Monday, December 29, 2003

After our quake on the central coast of California, I showed photos of some broken crockery, and claimed that "broken things are beautiful." A few days later, 20,000 or more people died in Iran in a quake. Their homes pulverized to dust that crazy glue won't mend.  Broken things aren't beautiful.  In view of what happened in Iran, I'll never make one of those posturing, overly-arty statements again.                                                       ***   10:33:58 AM    comment []

Moving blue collar jobs overseas seemed to be working, so why not move white collar jobs over as well, and save gobs of money. Like getting two workers for the cost of one! Genius thinking! Unrivaled brilliance on the part of pink-cheeked, well-fed CEO's, staring down dissenters through their rimless eyeglasses. (Glasses with dark rims, you know, are so geeky and intellectual, almost Communist looking; O.K., so Goldwater wore them, but he was an exception!) A few dissenters, thinking beyond their flacons of celebratory champagne, were wondering about what would happen when the middle class couldn't find jobs? How would they buy the goods manufactured overseas where serious bucks were being saved? Well, maybe they could lower their prices, and still come out ahead. But what if fewer goods were sold even at low prices? It might come down to just being a wash. Not to worry, they could probably sell their products to their own low wage workers in the various impoverished countries. But at their low salaries could they afford them? Is it possible that ruining consumers could ruin you? 9:56:00 AM    comment []