I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.
~Thomas Jefferson to Dr Benjamin Rush 9/23/1800
Jefferson offers this radical statement in support of his new country. Yet to be acknowledged by England with ongoing hostility on both sides of the Atlantic, this new country had had two Presidents. This letter written in September 1800, was not long before he took the office of President.
For a period of time, England neglected the American colony allowing the colonists to form a sense of collective self.
The colonists alleged that King George of England and Parliament abused their power by enacting import taxes and other trade & commodity taxation totaling about 4% of all economic exchange. England believed they were within their rights to tax their colonies.
When England reintroduced authority by way of military force to enforce the laws, they offended the colonists. Colonists hadn’t agreed to taxation or to the treatment to which they were being subjected.
What a radical step from subject to independent people.
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label America. Show all posts
Monday, February 16, 2009
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Comments on 2008
It’s in the news, it’s on everyone’s mind, but no one says it. This was the WORST Christmas season in memory. For Americans, this season was overwhelming sad. The sadness was truly palpable.
As if it were something over which to exude pride, an announcement in the paper read, more children than ever received some or all of their Christmas gifts from charity donations. Parents cry tears of gratitude, laced with despair and depression for their inability to make a living in the richest country in the world.
News writers declared earlier this month that it’s only a previous taboo to let go or lay off workers through the holiday season. It’s okay now. Oh really?
Would someone please explain how is it okay auto companies get the money and close the plants, at Christmas no less?
Where’s the relief for the families facing or going through foreclosure? The continuing and overwhelming numbers of families loosing everything is shameful. Banks got their money. Billions! But families are still being put out on the street. Where are those relief dollars going? The banks won’t tell, won’t tell? Won’t Tell? Won’t Account?
Love the drop in gas prices! But where’s the rebate check from being (please choose the words you like best) overcharged, extorted, extracted, obtained under duress, ripped off, for how many years?? Was it six or seven years of mostly rising, gouging prices? And let’s remember how rich they all were at 75 cents a gallon.
The crowning glory, even the elite have realized there’s a problem because their profits have gone down. They’re a bit slow on that epiphany. How many years slow could be debated. But the hysterical part is that the economists still don’t get it. Do institutions of higher education only suck the common sense or the complete brain out of these people’s heads?
To be a truly great economist the qualifications must read: blathering idiot able to keep a straight face in front of a camera while spewing nonsensical rot to take the focus off the real and simple solutions by making everything seem complicated through a series of algebraic equations which any sensible seventh grader will tell you has no applicability in real life past figuring marginally useful information, miles per gallon, etc.
An economist quoted in today’s paper actually said that it was the worker’s fault the plants had to close but it should have closed 15 or 20 years ago because those workers were just getting paid too much money. Is he being sarcastic? No, the fellow really believes it.
Contrary to economist’s beliefs, workers are customers until they’re unemployed. Just a guess but it’s doubtful that any of the people laid off will buy a new car in 2009. Hooray, lower sales next year! Squeezing your workers… customers… workers… customers… workers… out of existence, just doesn’t make for large profits. And, if you keep it up long enough there are no profits at all.
As we come to the beginning of 2009, let’s hope the privileged have a moment of clarity: get rid of all their advisors that have gotten them into this mess, talk to some real sensible people and get things back on track.
Accountability is only required of those who have the ability to make the change, the rest just live with the consequences of things out of their control.
As if it were something over which to exude pride, an announcement in the paper read, more children than ever received some or all of their Christmas gifts from charity donations. Parents cry tears of gratitude, laced with despair and depression for their inability to make a living in the richest country in the world.
News writers declared earlier this month that it’s only a previous taboo to let go or lay off workers through the holiday season. It’s okay now. Oh really?
Would someone please explain how is it okay auto companies get the money and close the plants, at Christmas no less?
Where’s the relief for the families facing or going through foreclosure? The continuing and overwhelming numbers of families loosing everything is shameful. Banks got their money. Billions! But families are still being put out on the street. Where are those relief dollars going? The banks won’t tell, won’t tell? Won’t Tell? Won’t Account?
Love the drop in gas prices! But where’s the rebate check from being (please choose the words you like best) overcharged, extorted, extracted, obtained under duress, ripped off, for how many years?? Was it six or seven years of mostly rising, gouging prices? And let’s remember how rich they all were at 75 cents a gallon.
The crowning glory, even the elite have realized there’s a problem because their profits have gone down. They’re a bit slow on that epiphany. How many years slow could be debated. But the hysterical part is that the economists still don’t get it. Do institutions of higher education only suck the common sense or the complete brain out of these people’s heads?
To be a truly great economist the qualifications must read: blathering idiot able to keep a straight face in front of a camera while spewing nonsensical rot to take the focus off the real and simple solutions by making everything seem complicated through a series of algebraic equations which any sensible seventh grader will tell you has no applicability in real life past figuring marginally useful information, miles per gallon, etc.
