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If you are saying I can be bought for $5,000, I am offended. - Rick Perry
It is a shame that a $28.84 hourly wage is no longer enough to bribe an elected official once per month.
Where is Boss Hogg when we need him?
Ten Economic Questions for 2025
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Here is a review of the Ten Economic Questions for 2024.
Below are my ten questions for 2025 (I've been doing this online every year
for 20 years!). These...
2 hours ago
14 comments:
Do NOT miss the Boss Hogg link. Trust me on this. It is worth your time, lol. Sigh.
The only thing Rick Perry has on Boss Hogg is hair. And in America, good hair wins elections.
I loathe Bachmann, but she had Perry on the ropes when she nailed him on the HPV/Merck connection. But, the knockout would have been..."so what price do you sell yourself for?"
NBC reports that the number was 28,500 directly to his campaign chest and the lobbbyist from Merck has assembled a super pac for Perry of @55 million.
Bosss Hogg was too small time...a veritable innocent.
Nice post. I did watch the Boss Hogg link and it was well worth it.
I know two boomers (family members)- age about 65.
Neither will hear anything about automation and the end(ish) of jobs. Just shake their head when I bring it up. I've been wondering why and I have a theory. I think that they have nothing to gain by agreeing with that viewpoint. If it's true, then they can't count on our generation to maintain Social Security inputs for the next 20 years. If the current drama is due to purely political problems (as opposed to being structural), then there is still a chance. They have to believe there is still a chance... People need hope.
One thinks that social security is the easily fixable problem to the whole mess- just need to tweak the retirement age. He is an otherwise quite rational guy.
The other states that all the leading economists agree that we need to keep injecting stimulus into the economy (spend and borrow) and pay it off later.
I respect their need to maintain hope that the problem won't blow up until after they are pushing up daisies. And for their sakes, I hope they are right.
But I (quietly, now that I've seen how it rankles them for me to bring it up) have my doubts.
fried,
I didn't watch the debate but I heard excerpts on the radio today. I too cannot understand why she didn't opt for the knockout punch. As this post implies, I was certainly thinking it!
Audrey,
Neither will hear anything about automation and the end(ish) of jobs.
My girlfriend and I had a long talk with an older couple up the street a few months ago.
They have an extended food pantry well in excess of my own (amazing display of hoarding). The gentleman was telling me the wonders of oil, gold, and silver. (That said, he seemed fascinated by my comparison to toilet paper.)
And yet I could not even convince him that the job growth we saw from 1939 to 2000 cannot recur. It is not mathematically possible. I explained that a a great deal of it is based on demographics (women entering the workforce). No luck.
I faced even stronger resistance on the topic of job desctruction capabilities brought on by automation. I could not convince him that just because automation didn't hurt job creation much in the past that the past might not be indicative of the future. I also tried to point out that our factories were not bombed in WW2. That gave us a huge advantage. No luck.
Here's my theory.
I think perhaps there is a patriotic gene that does not allow for the possibility of Peak America. They were definitely both very political and very patriotic. I can't blame them, but their theories are certainly being severely tested.
Mark,
LOL. Patriotic gene. Nice.
We've got to be nice to them though. They are going to be very shocked if/when it becomes apparent we are right.
I think another reason for the denial is that many of the jobless aren't standing in bread lines, they are using food stamps.
In my state, food stamp cards look just like credit cards to the casual uninformed observer.
It creates the illusion of prosperity...
Boss Hogg clip kind of sums up the housing bubble. Nice.
Here is an article at The Economist you will like, full of robots, and unemployment.
Audrey,
I think another reason for the denial is that many of the jobless aren't standing in bread lines, they are using food stamps.
Funny you should mention that. Check out my latest post. The fast food industry wants the people on food stamps to stand in lines. Their lines! No joke.
See the "equally creative" link.
Mr Slippery,
From your link...
But today’s jobs pain is about more than the aftermath of the financial crisis. Globalisation and technological innovation are bringing about long-term changes in the world economy that are altering the structure of the labour market.
Wow, you were right. The article has it all! I can't say I actually like it though. It scares me and makes me think I am right to be bearish. ;)
Globalisation and technological innovation are bringing about long-term changes in the world economy that are altering the structure of the labour market.
Nice link, Mr. Slippery. Worth noting that we are heading down the path of greater automation as we reach for peak population...at or near 7billion...lots of mouths to feed, not enough work to sustain them.
How this resolves itself is a little scary to imagine.
fried,
If the thing were there -- and if I were not dreaming -- the implications would be quite beyond the power of the human spirit to bear. What tormented me most was my momentary inability to feel that my surroundings were a dream. - H.P. Lovecraft
Oh no! Food stamps in restaurants. I had heard about this and didn't believe it.
Now I do.
Audrey,
If you lose your fast food service job, you will qualify for free fast food service! Win win!
Crazy times call for insane policies!
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