State of the union

All the good news we get is just the offal of a deeply corrupt system. The more I read and the more I learn, the more I come to understand this. I get angrier every day. Not at the injustices imposed on me by a linear and conformist society because, hell, I drink a cup of starbucks nearly every day. I get angry at the fact that we've all been made to be so apathetic.

We are the children of the information age, so why do those in our ranks who have gotten angry enough to care still want to wage an activist war? We're trying to change people's minds with 50 year old techniques. Wal-mart, the gap, and Nike could not care less if a bunch of uppity hippies boycott their store. The money lost is not even a rounding error on their annual profit report.

Just think about some of these things. Just think about the fact that our whole system of economics does not account for negative economic impact. The GDP only calculates positive economic factors. For instance, you may remember the big announcement in early october that unemployment had slowed down dramatically, with only 15,000 jobs lost in august and september. Sounds great, right? But I could have sworn that well over 700,000 jobs were lost in one nine hour period at the end of august. That strikes me as a rather significant detail, so why did the US labor department see fit to exclude all the jobs lost on the gulf coast due to Katrina? Because the GDP equation is neither written nor designed to include acts of God, so the 700,000+ jobs lost there in august just don't count. That does not strike me as a very effective way to calculate our national economic well being. Another problem is that because our economic system rests solidly on the idea of income gains, we cannot include catastrophes and their negative implications. By way of our contemporary economic calculations, the rebulding costs in the wake of the triad (Katrina, Rita, Wilma), now estimated at over $40 billion, are a good thing. It will provide jobs and income to a marginal number of people. Meanwhile, there are burger king franchises in new orleans so desperate for employees that they are offering $1000 signing bonuses to fry cooks. No way in hell will you convince me that the massive destruction and loss of life due to those hurricanes were good things, socially or economically. I'm sure there were some low income housing property owners here in atlanta licking their greedy little fingers thinking about all the po' Nawlins folks about to become po' 'Lanta folks, but those slum lords should all be lined up and shot like like dogs anyway.

Blow it out your ass.