supply and demand

Here’s something interesting I read in the papers. It seems that according to various studies that corporate profits are up, corporate productivity (i.e., how hard you work) is WAY up, and Wall Street Firms are doing so well that last Christmas’ bonuses for individual traders were in the multi-million dollar range.

BUT, salaries . . . i.e., what you, as opposed to Wall Street brokers, get paid . . . are actually down. You are almost certainly working longer hours for less pay, fewer benefits, and no job security.

Hmmm.

So, let us restate the law of supply and demand. It now reads:

“I, the Wall Street Bigwig, whose ability to forecast the market has been statistically proven to be slightly less good than that of your average chimpanzee, DEMAND that you, who produce everything, SUPPLY me with everything I want, regardless of the fact that I, in turn, produce nothing, and intend to give you just exactly that — nothing! — in return.”

and I'm still mad about Borat

So I saw in the paper that one of the guys responsible for the “Girls Gone Whoopee” series of video tapes may be going to jail for a while. Seems he didn’t exactly have consent for some of his stars . . . i.e., the under-aged women who got drunk and appeared in his pictures.

Which is fine I suppose. Keeps us on our toes. And Morality is everything. Etc. Etc.

But, still . . .

Let’s see if I’ve got this straight. Get somebody plastered and put them into humiliating situations on film, and call it “Girls Gone Whacko,” then you’re a nasty quasi-pornographer and they take you to court.

But, if you get somebody drunk and put them into humiliating situations on film, and you call it “Borat,” they give you Oscars.

Okay. Just making sure I knew how it worked around here.

New Year's Blessing . . . sorta

I’m back from New Mexico, and I’d like to start this year with something of a new tradition. I want to say something. To wit:

To anyone whom I have ever in my life offended or hurt by word or deed or lack of action, I here-by humbly apologize and I hope you will try to forgive me.

To anyone who has ever hurt or offended me by word or deed or lack of action, I will try to forgive you.

And, finally . . .

To the terrorists who have slaughtered thousands in the name of religion, to the men in Washington who lied and slandered their way into office and then launched meaningless and horrible wars, to the party hacks who sent the tanks into Tiananmen . . . I hope you b*stards get brain aneurisms and die.

Sorry. But this Christian forgiveness stuff only goes so far. You know?