the smell of money

Today Gillian brought home a token from the Nik-o-lok corporation -- a restroom token, for a pay toilet. That corporation should be getting ready to celebrate its centennial, except that about a generation ago most localities outlawed pay toilets. I could ruminate about the reappearance of upscale pay toilets (there must be salesmen for them, for they keep cropping up in news reports of city council meetings), but I'll refrain.

Instead I look back, way back, still thinking of the economy, the state of the world, or something.

When Rome finally settled down after Nero, Vespasian was emperor. According to Suetonius he instituted a tax on urinals, but his son Titus complained. (Titus, who had sacked Jerusalem, burned Herod's temple, and would later become emperor.) With one of the tax coins in hand Titus admitted that it did not smell bad. In Latin classes this remains a teachable moment, for Vespasian concluded "Atqui, e lotio est" -- "yet it comes from urine."

From urine, from slavery, from just printing more, from whatever, the politicians seem more concerned with other issues than the origin of the cash flow.