An economist quoted in today’s paper actually said that it was the worker’s fault the plants had to close but it should have closed 15 or 20 years ago because those workers were just getting paid too much money. Is he being sarcastic? No, the fellow really believes it.
Contrary to economist’s beliefs, workers are customers until they’re unemployed. Just a guess but it’s doubtful that any of the people laid off will buy a new car in 2009. Hooray, lower sales next year! Squeezing your workers… customers… workers… customers… workers… out of existence, just doesn’t make for large profits. And, if you keep it up long enough there are no profits at all.
As we come to the beginning of 2009, let’s hope the privileged have a moment of clarity: get rid of all their advisors that have gotten them into this mess, talk to some real sensible people and get things back on track.
Accountability is only required of those who have the ability to make the change, the rest just live with the consequences of things out of their control.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Customer Service, Ha!
Friends and acquaintances will attest to my continued chagrin when it comes to customer service.
In the old days, whenever a company would want to attract customers, they would provide their products with polite and accommodating service.
One of my favourite services of years gone by was the Service Station.
I recall accompanying my father to the service station on Saturday mornings. It was a big event for a young Daddy’s girl. Not only did I get to be with Daddy, I got to ride in his sports car, top down in the summer. What fun!
Much to my delight, every Saturday we pulled up to the Service Station and a man would hustle out to the car and ask, “May I check your engine?”
“Of course and fill it up!” Daddy replied.
The attendant hopped over to the pump and began the pump. In the time it took to fill the gas tank, the fellow would have washed the windows, popped the hood, checked and added needed oil, checked the air filter, check tire pressure and added air if needed. All this, just as the ringing of the pump bell stopped. (For you young people, there used to be a bell that rang every ten cents, imagine what that would sound like now!)
He’d happily ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” as he made change.
If a customer had a question exceeding the attendant’s expertise, that was not a problem. Each station had an on-site mechanic that was happy to answer your questions and schedule appointments (at your convenience) for any work needed.
Oh Yes! And the gifts! If you bought ten gallons or more, the customer would have their choice of gifts. I don’t recall what adults would select. But for a year, my father chose the International Doll Series, each time a new doll was available.
I tell you our parents and grandparents had it made!
Today, we’re overcharged for gas (by at least $2+ plus tax with a cost analysis), pump our own gas, and stand in line to pay a disgruntled, underpaid cashier. When the bill comes in the mail, there’s always something that isn’t quite right. So a brave consumer might venture to call the 800# to ask a question. No human answers the phone, the recording says they value your business… sure they do… that’s why you’re on hold so long! Finally if you make it through the labyrinth of push # for this, push# for that… you’ll reach someone who doesn’t speak English, and they can’t do anything but read the bill back to you. Don’t get too upset because the second they irritate you to frustration, they either put you on hold, or tell you they are recording the conversation from that point forward. In the end they refer you to the web site.
So much for 21st Century Customer Service!
In the old days, whenever a company would want to attract customers, they would provide their products with polite and accommodating service.
One of my favourite services of years gone by was the Service Station.
I recall accompanying my father to the service station on Saturday mornings. It was a big event for a young Daddy’s girl. Not only did I get to be with Daddy, I got to ride in his sports car, top down in the summer. What fun!
Much to my delight, every Saturday we pulled up to the Service Station and a man would hustle out to the car and ask, “May I check your engine?”
“Of course and fill it up!” Daddy replied.
The attendant hopped over to the pump and began the pump. In the time it took to fill the gas tank, the fellow would have washed the windows, popped the hood, checked and added needed oil, checked the air filter, check tire pressure and added air if needed. All this, just as the ringing of the pump bell stopped. (For you young people, there used to be a bell that rang every ten cents, imagine what that would sound like now!)
He’d happily ask, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” as he made change.
If a customer had a question exceeding the attendant’s expertise, that was not a problem. Each station had an on-site mechanic that was happy to answer your questions and schedule appointments (at your convenience) for any work needed.
Oh Yes! And the gifts! If you bought ten gallons or more, the customer would have their choice of gifts. I don’t recall what adults would select. But for a year, my father chose the International Doll Series, each time a new doll was available.
I tell you our parents and grandparents had it made!
Today, we’re overcharged for gas (by at least $2+ plus tax with a cost analysis), pump our own gas, and stand in line to pay a disgruntled, underpaid cashier. When the bill comes in the mail, there’s always something that isn’t quite right. So a brave consumer might venture to call the 800# to ask a question. No human answers the phone, the recording says they value your business… sure they do… that’s why you’re on hold so long! Finally if you make it through the labyrinth of push # for this, push# for that… you’ll reach someone who doesn’t speak English, and they can’t do anything but read the bill back to you. Don’t get too upset because the second they irritate you to frustration, they either put you on hold, or tell you they are recording the conversation from that point forward. In the end they refer you to the web site.
So much for 21st Century Customer Service!
