Life, 1921-01-27 · page 11 of 36
Life — January 27, 1921 — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
The cartoon depicts two women in coats standing outdoors, with one saying to the other: "Aw! Wotcha talkin' about? I betcha we got a bigger mortgage on our house than you have on yours." This is satirical commentary on **American consumer culture and class anxiety**. The joke targets working and middle-class women who measure their social status through debt and material possessions rather than actual wealth. The dialect ("Wotcha") suggests working-class characters, yet they're comparing mortgages as a status symbol—essentially bragging about how much debt they've accumulated. The satire mocks the paradox of measuring prosperity through liabilities, reflecting post-WWI American economic attitudes where consumer credit was expanding and debt was becoming normalized as a marker of aspiration and status.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
SSS SIS “aw! pointing cartridges at my scared stum- mack. “To make this illustration plain, let_us sippose something. Sippose you are a Polletariat and I am the State. You absorb that? Well! The State are umnipotential, are it not? It are. There- fore it can come into your window and look around. It see your pant on chair, your watch on bureau, your fashionable derby on pegg. How happy you are to see me coming, because you know you will soonly enjoy misery for good of State.” With those words he said it this Oki man commence collecting up pant, watch, fashionable derby and other etc. wherever they laid. “Stop up!” I holla. properties!” “Horrus!” snarrel Hon. Oki. “In soveitism there are no such profane word as Properties. Officialy you are shot for speaking.” With those intellectual words this Oki commence outstripping his ragly coat “Those are my WOTCHA TALKIN’ ABOUT? YOU HAVE ON YOURS.” from off his arms and legs. Soonly he had arranged himself fashionably in all my style ete. including dear college neck- tie I love. “And now, Togo,” he say for sweetly smiling while he tucked my Sunday morn- ing shirt under my new vestcoat which he had on, “I represent the Perfect State supported by happy Polletariat. Am I not beautiful to see?” “Disgustly so,” I elocute. “And now, if-convenient, please return my shirtings, pantings, etc.” “Poor Togo!” he say for pity sake. “Can you not grasp that New Idea? Hon, State works for good of all. What are you? Merely an individilistic individal. Do not move or I shall punctuate your eyebrows with this size .44.” He jump to window and stand there looking like angels cutting cake. “T hope you will be educated by this lesson, Comrade Togo,” he negotiate. “Thanks so many,” I suppose. “But Sn er . 1 BETCHA WE GOT A BIGGER MORTGAGE ON OUR HOUSE THAN how shall I wear pant when I haven't got it?” Task to know. “Get a gun,” he snuggest, “and you will be siprised to find how soonly you can learn to spread the Gosspil of Free- dom.” Speaking’ thusly he downslid without leaving his address. In that he are similar to Russian Govt. Hoping you are the same Yours truly Hasuimura Toco, The Mexican Problem [8 Mexican potites The hazards you choose— You're president if you win But dead if you lose. HE difference between one man and another lies between the ears; between one woman and another, it’s anywhere else. comicbooks.com