don't let them confuse you

i was driving into work this morning ( how much longer, i wonder, will we be doing that? a bankrupt system in a bankrupt country...hopelessly delusional) and listening to "world update" on the bbc...they were "taking the pulse" of the world's economy...today's topic:unemployment...they interviewed a jordanian who had been working in a management position in the united arab emerates and was downsized back to unemployment in jordan with "no compensation"...bearing the costs of his forced relocation himself ( they even fired him with a document in english...a language he clearly does not understand)...a chinese truckdriver who had been working for a state run wire company was next...he was ordered home ( there was a migrant sub-text to all this) on "unpaid leave" and told to find what work he could...he has no idea when or if he will resume his "guaranteed employment"...to analize this disturbing trend they had some capitalist apologist from the business school of cardiff university explaing that unemployment was a "natural condition" in capitalism..."frictional unemployment of four to five percent is natural in a dynamic system of expansion and contraction"..."anyone who wants a job can find one even though it might mean a downward adjustment in wages."...sounds like some protestant work ethic/ social darwinist bullshit to me...don't let them fool you...capitalists LOVE unemployment...it gives them a desperate pool of job seekers they can use to leverage down wages and benefits...uppity workers? can the bastards and hire off the street...a system that works entirely to the elite's advantage...less money for the lumpenprolatariat means more for them...the less money out there the less inflationary pressure...and the elite hates inflation almost as much as it hate a living wage.

the morning after the night before

...and it would seem that the local abc and cbs affiliates have disappeared from the airwaves...even with a new digital antenna they are nowhere to be found...i will miss them and have sent them emails telling them so...all the other stations are there...some in more than one incarnation...a banaza of pbs choices and enough local independent stations to make me unplug the set and turn it to the wall...so where, exactly has this redistribution of wealth gotten us? certainly not to better, informative, unbiased viewing...and even with the new antenna the picture at times looks like a battered dvd in an outdated player..i am excited and amazed at the scope of the scam...you have to admire the fed's moxie.

statist television

it's analog tv year zero today as a centrally planned redistribution of wealth to cable companies, electronics manufacturers, and retailers becomes manditory for those who want to remain plugged into the master manipulator...i have plunked down abouy $250 to keep my household ( there is significant pressure from others to keep it so) and my mother's connected to engineered desires...i have vented my frustrations on the fcc and in various blogs...but somehow this is not enough...there are allegedly millions of households unprepared for today who would want what i have but do not want...odd how life can work that way...desire it and it proves elusive...or, after a protracted pusuit of your desire it turns out to be unexpectedly unfulfilling....something wrong with desire? or just what we desire? i'm not sure, but i think the fact that this economy functions by creating desires that might not be there otherwise plays a part...people allow themselve to be convinced that so many superfluous material things are necessities when they are just so much junk designed to agrandize someone else by padding their profit margin...sixteen months of economic contraction have been an education in that respect... i think the old economy based on growth fueled by cheap energy is broke beyond repair ( even though the powers that be insist on trying to fix it...that's because it's what defines them as an elite and if it cannot be fixed they may be left behind) but even if it is recovered i won't look at it the same way... i was questioning what i did and why i did it before this all started, and i am doing more of it now...examining your motivations probably won't make you happy...but it will make you change.