi...
The increased severe weather caused by climate change has altered the weather in the great lakes basin causing the water levels to rise in the upper 3 Great Lakes. It might be that the liberal arts major was correct after all.
This actually isn't a bad house as far as McFreek'n Huge Mansion's go. Not elegant, but certainly better than most traditional houses of this size. Unfortunately, the author is conflating her dislike of DeVos's attack on public schools, which I share, with her ostentatious house.
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I'll bet BDV wears really awful shoes, too. And I hear she likes salad. Salads be damned, then!
The Lena Dunham School of Social Thought and Tantrum-Throwing in practice. Maybe focus on actual policy? Just an idea.
Vox is complete shit what do you expect.
I like this article much better than her generic curbed columns because it uses a primary source to make a larger point — the philistine taste of the rich. What happened to the moral and aesthetic virtues of the upper class? Perhaps this is the great decay of capitalism — we went from Edison, Carnegie, Jobs and the virtuous industrialists to empty robber barons and con men like Jack and Zuckerberg and Devos and T who have built nothing good and of lasting quality, just the latest fat cats who hold the Nazis on a leash to divide the public enact tax cuts
I hope McMH can find the connection between aesthetics and moral virtue later. Instead of a kind of spreadsheet socialism. It relies heavily on politics to make its point (it is Vox after all) but i guess that’s the best we can hope for.
Actually, compared to the Breakers in Newport, RI, and other ostentatious manses there, Betsy's place has a laid-back, down home vibe. She gets bonus points for being in Holland, Michigan, as opposed to the wretched excesses of the Hamptons or the Vineyard.
Hey, I resemble that remark.
I get her schtick, but i'm also getting tired of it.
If you graduated 3 years ago and got a damn job in architectural acoustics, your $40k in student loans would be nearly paid off.
are you serious?
brb while I go live with my parents so I can somehow contribute $14,000 a year to those student loans on a $36,000 salary
I am serious. Paying $10k/ year in student loans is not at all outrageous. I'm not criticizing her life choices, just her need to complain about those life choices. Plenty of cities (more than not) where you can get a $40k / year entry level position, and the cost of living isn't outrageous.
Archanonymous, you have no idea where she works/lives and how her budget pans out. So unless you have more info than the rest of us on this person's fiscal discipline you should stick to what you know which is your own individual experience and not cast judgement on others if you don't have all or any of the facts.
"Paying $10k/ year in student loans is not at all outrageous."
If it's a quarter of your gross yearly income, it is definitely outrageous.
Claiming a specific amount is reasonable without placing that amount in any proportional context is also outrageous.
DeVos is a Dutch surname, and Holland, Michigan, has a very strong connection to the Netherlands. The house (that was built new) has many elements of Dutch Colonial and Dutch architecture: the clipped gambrel roof with the flared eaves and the eyebrow windows being only the most noticeable. This was not a New England shingle-style copied from Nantucket. This is a house with Dutch elements built by people with a Dutch heritage in a town that celebrates its Dutch connections. I am surprised that someone who holds herself out as an architecture critic did not pick up on that.
The folks who founded New Holland left the Netherlands to form a puritanical colony where they can be free from liberal corrupting influences.
Hmmmm. All those shingles have somehow morphed into sticks up the butts of the commentariat here.....
Correct me if I'm wrong, Donna, but you've been known to have a twig or two burrowing up that posterior from time to time... ;o)
This giant turd is a metaphor, you don't have to dig too deep to get it.
That is NOT a Titanic balcony.
Girl got tack!
this was so much fun to read!
"Steve Jobs Alive"
Steve Jobs, man of great taste, would never go near such a philistine tank in whatever Shingle Style by Las Vegas garbage Devos likes. Especially since he was poisoned by Rupert Murdoch and Putin after Jobs started criticizing Fox News.
One thing is clear: Devos would be a perfect BIG Client: wealthy, far-right, bad taste, out of scale.
another project for Joanna and Chip Gaines - just shiplap the fu*k out of it
It's tough to virtue signal when you are Big Al. The Nashville manse is not even pictured.
And be sure and put YOUR kids in an econo shitbox of a car so they can be crippled for the rest of their lives should they get in an accident. Al's kids? Not so much.
Volunteer, I agree that Al Gore has a too-big house. Him having a too-big house doesn't make Betsy's too-big house, or any of the other too-big houses in this country, right. Get every person in thsi country a living wage, healthcare, and enough to eat, and a roof over their heads first, THEN everyone who wants a too-big house can build to their fragile ego's desire!
I agree completely. Add in schools that actually teach the basics and expect accountability from the teachers and students.
Everybody who wants a too big house is destroying the environment.
What Volunteer....you want them to lead by example or something? Poppycock! Just give Ocasio-Cortez 90% of your hard earned income and she’ll have a mc’mansion in no time too! I mean, oops she’ll help people and stuff. If you don’t like that idea it’s probably because you are bad.
BUT WHAT ABOUT WHAT ABOUT WHAT ABOUT WHAT ABOUT
I used to think the McMansion blog author was doing a legitimate design service. It seems everything has to be political, leaving people little to no agency to like their own aesthetic without it meaning more than the flavor of ice cream. Aesthetics is about human nature, not about what political party you support.
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