it's Official: The Economy's in the Toilet

[SlickTony]

Last night I was watching TV with half an eye and became aware of an infomercial for something called a Tie Teacher--a trefoil-shaped piece of metal which is supposed to help you through any of the various knots--the Windsor, the Four-in-Hand, etc.--in which neckties are tied.

When the economy's booming along and there's a good tight labor market, nobody cares what you wear, as long as you've got the skills the employer needs--you want to wear your hair in a ponytail and fly a pirate flag in your cubicle, that's cool, as long as you do your work.

When things take a downward trend, Corporate Amerika, as if market forces were some kind of volcano god which could be appeased by sacrificing maidens and other acts of barbaric superstition, starts making us wear pantyhose and ties and suits again, as if that would somehow make things turn around again.

That hemlines rise and fall with the movements of the stock market, I'd been aware of for years and years, but I'd never seen the Tie Teacher before.

We're fucked.

 

[minsue]

That's brilliant! Depressing, but brilliant.

 

[shereads]

Yes, but it doesn't explain the 1980s and the Inside-The-Egg Egg Scrambler.

 

[Icingsugar]

She, are you looking for explanations to the 80s? Get real.

 

[rgraham666]

I beg to differ, Slick.

The "bizness" world had always been as conformist as Communist China. It's why they're packing up and moving all their "bizness" there.

 

[SlickTony]

The "bizness" world had always been as conformist as Communist China. It's why they're packing up and moving all their "bizness" there.

You won't get an argument from me.

I heard something on the Marketplace program on NPR a few mornings ago that bemused and depressed me--the reaction of the business world to the re-election of Vladimir Putin, the former KGB agent, who managed to choke off all his opposition as effectively as the Guardian Council did the Reformers in Iran. All this warbling about how good Putin's election was for business--never mind that freedom of the press was virtually killed and all sorts of other political freedom look to be going the same way.

So reminiscent of the attitude that it matter how bloody the dictatorship was, as long as the trains were on time and the government was "stable"--Gee, ya think if Stalin had proclaimed himself a capitalist instead of a communist, we could have skipped the Cold War altogether?

 

[rgraham666]

A couple of quotes from my favourite book, The Doubter's Companion - A Dictionary of Aggsressive Common Sense by John Ralston Saul.

Each economic system does tend to be more at home in certain circumstances than in others. Capitalism is happiest in a non-democratic society.

Capitalism thrives in the evolved authoritarian state. There the streets are calm, dissent is discouraged, disorder repressed. Little time is wasted over politics, debates, elections and tiresome, inefficient legislatures.

Capitalism was reasonably content under Hitler, happy under Mussolini, very happy under Franco and delirious under General Pinochet.

From pages 54 to 58 under the entry for Capitalism.

And before other readers start huffing and puffing about "Commies", Mr. Saul and myself hold them in as much contempt as "Capitalists".

Indeed, in this book, Mr. Saul makes the observation that neo-conservatism is the latest iteration of Marxism, and that neo-cons are the Bolsheviks of the Right.