Re: OT: A Sad Day
Ben Knebel
>Rob;
As always--a thoughtful response.
It always hurts me deeply to see venerable old company's with a good product record:) bite the dust.
There are a multiplicity of issues here.
The need for constant increases in sales, profits and stock returns by a society and a business community that considers a 6 month plan a long term strategy drives much of what is happening. Although capitalism and democracy are the best social and economic systems yet developed they are very much snakes eating their own tails and when they reach their own heads--and they will--what will we do then?
When there are no longer 3rdW countries--sorry--developing counties-- with cheap labour pools to draw on and when factories can't be moved to cheaper realestate what do you do then---the next 25- 50 years will see exactly that happen.
And scarier still--in this world of terrorism---what will countries do that have all thier heavy industry offshore and no longer have even their own steel manufacturies--and the countries that produce your goods get clobbered and a goodly portion of your entire industrial infrastrucure is no longer here --but over there --as are the skills and the knowledge.
And all that is to say nothing of the number of jobs that are going offshore and all the folks that will be displaced and dispossessed because of it.
We can't all become knowledge workers or information workers or software designers or internet webmasters---ooops forgot---all of that is going offshore as well.
We forget that you can't eat information nor can you drive it nor will it protect you from the rain or keep you clothed. To be sure information and knowledge will help you do all those things but when you no longer have the infrastructure to do them here --what then?
Although all this sounds rather pessimistic I'm not ---I do believe we will solve these problems ---but not until some of our social and economic systems develop processes that take a longer view and become far less instant gratification driven and the pain will be tremendous as we amke our way there.
As Rob says --we all vote with our dollars --everyday---we have to vote a little differently in the future.
As closing thought---Walmart goes bankrupt and there is no one to buy their stores and countinue the business and the stores begin to close---how many smaller towns will be left without clothing stores--grocery stores---pharmacies-- photo shops---opticians--harware stores---sporting goods stores---shoe stores?---a lot more than you think. For fun--imagine no walmart , lowes or home depot near you--they all close---now go find a hardware store.
Regards
Ben