Are you one of those who believe the economy is on the right track? Getting better? Sticking up for Obama's policies? Do you like Geithner? Bernanke? Think our two party system has the answers? Well today's news is grim...and you thought 2008 marked the big bang. Think again. We are in for the longest slump of our lives.
While Wall Streeters hope that Facebook's $5 Billion IPO this week sparks investors to come back, the rest of us are reading pieces like today's CNBC report that the Euro Zone's jobless rate is the highest since the creation of the Euro or living what is mentioned in this month's Vanity Fair article "The Book of Jobs"stating that over 23 million Americans who would like to work full-time cannot find a job (including yours truly). Fact is the real income of today's average American family is LESS than what it was in 1997! There are 6.6 MILLION fewer jobs in this country than there were four years ago.
Here's what we know:
1. Bailouts do not work. Handouts encourage status quo.
2. People want to work.
3. Job creation needs to be our #1 priority.
In the above-mentioned Vanity Fair article, Joseph Stiglitz makes a number of eye-opening observations, among them that never, never, in the last sixty years has post-recession economic output remained about equal to the start of the recession after four years and never has the percentage of workers who are employed fallen by the amounts it has in the past four years.
Europe is failing, yet looking now for "bailouts", incredibly so.
China is angered, yet continues to grow.
We in the US are tanking.
These moments in time will reflect on our society forever, as future historians pour over data about the vast pervasive consumer obsession that created an unreal world economy.
The only way to stop this is to go on a global "diet." Handouts, begone.
Credit cards, limited dramatically. Eating habits, downsized. Just like the ration system during the wars, we need to find a way to feed our society but not bankrupt it.
The only way is to create a new world psychology. And fast.
VOTE for MY Blog Please!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
"What's Good for the Goose..."
In a NY Times article today, reporter Charles Duhigg recorded, “What’s morally repugnant in one country is accepted business practices in another, and companies take advantage of that.” So said the former Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Occupational Safety, who advises the US Labor Department, when asked about a recent explosion at an Apple-support factory in China. Using poisonous chemicals to clean parts that go into the iPad, Chinese workers are systematically subjected to bodily harm. If Apple were aware of these problems beforehand and didn't act, the advisor, went on, "that's reprehensible."
Sure, it is reprehensible. But it's also "par for the course" on this global course we are on, where murky borders exist in selling products between countries, where demand is high and time is of the essence. We are now a global economy that wants to be satisfied immediately. We need everything yesterday, whether we are in the US, Argentina, Bali, Shanghai or Athens.
As part of our increasingly globalized economy, interdependence between suppliers and cheap labor is not going away; rather, it is multiplying at a rate that grows with the bursts in population, higher consumer expectations, increased speed of delivery and quite simply, increased demand. What we do know is "cheap labor" always comes at a price - a big price where worker conditions, safety and health are concerned. This is not something new. Heck, the slaves in Egypt built the Pyramids. The US economy was built on cheap labor and horrid conditions. Let me be clear: I am certainly not trying to be glib or advocating that it is "right" but it is not new and it is a fact of the world in which we live. So, if people immediately read this or the Times article or others that will certainly come out, and their immediate response is to boycott Apple or stop using certain products, that is not really going to change the situation. Are you going to stop dressing, eating, buying from any and all companies that hire foreign labor? Because that's what it would take for a "boycott" approach to make a true impact.
My guess is that Apple, like many of the other companies in this same situation, in all probability has made very clear "their" corporate policies and standards for working conditions to the managers of their overseas factories. In fact, I have no doubt that that is the case. But, as we've seen countless times in exposes on companies in other industries including cloth and clothing manufacturing, the toy industry, on farms and with agricultural products, what is common practice and "standard" procedure for Americans and American businesses is NOT common practice abroad. In point of fact, there is a duplicity in many cultures outside the US to answer "yes" when the real answer should be "no." Not intentionally lying, just finding it more culturally acceptable to tell the person what you think he wants to hear, so as not to embarrass, lose "face" or trouble them with details. Americans have a hard time understanding this; and corporations have a keen way of remaining intentionally "blind" to this for their own benefit.