Sunday, December 9, 2007
The Year without a Christmas Tree
As much as I do or don’t buy into whatever the latest thing is… I had always had a Christmas tree. That is, until the year, when the money just wasn’t there, it seemed wasteful to spend any amount of money on a tree. Gifts too were not except for out-of-state family that sent packages for the kids, as we let everyone know we couldn’t reciprocate. We could barely put the money together for greeting card postage. It was truly depressing.
In the midst of my great depression, the gift I received that year from my children was permission to have or not have a tree. To have or not have gifts. They missed those things, sure they did. It’s part of their culture. Sure, they would have liked gifts but they were happy with a bag of oranges and their parent’s stories of Family Christmas’ long gone and ancestors long dead.
What amazed me was with what grace they sympathized with my parental dilemma. I was wondering if this experience would be among the list of things a Freudian therapist would spend unending amount of time analyzing the impact of a tree-less holiday on a youth in an American home.
I cried about my parental financial failure, which was completely out of my control, symbolized by no tree. I live in a country that says it’s rich but hates the poor. I feared being pushed to the lowest rung. All those thoughts that loom in a parent’s mind about poverty and children, statistics of success (or lack thereof) after utter regional economic devastation; these were the thoughts that over took me. Was the area going to pick up in time for us as a family? Were we going to have to move again? The house was on the market, but no interest in our house, as thousands that faced foreclosure let their homes go for what they owed, in a market that was over-built and over extended? What were we going to do? As the country’s manufacturing, skilled labor, and professional classes become increasingly similar, increasingly crunched within the narrowing social strata… paycheck to paycheck the norm, debt ever mounting, savings decreasing and the Golden Rule all but Abolished… was my family going to make it?
I thought of the time, we lived when things were bright and care-free, our grandparents had worked for a better nation. They saw the dawn of a new age; jobs for the jobless, homes for the homeless as well as time and money for the middle-classes to raise families, play, take vacations, have Christmas trees for everyone. I remember the arrogance of my high school friends, all those years ago, we made statements about the American culture, as if we weren’t participating in it, yet kept traditions, like the tree within our homes. Many in my group weren’t Christian, some subscribed to other religions, some to no religion at all. Still the tree was a common icon within each home in December. I, like my friends, had invested interest in the tree.
So tree-less for the first time in my life, my kids helped me see that Bob Cratchet didn’t have a tree but he did have his family. He had a much better Christmas than others in the story. We didn’t have a tree but we did have each other. And it was true we spent the holiday with the ones we love most. Still I had hoped to have a measure of success higher than a 19th century clerk.
Come springtime, I was ready to face the fact that I’m materialistic, perhaps it part of being human or American, or a woman, I don’t know. But even as I review the lessons taught me that tree-less year, I must report this year, we have a tree. And a Very Merry Tree it is too!
In the midst of my great depression, the gift I received that year from my children was permission to have or not have a tree. To have or not have gifts. They missed those things, sure they did. It’s part of their culture. Sure, they would have liked gifts but they were happy with a bag of oranges and their parent’s stories of Family Christmas’ long gone and ancestors long dead.
What amazed me was with what grace they sympathized with my parental dilemma. I was wondering if this experience would be among the list of things a Freudian therapist would spend unending amount of time analyzing the impact of a tree-less holiday on a youth in an American home.
I cried about my parental financial failure, which was completely out of my control, symbolized by no tree. I live in a country that says it’s rich but hates the poor. I feared being pushed to the lowest rung. All those thoughts that loom in a parent’s mind about poverty and children, statistics of success (or lack thereof) after utter regional economic devastation; these were the thoughts that over took me. Was the area going to pick up in time for us as a family? Were we going to have to move again? The house was on the market, but no interest in our house, as thousands that faced foreclosure let their homes go for what they owed, in a market that was over-built and over extended? What were we going to do? As the country’s manufacturing, skilled labor, and professional classes become increasingly similar, increasingly crunched within the narrowing social strata… paycheck to paycheck the norm, debt ever mounting, savings decreasing and the Golden Rule all but Abolished… was my family going to make it?
I thought of the time, we lived when things were bright and care-free, our grandparents had worked for a better nation. They saw the dawn of a new age; jobs for the jobless, homes for the homeless as well as time and money for the middle-classes to raise families, play, take vacations, have Christmas trees for everyone. I remember the arrogance of my high school friends, all those years ago, we made statements about the American culture, as if we weren’t participating in it, yet kept traditions, like the tree within our homes. Many in my group weren’t Christian, some subscribed to other religions, some to no religion at all. Still the tree was a common icon within each home in December. I, like my friends, had invested interest in the tree.
So tree-less for the first time in my life, my kids helped me see that Bob Cratchet didn’t have a tree but he did have his family. He had a much better Christmas than others in the story. We didn’t have a tree but we did have each other. And it was true we spent the holiday with the ones we love most. Still I had hoped to have a measure of success higher than a 19th century clerk.
Come springtime, I was ready to face the fact that I’m materialistic, perhaps it part of being human or American, or a woman, I don’t know. But even as I review the lessons taught me that tree-less year, I must report this year, we have a tree. And a Very Merry Tree it is too!
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