Lamborghinis For All

The phrase “Ferraris For All” is meant to suggest that everyone should have access to the best the world has to offer. But perhaps it does not go far enough.

A Japanese Lamborghini enthusiast has evidently built a house with a nine car garage with a special lift so he can admire a car of his choice in the living room (hat tip to Nathalie Rothschild of spiked). To those who suggest this is excessive my riposte is a famous piece of political verse from James Connolly, an Irish radical, from his 1907 poem “We only want the earth”:

“Some men, faint-hearted, ever seek

Our programme to retouch,

And will insist, whene’er they speak

That we demand too much.

’Tis passing strange, yet I declare

Such statements give me mirth,

For our demands most moderate are,

We only want the earth.”

In that spirit I offer a moderate programme of basic needs for every one of the world’s population. In no particular order:  cheap food, gourmet food, fine wine, electricity, mains water, a phone, internet access, a car, air travel, access to a modern hospital, art galleries, cinemas, libraries, museums, opera houses, swimming pools, theatres and ice rinks. Additional suggestions welcome.