Let's face it: Apple, like all the other companies, has chosen a path that gives them the lowest cost per good sold so as to boost up their profit numbers. For all the good things that they do, Apple -- like most other companies -- is not willing to sacrifice the bottom line. They COULD decide to course correct and look toward employing many of those twenty-million Americans who are looking for work into factory jobs here. But, really, until some moral and patriotic reasons filter into their economic plans and become paramount to the profit to their shareholders, change will be far from easy.
Worker exploitation will continue to exist as long as we continue on the supply-demand economy as we know it. The answers to change lie in examining ways that we as consumers can bring down our expectations in terms of how quickly we get our products, how diverse the supply-pool needs to be and for companies to re-examine their profitability margins. We also need to understand that not all countries value the cost of human life the way American individuals do. What's good for the goose is NOT necessarily good for the gander, as they say.
Sure, it is reprehensible. But it's also "par for the course" on this global course we are on, where murky borders exist in selling products between countries, where demand is high and time is of the essence. We are now a global economy that wants to be satisfied immediately. We need everything yesterday, whether we are in the US, Argentina, Bali, Shanghai or Athens.
As part of our increasingly globalized economy, interdependence between suppliers and cheap labor is not going away; rather, it is multiplying at a rate that grows with the bursts in population, higher consumer expectations, increased speed of delivery and quite simply, increased demand. What we do know is "cheap labor" always comes at a price - a big price where worker conditions, safety and health are concerned. This is not something new. Heck, the slaves in Egypt built the Pyramids. The US economy was built on cheap labor and horrid conditions. Let me be clear: I am certainly not trying to be glib or advocating that it is "right" but it is not new and it is a fact of the world in which we live. So, if people immediately read this or the Times article or others that will certainly come out, and their immediate response is to boycott Apple or stop using certain products, that is not really going to change the situation. Are you going to stop dressing, eating, buying from any and all companies that hire foreign labor? Because that's what it would take for a "boycott" approach to make a true impact.
My guess is that Apple, like many of the other companies in this same situation, in all probability has made very clear "their" corporate policies and standards for working conditions to the managers of their overseas factories. In fact, I have no doubt that that is the case. But, as we've seen countless times in exposes on companies in other industries including cloth and clothing manufacturing, the toy industry, on farms and with agricultural products, what is common practice and "standard" procedure for Americans and American businesses is NOT common practice abroad. In point of fact, there is a duplicity in many cultures outside the US to answer "yes" when the real answer should be "no." Not intentionally lying, just finding it more culturally acceptable to tell the person what you think he wants to hear, so as not to embarrass, lose "face" or trouble them with details. Americans have a hard time understanding this; and corporations have a keen way of remaining intentionally "blind" to this for their own benefit.
Let's face it: Apple, like all the other companies, has chosen a path that gives them the lowest cost per good sold so as to boost up their profit numbers. For all the good things that they do, Apple -- like most other companies -- is not willing to sacrifice the bottom line. They COULD decide to course correct and look toward employing many of those twenty-million Americans who are looking for work into factory jobs here. But, really, until some moral and patriotic reasons filter into their economic plans and become paramount to the profit to their shareholders, change will be far from easy.
Worker exploitation will continue to exist as long as we continue on the supply-demand economy as we know it. The answers to change lie in examining ways that we as consumers can bring down our expectations in terms of how quickly we get our products, how diverse the supply-pool needs to be and for companies to re-examine their profitability margins. We also need to understand that not all countries value the cost of human life the way American individuals do. What's good for the goose is NOT necessarily good for the gander, as they say.
