Ignorance is Bliss
March 10th, 2008 | General, ThoughtsSeen Google or Apple’s stock lately? To be honest, I don’t normally keep up with the Economy. Being a web monkey I should probably stick to my element and not attempt to understand the current state of the Economy. Fact is, being a principal over at cabedge, whether I like it or not it directly affects us.
If you’ve not been paying attention to the “recession” that “isn’t” going on then let me enlighten you. The dollar is miserable. The United States is technically bankrupt. People are losing jobs. Businesses are losing customers. Oil is breaking records daily.
Mini-rant then I’ll get back on track. Speaking of Oil. Since the Oil Crisis of 1973 we haven’t done JACK to put an alternative fuel infrastructure into place. Flex-Fuel? Ethanol? Corn? What? We can barely make enough corn for your Frosted Flakes let alone fuel the ENTIRE US off of it. Nice try. Funny, during the Summer my car just bakes and absorbs so much sunlight I get get heat stroke when I open the door. I always wonder how much energy could be harnessed if the roof of every car was collecting sunlight. For that matter, the roof of every house. Oh, that’s right, it’s uneconomical. I mean, we haven’t had 35 years to be thinking about this or anything have we?
Ok, back on track. Lately I’ve wondered, what happens if “disposable income” goes away and how does that affect the web. Do people replace their $50/month High-speed connectivity with PeoplePC? Will there be fewer requests for ecommerce sites from our clients? Will we telecommute to work because of gas prices? Who knows, I just know that the only constant is change.
The thing that blows me away is that people are afraid to look past the Headlines. You know, if you cover your eyes then it’s not there. It’s that easy! We’ve been blinded by cheap Credit, American Idol, HDTVs, Britney, War, Fox News, and worst of all, Complacency. There is a 50/50 chance that the tomorrow we take for granted could NOT turn out as expected. If it does you can bet your iPhone I’ll be blaming somebody besides myself. I mean, everything is good so it couldn’t my fault.
As someone who just turned 30 I’ve never truly seen hardship in my life. That’s not to say that times weren’t tough some months growing up but we always had the necessities. Because of that I just assume all will be fine from now until the day I die. I mean, it’s a God-given right that we as Americans shall be prosperous, drive a Hummer, and have High-Def Cable TV with HBO right? “The Great Depression? Hey, that’s that thing we discussed in 10th grade American History right? Those people didn’t know anything back then. Ghaaaaaa!” *Goes back to texting on iPhone*
I found a 60 second clip that sums up the economy over at youtube. Everything is fine people. Return to your regularly scheduled program. Go refinance your house over at Countrywide so you can fund a few more $4 lattes at Starbucks while you indulge in the Bliss.
I have to say i love the blog and I couldn’t agree more. I have decided to work from home at least 1 day a week because of gas prices. It is insane that we are paying 3.15 - 3.20 at the pumps and that oil is at $120.00 a barrel. It is also amazing that our economy is as good as it is considering the horrible worth of the dollar and the collapsing real estate market.
I was never a big fan of NAFTA. If you truly look at what it has done to the U.S., you can plainly see that BIG CORPORATIONS have moved factories to Mexico and to Canada. The Movie and TV industry alone now shoots a major percentage of new projects from 1999 to now in Canada. I can name a ton of Commercial spots, TV shows, Movies, etc. that were filmed there. This sounds petty but the California economy is pretty major. FORD, LEVI, and several other major corps have moved a lot of their manufacturing to Mexico. So all of these companies are allowed to be based in the U.S., sell in the U.S., and manufacture in other countries with no tax penalties and are even given incentives for doing so. It has hurt the U.S. economy and has hurt the worth of the dollar. It is only a part of the reason.
As far as alternative energy is concerned, it is plain as day why the country hasn’t invested more into it. It doesn’t make as much money as oil and the car companies don’t want to spend the money for the R&D of the vehicles. To top it off, the other cars that use other energy would cost more to make and would cost more which would scare off most buyers. We have a president and VP who has major ties to the oil industry, so naturally they want to drill in Alaska and promote the use of oil. The other thing about the gas prices is that they started soaring during Katrina and really never went down because of the ethanol bill which requires the mixing of 10% ethanol per batch. This has led to higher prices as well.
You can’t make corn for cars without the agricultural production and over the last 25 years, America’s farms are dying. Where is our food coming from? Good question. Once you learn the answer you won’t like it very much. Why not give every farmer a TAX exemption? Why not supplement the farmers and give them incentives to generate food for the U.S.? Give them money to pay for machinery, pay off their mortgages in order to keep the production of crops affordable. Don’t raise the inflation and interest rates on them where they are forced to be saddled with debt they can never pay back and end up being forced to sell their land to a real estate or mall developer. Take the money we are investing in pointless government programs and reinvest in our farmers.
Sorry, I am passionate about these topics. We are in a recession and we are headed for worse I’m afraid. I hope things improve but we have to deal with these issues sometime. I’m optimistic though. I’m grateful to have what I have.
JT