Anyway, the last issue had a very insightful piece on how is it that with near double digit unemployment figures, the fat cats in the boardroom and on Wall Street are back on their feet, dancing the Charleston? We're in the money.... While the article put a much finer point on the multiple factors behind this apparent heist of the millennium, by far the biggest one had to do with a phenomenon we are all familiar with: outsourcing. But not only jobs are being shipped overseas, more and more of the products made by these workers are being purchased there, or in some other country. Take Apple, for instance, and China. The ratio of Chinese employees to American workers is a full ten to one. At Apple. Similar for dozens, even hundreds of other so-called American companies. The gist that I recall from the article was, for so many un- or under employed Americans, the situation they face is not a 'structural' change in the economy - that is, one in which with retraining or going back to school for a different degree a worker can find a new job - but one where the manufacturing base has just up and gone. This is my limited memory of a limited understanding having read the article many weeks ago, and please, if the Managing Editor or Art Director is reading these words, feel free to set me straight.
What we can all agree on, I think, is that the economy is still barely on life-support. The liberals among you (90% or more?) will agree that the government still needs to play a big role if any long term recovery will ever happen. I would suggest something rather simple: how about a humongous tax on any profits earned by a company from employees overseas? (Do I hear 150%, 125, 150, 125%, yes, 150, from the man sporting the fez. Do I hear 175%? 175, 150, 175%.....sold, at 300% to the woman with the ruby slippers chanting there's no place like home....)
Things seem dire, and with the tea baggers clogging up congress, only direr. However, very few have called our protracted economic collapse a depression. But I call it G.D.II, that is, the Second Great Depression. I remember my late grandfather, a wise, moderately wealthy, and a tad curmudgeonly man, would often scoff at the term 'recession.' "Bah," he might say, "there is no such thing as a recession. These are just minor depressions."
Though some economic indicators are either not as bad as they were in G.D.I or, like the Dow, almost fully recovered. I nevertheless believe we find ourselves in a Second Great Depression because in addition to the tenacious unemployment situation, we have such an enormous debt, mostly to China. This was not the case in the thirties and forties. After being handed a budget surplus by his predecessor, the size of the national debt grew at a phenomenal pace under Bush the Lessor's two terms in office, what with the tax windfalls for the wealthy, and two unfunded wars. Not to mention the financial crash that came after decades of the industry's deregulation. (Mostly Repugnant party genesis, it's true; however the Dems weren't exactly innocent.)
I started this post with little intention to share the liberal screed above. Mainly, I wanted to offer some practical tips on how to cope with less, as we attempt feebly to shop our way back to recovery. (This is kind of hard, when most of what we buy is made overseas, either by foreign or our own companies. If it isn't absolutely necessary, and it's made overseas, skip it - that's my plan. Or, shop at a thrift store.)
Step one, go to a used CD shop, and buy some music from the depression era. I enjoy the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and other big band music. But that's just me (by way of my dear old pop, who played the clarinet in a big band way back when). Louis Armstrong, Fred Astaire, Ethel Waters, Bing Crosby, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Judy Garland - the list has no end.
With this music playing on your ancient stereo - the one that still has cassette slots - take those slippers out of the waste basket! True, your toes have worn through the ends, but see those socks over there? The ones with heel-holes? You guessed it, socks first, then slippers, and dance the night away, heat turned low: you are keeping warm, G.D.II style. And hey, done with your dinner? After you scrape the leftovers into an old yogurt or sour cream container, lick the plate clean before you put it in the dishwasher (or wash it by hand - though if you have the dishwasher, it will be cheaper to run a full load than to hand wash.) Another way to keep warm in the winter: start your day with a bracing cold shower! Trust me, it works. Just like the surfeit of depression era musicians and singers, there is no end to the cost saving ideas you will come up with once you put your mind to it.
(And to all those who know me well, or even not so well, of course I have been living a depression era lifestyle for many decades. Because the environmental depression has only been getting deeper every day....)
wait until you see her, you'll agree, she's my hometown gal, the only one for meee!
