I saw a couple on bicycles riding hand-in-hand home. It must have been the same couple I had seen before and mentioned in this blog after another return home from work.
For some reason, the bicycle traffic seemed lighter than usual when I rode home after work. I wondered if it was because of the cold or the manufacturing crisis.
Seablogger makes a posting about misplaced righteousness. I can think of a few examples of that in my time. I see people get indignant over things they can't control while having no concern for the things they can, like their behavior. I have seen people always willing to adopt the heroic pose while never lowering themselves to do the more mundane and practical things like show up on time for work and give a damn about their job. "Lie, Cheat, Steal" while at the same time supposing their ethics are not to be questioned. And I make this statement fully aware I have things to answer for that I have tried to rationalize away.
Victor David Hanson is optimistic about America, even after the Economic Crisis and the election of Obama. Here is what he has to say about America vis-a-vis the world:
The question is not whether America is in decline, but whether it is in
decline at a more rapid pace than true of Europe, Russia, or Asia. And one
bright spot in the otherwise dark economic news will be the resilience of the
United States. Forget trillions of this, and billions of that, or our sinking
GDP and GNP, or deflation and unemployment rates, or all the other data—at least for a moment. Instead consider the gargantuan mess that Europe is in with its
even wilder real estate market, greater deficits, and far larger banking losses
from bad loans abroad. Russia is a mess; with less than $50 a barrel oil, it
will be worse than a mess. Export-driven China may have trillions of US dollars
in reserves, but it has tens of trillions in infrastructure investments to make
before it can match US roads, dams, and airports, much less approximate our
standard of living. Americans are far more meritocratic than others, success far
less predicated on birth, accent, parentage, or class. We are more optimistic,
and do best when pressed (Consider a broke America in 1939, and a rich America
in 1946 that defeated the Axis and sent billions to its allies in the UK and
Russia.). Our demography is far more encouraging than Europe’s. We react to
crises far more energetically; compare US troops in Afghanistan to their NATO
counterparts; or ask who adapted more successfully in Iraq—the US Marines far
from home, or Al Qaeda terrorists in their own backyard? Once the dust settles
on this crisis, I wager the United States will be relatively stronger after than
before the meltdown. One can do almost anything with a $13 trillion economy, a
two-percent-plus growing population, and a stable political system; much harder
with a shrinking work force that breaks apart along class lines and resentments.
Even while pundits write weekly books about the ‘end’ of the United States, or
at least ‘American decline,’ the United States will emerge relatively stronger
for the ordeal.
John Derbyshire was thinking of going to South Korea until he read this:
If you’re thinking of going overseas to teach English in South Korea, my first advice to you is DON’T. . . . I estimate there is a 70% chance that if you go you will end up getting screwed over in your contract and actually end up losing money. Most people don’t last the first three months with a company. The ones who stay longer usually end up getting screwed over for even more money. . . . The country and people are wonderful, but the hagwon/english institutes are corrupt and most usually go bankrupt within the first 1 or 2 years. . . . The rule of thumb in Korea is that if you’re not Korean, then you don’t really matter. You really have almost no legal rights. If a company decides to terminate your contract, for any reason whatsoever, they can and they will. So if the company is planning to swindle you anyway (and most do) then no amount of caution is enough. . . .
And so the Derb continued....
Perhaps this illustrates a general rule about East Asian nations. While they and their peoples have much to commend them, and wonderful richness of culture, they are not good places in which to be a private-sector employee. There was a sort of slogan or idiom I heard a lot in 1970s Hong Kong from local Chinese people, to the general effect that: “If you have an American boss, you’re in heaven. An Australian or a British boss is also pretty good. Failing that, a Japanese boss might be OK. But to have a Chinese boss — that’s the pits!”
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