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Employers lay off people due to fear and greed. Executives shed employees when the bottom lines of their spreadsheets sets off alarms. Executives want to hold onto cash. Executives lay off employees and still receive their executive pay and perks.

Employees suffer a decrease in morale and security. The spectre of being fired makes it harder to focus on work when fear and instability permeate the work place. It's hard to consider buying a house or other big-ticket items when there is fear that you can lose your job and not be able to easily get another with similar or better pay.

I speculate that many saw house prices rising faster than their ability to pay for them, so they bought houses with a "damn the torpedos" mindset and "hoped" for good fortune, a stroke from a rabbit's foot, and a touch of fairy dust. They didn't read or understand the mortgage contracts they affixed their signatures to. Couple this with Wall Street's shenanigans and we've added the straw the breaks the economy's back. We create our insecurity.

Few companies save for rainy days such that they could keep their employees for two or three years without resorting to firings or layoffs.

Make a distinction between being laid off which implies that employees can get their jobs back, and being fired which means employees will not be rehired. Let's rid ourselves of euphemisms like "pink slip" or "redundancy" and face the consequences of our actions.

Our society's boom and bust mentality creates corporations who scale depending on the urgency of the moment. Most businesses are not designed for slower sustainable growth due to threats from competition and economic climate.

It is proven that businesses must get their ideas or products sold to consumers before copy cats pile on and dilute the profit base. People generally create businesses to make money hand over fist. Business owners decide the balance between maximizing profit and treating employees like humans instead of interchangeable widgets.

I dislike that people have become easily disposable factors of production. I've never seen compelling evidence that our "trickle down" economy works to the benefit of the majority over the long term.

We create insecurity, inefficiency and the inability to effectively sustain ourselves due to short-sighted and poorly thought out plans. This life we choose is [b]Koyaanisqatsi[/b].

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koyaanisqatsi[/url]

We want everything and we want it now. We have chosen instant gratification over the slower, less stressful, more sustainable, "save for what you want instead of buying it with credit cards" ethos. This is one factor contributing to our economy's collapse.

trurl9 — Mon Dec. 15th 12:42p.m.

Wednesday Ideas:

Dumbing down society. When I go to the store I notice the Oregonian's cover page usually has a big sports picture on the front page. I realize the Oregonian is fighting to stay alive by capturing eyeballs, but I prefer the old journalism standard of putting news on the front page. There is local and world news happening that affects us. Why isn't more news on the Oregonian's front page (and the rest of the paper for that matter)?

Why are there hundreds of channels of cable and satellite television where there is little useful content, and why are we paying to be advertised to? Why don't we rebel against this? Why is cable, satellite and Internet connectivity in Portland so expensive? (Because we're stupid enough to pay for it?) I would prefer being able to buy the channels I want to watch (without commercials). Disclosure: I don't have cable but I surfed through the channels when I stayed at a hotel recently. The dearth of useful content is alarming. Do most people plop down in front of the telly and vege out? I prefer to watch show like [b]Pimp This Old Crib[/b] so I can learn how to rebuild sash windows and what not.

Watched the remake of [b]The Day The Earth Stood Still[/b] and was completely bored too tears by Neo's monotone, but the story carries a great and important message. Why are so many movies today remakes of stories already told? (Hollywood will make money rolling out remakes of old films for new generations.) What was your favourite movie of 2008? Why?

(Why does this blog's spell checker have a British flavour? I love it - please don't change it. I'm not giving up my zees for sesses though. In America we spell it prioritize not prioritise, well, unless the A.P. Style Guide or the Queen dictates otherwise. I'm so confused.)

How are you going to change your life in 2009 to make your life, or the lives of those in your sphere of influence better? I'm not talking about resolutions which won't be fulfilled either.

Can the war on terrorism actually be won? Is it possible to get rid of our nuclear weapons without being blown to smithereens? I think it is possible. I think the U.S. should rid itself of nuclear weapons in 2009. A naive gamble? Probably. But let's get serious about dealing with this problem. Let's take a bold leap forward to borrow a concept from our Chinese cousins. Nukes can't really be used or all life on the planet is forfeit. Might as well nip the problem before it occurs. The longer we have nukes the more probable their use. Our good change of behaviour might positively affect the behaviour of our neighbours. Hell, I can dream can't I?

How about boogers as biofuel? Never mind.

Oh, oh, oh, Ohhhhh! (Sam Kinnison) Can we live without cell phones? Are cell phones the most fundamental invention since the auto? Do people need to wear their blinking LED Borg ear phones in theatres? I saw a guy backing up his Hummer on a sheet of ice last night whilst jabbering to his trophy "grillfiend" on his mobile. (Idiot!) I felt deficient as a human for not being able to multi-task and be as successful as that dood.

trurl9 — Mon Dec. 15th 1:58p.m.

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