Friday, January 13, 2012
Glutes and Brutes
I am determined to get into shape...again. For two years, I have been at the gym, on the treadmill religiously, 4-5 days a week, slogging through 30, 40, 50 minutes of cardio, getting my heartbeat up to aerobic levels. I have been attempting to keep carb content down to what my doctor says is a healthy 40 grams per meal. But with a body mass index (BMI) verging on 30% and a weight plateau which has lasted for nearly a year, I am so determined to get back into shape that I subjected myself to yet another trainer whose method is "sure to work" at my latest health club, LA Fitness.
OK, let me be totally honest here: since the death of my Mom in October sparked an avalanche of downwardly spiralling events affecting my immediate family, I may not have been keeping those carb levels as even as prescribed. True, I have not been as religious about my sessions at the gym, slacking off to maybe three times a week and thirty minutes rather than the five and sixty model. Alright, yes, those desserts have been tasting good. So I realized I needed a kick-start.
Matt is a lovely, boyish trainer, who has waxed so much that he has a permanent arched brow. But despite that, he did seem sincere. He is convinced that his new method is the right one and that any past resistance exercises were flawed. No, he assured, resistance is not going to get you to your goal but our method will. OK, I was game.
Upstairs we went, after my thirty minutes on the treadmill. First he had me lunging. Next he had me hopping up and down on a bench, holding weights. Up, lift knee, down. Change legs and repeat. Up, knee, down. Breath. Squats with weights came next. Then it was twisting with a medicine ball in hand. Next, sit-ups, with my feet up in the air, grappling a large rubber ball. Breath, breath, breath. My heart was pounding. My thighs were shaking. My hips were aching.
Literally, I was working my ass off. I must stop, I begged! Just one more he implored. Wow, this boy had become a brute!
The next day was agonizing. My whole body shivered. I could barely sit down or walk without searing pain. Aleve after Aleve and a number of topical analgesics and naps later, I realized I was feeling better.
So with a reluctant determination and perseverance, I will forge on. As Gloria Gaynor once belted, "I will survive" the brutes all in the name of better glutes.
OK, let me be totally honest here: since the death of my Mom in October sparked an avalanche of downwardly spiralling events affecting my immediate family, I may not have been keeping those carb levels as even as prescribed. True, I have not been as religious about my sessions at the gym, slacking off to maybe three times a week and thirty minutes rather than the five and sixty model. Alright, yes, those desserts have been tasting good. So I realized I needed a kick-start.
Matt is a lovely, boyish trainer, who has waxed so much that he has a permanent arched brow. But despite that, he did seem sincere. He is convinced that his new method is the right one and that any past resistance exercises were flawed. No, he assured, resistance is not going to get you to your goal but our method will. OK, I was game.
Upstairs we went, after my thirty minutes on the treadmill. First he had me lunging. Next he had me hopping up and down on a bench, holding weights. Up, lift knee, down. Change legs and repeat. Up, knee, down. Breath. Squats with weights came next. Then it was twisting with a medicine ball in hand. Next, sit-ups, with my feet up in the air, grappling a large rubber ball. Breath, breath, breath. My heart was pounding. My thighs were shaking. My hips were aching.
Literally, I was working my ass off. I must stop, I begged! Just one more he implored. Wow, this boy had become a brute!
The next day was agonizing. My whole body shivered. I could barely sit down or walk without searing pain. Aleve after Aleve and a number of topical analgesics and naps later, I realized I was feeling better.
So with a reluctant determination and perseverance, I will forge on. As Gloria Gaynor once belted, "I will survive" the brutes all in the name of better glutes.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Grief Strikes at Random
Grief strikes at random.
With precise exactitude, it pierces the heart and penetrates the mind
With memories that flood and dance
Then vanish.
Of love and laughter
Of tears and trouble.
Times better and times worse.
They come and go as they please.
Grief strikes with the touch of a hand,
With a song or a hair.
The brush just there
Displays the last particles of life.
She smiles and nods.
A last look.
And she is gone, again.
Sunday, January 8, 2012
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