Winter Garden Planning Moon
Another bit of photoshop work. This photo in Pizarro’s house in Lima, Peru.
One other odd bit of info. Tomorrow I go off private health insurance and enter Medicare. A transition I’m making with this beautiful lady.
Also, look tomorrow for Imbolc posting.
Winter Garden Planning Moon
Second (and last of this class) photoshop class tonight. Boy, is this a complex program and it’s only one in the Creative Suite. Lot of cool things but they will require a good bit of fiddling with before I get good with them. A lot of fiddling.
(granddaughter Ruth and lightning)
As I walked to the parking lot from the huge Champlain High School building tonight, it hit me that this is the future for many of us over 65. Classes, taking up space in buildings occupied by kids during the day. And what a great deal that we have this kind of learning available.
Last week I used one of the second floor bathrooms. In the men’s room the toilet paper was on a heavy, padlocked metal chain. The janitor was there and I asked him about it. He said you wouldn’t believe the condition of the restrooms at the end of many school days.
Best news. My cousin Leisa, in a coma for a couple of months following a stroke, has begun to speak. Stunning and happy news.
A productive day, another 1,500 words on Missing, some tentative stabs at the first essay in Reimagining and a long workout with little knee pain. Yeah.
Since I’ve shifted to this new work schedule, life seems fuller and busier. Seems odd, but it’s true. I guess I’m stuck with an internal engine that will just keep humming along until it can’t work anymore. There are much worse predicaments. In fact this may not be a predicament, just life continuing.
Winter Garden Planning Moon
Back to late-stage industrial capitalism. (see a couple of posts down) In that article from the Atlantic Monthly that I referenced earlier it points out the collapse of middle class wage manufacturing jobs in the US. At the same time I heard yesterday that in spite of the fact that wages have increased slightly, consumers seem to be saving the money instead of spending it.
Then, the radio reporter went on to say, 70% of our economy is driven by consumer spending. Do you see the problem here? We challenge old-age benefits like social security and medicare, demand people take responsibility for their own retirement (which, if successful, will increase savings–which makes sense). We also have an economy, a pillar of which, manufacturing, that used to provided millions of middle-class wage level jobs–think auto workers, steel workers, rubber (tire) workers and their like–is now dominated by robotic machinery. This is done to reduced the work force and hold down wages, both to compete with international manufacturers, such as the ones in China and other parts of Asia.
So, if the economy is driven by consumers (70% is a big chunk!), and the trend in hiring is to use more machines and less workers, and a further trend is to bust unions (see all the right to work laws under consideration in state legislatures) and chip away at employee benefits, then who will be left with money to prop up the economy.
Unemployed people or people employed at below living standard wages don’t line up at Target or Best Buy or head out to restaurants. Not because they don’t want to. Because they can’t.
The big contradiction then is this: our economic engine requires more and more economies on the part of industry and business to stay competitive in global and local trade. Many of these economies come at the expense of income and benefits for American citizens (read: consumers), the very ones who drive our economy. So?