Sunday, December 20, 2009

Death of Icon… The Failure of Corporate America


GM will most likely announce tomorrow that it will just close down Saab.

Read the article

Corporate greed pulled a small successful company with extreme brand loyalty and global recognition into the folds a soulless behemoth. Focus on profit, ignoring core values and style that initially grew the brand, the result was predictable. A “standardized design”, shrinking sales and the ultimate doom a once classic was the inevitable outcome.
What a travesty.

I am an American. Unfortunately the new mantra of Corporate Capitalism is “dispensability”. Benefits, brands, vendors, employees, and now Countries, we are all “dispensable” in the blind march towards profit in a Global economy. As more and more jobs evaporate, or offshore, it seems all we have left to export is corporate greed – and the world is a fast study.

Many are my friends or relatives whose jobs have been off-shored to India or China. Some have suffered the humiliation of actually going to those foreign countries and training their replacements how to do their jobs.

At some point we’re going to realize there’s nobody left to purchase those things we once produced. Capitalism, who’s very essence we’ve perfected has grown beyond us. In a world where the only commodity is brain power, and the object of that brain power can be sent to any location in the world with the click of a mouse, we should not be surprised when we are left in the cold. We gleefully shop at wall mart knowing full well the goods on its shelves are produced by toils child labor. We don’t care. We vote our approval because we save a dollar… with no thought to the previous small business that provided a good wage and benefits to one of our neighbors – a victim of new “SuperStore”.

I am ashamed of what we’ve become and where we’re going. I fear for my children’s future.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Lies, damn lies, and Lame Republicans...

I am really tired of Republicans blaming Barack Obama for any part of the budget deficit.

Here’s the reality… Fiscal 2009 began October 1st 2008 and ended September 31 2009. Fiscal year ending September 31 2009 ended with a 1.4 Trillion dollar deficit. That deficit was put together and passed by the Bush administration 4 moths before Obama took office. The stimulus package, was passed in December of 2008, once again Obama was NOT in yet in office. The entire deficit we have up to October 1 2009 is due to George W Bush and the "Consertave Republicans". That’s a fact.

The CBO (Central Budget Office) initially predicted a 1.2 trillion dollar deficit for FY 2009 when GWB pushed it through. Really, they were damn close. They predict a 1.2 trillion for Fiscal Year 2010, which is the first Obama budget. The true numbers tell that Barack Obama is no worse than the Republicans when it comes to finances. Assertions of socialism are unfounded rhetoric, once again fodder of Fox News, and not supported by Facts