Raise the Hammer

Grassroots, thanks for your kind words. I feel that you speak from experience having witnessed (it seems) extreme need and, to a degree, hopelessness, possibly in your work. This means you can identify with those poor souls who find themselves in an endless cycle of poverty. What so many of us forget is that when one is mired down in these circumstances, without some tangible help, it's hard to claw our way out. This brings frustration, leading to anger etc. As they say: when you are up to your ass in alligators, it's hard to remember that your primary purpose there is to drain the swamp.

I do agree with Mr. Smith, however, that having a dream and pursuing it is the way to go but it's much harder these days when one starts at ground zero. Still, spirit and a can-do attitude have yielded spectacular results. I grew up in a northern wilderness and came out of there knowing how to hunt and fish, but rarely having seen TV or radio. I could blow a can out of the air with a rifle (not a shotgun) but couldn't even dance. But I loved reading and fell in love with writing. It took me ten years in a corporation (five years at night school to get my journalism) before I was finally taken into their communications department where, over time, I became editor of four corporate magazines. On the side, I wound up writing 30 TV shows and eventually 22 radio plays - all which aired here, the USA (a few) and in Germany. I had a love and therefore a focus. When I left the corp I continued writing various material large companies need. Meanwhile I finally completed a first novel which is now being trimmed at the request of an agent since it is of epic proportions. I did work 12-hour days for most of my younger life but it was worth it. Having a goal, I pursued it and studied journalism as much for the inspiration and enthusiasm it generated as for what it taught me. I pray you have such a goal and achieve it.

Mr. Smith, your economic theories sound great in practice but pragmatically speaking, they simply aren't sustainable. When society finds itself with aristocrats (or aristo-fat-cats) ruling (financially in our case) as though by Divine Right, it eventually comes to naught. Ask any Roman. Or French King. Or Russian nobleman. I think that when one realizes that there are more peasants than elite, and the peasants get angry, change is just around the corner. As for the ball player versus the nurse, being an author, I understand about reaching masses.

However, I hope you enjoy good health forever, but should you not, I have to caution you that you won't find many ball or hockey players or investment bankers helping you in a hospital. And you know what? At that time you'll discover who really plays an important role in our life cycle.

As for not paying the Chinese more because they aren't worth it - productivity wise - why not keep the jobs here where we must (at $37,400 a year) be more productive. Anyhow, it's really not about productivity. In my work, I write for corps and I have written notices of plant closings...for the most productive plants in a corporation. It was just more advantageous (economically) to centralize operations. So, these workers were told that if they were productive, it meant job security. They brought their ideas, their tangible innovations and their process improvements forward to where they became the best. The plant received innovation awards, productivity awards and "best of breed" awards. And then head office essentially said, we can save a few dollars by centralizing. Screw them. And the plant closed. Sure a short-term buyout was there. But for forty and fifty year old men and women, they were never going to get a job anywhere near their previous salary. So, if economics are the new God, and people are just treated as "human resources" (a demeaning term if I ever heard one) I think...change is just around the *corner.

PS: Sorry for the typos as I am sure they are there. As I learned a long time ago, you can't edit your own stuff. Have fun everybody - life is too short.

*Around the corner may be +20 years...or not.