More Economics
The joke goes that a conservative on crime is a liberal who's gotten mugged. And the liberal is a conservative who's lost his job. Lately the dark side of capitalism, and a global economy, is hitting close to home. Ham of Bone was laid off in part due to a company rep whispering sweet nothings to a NY stock analyst (in the form of an arbitrarily chosen earnings number that was subsequently missed).
A few days ago I learned 70% of the employees at my brother's shop were laid off while the other 30% forced into contracting jobs (thankfully my brother was in the latter group). The 70% were replaced with workers from India. My brother was told by his boss that, in terms of expense, the ratio of foreign workers to US workers is 6-to-1. Pretty hard for any one man to do the work of six, although Bone always said I did the work of ten men. You were serious right Bone?
We tend to be capitalists at 90-95% employment rate, socialists or communists at 75%. The tacit agreement we make is that nearly full employment is part of the deal. But the capitalist model is if you can find someone to do it cheaper, then so be it. Which means "some" job dislocations as our economy moves forward. How to protect jobs while enjoying the benefits of free enterprise is problematic. But enough whine. At 94% employment, the US economy is healthy as all get out and it's ludicrous to the extreme to complain about a material situation that is arguably the best in human history.
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