American Business - The Great Scam

 In my blog on TV, I touched upon the fact that the networks keep dredging up cheap, sorry reality shows, half-witted comedies, and, on many of the cable networks, endless reruns of old programs and a constant stream of a limited number of bad movies, and suggested that if we turned them off, sponsors would cancel, and they would have to change their routines. I then realized that maybe they wouldn't do that at all, that maybe, they didn't always care about money.

Now, I know that makes no sense, on the surface, but stay with me. Every year, this country does around 60 billion dollars business in illegal drugs and all of that money has to be laundered. Without going through all of the steps invloved, suffice it to say, that often, the best way to do that is to borrow good money from banks, keep that, and dump the illegal funds on the open market. You cannot spend the tainted money without the cops, the DEA  and IRS getting a bit too nosy, so why care if you lose it. You have replaced it with clean money.

The more you have, the easier it is to get bank loans, so. you create businesses, get your loan, and spend the bad cash without thought. Again, if you lose it, who cares. Heck, you can even use some to pay back that bank loan. If it seems complicated it is, but big time criminals can hire accountants who can manipulate that money better that David Copperfield can manipulate a deck of cards.

Look around when you travel your town and pay close attention every time you go out. Go to a local mall a few times and look at the little stores, not the big-box stores like Target, but the little boutiques and specialty shops. You will be amazed at how few customers ever go in them. There is no way possible that they are making enough to pay the lease on the store, their utilities, their employees, insurance, and taxes.  They cannot be making enough to justify restocking the shelves on the rare occasions they actually sell something. The story often told is that they make all of their money during the holidays, but just take a look around mid-December. Those stores may get a few browsers and make a sale or two, but, as folks are loading their cars to leave the mall, you will see that most of the bags are from the big name store.

Why, you might ask, would such a thing be allowed to go on? Good question, and here's the answer. Leaving aside talk of such nasty things as bribes, payoffs and blackmail, the economy cannot afford to have all of that drug money pulled out. If suddenly, law enforcement put a stop to all drug trafficking or the Nation was swept with some sort of anti-drug religious fervor, and all of that trade money disappeared, the economy would be stunned. Collapse would be too strong of a word, but businesses would stagger and reel a bit, and many would suffer greatly until the ship could be righted.

This, I believe, is one reason you see so many stores that just don't seem to care about attracting and keeping customers. They don't have to.

America's Young Workers

I would like to say something nice about young, working people. I have worked aroound a few and noticed something interesting, a new approach. I was brought up to believe that after trying a few jobs and goofing around a little, you had to settle into a job and stay there, slowly moving up the ladder by working as hard as you can. I did just that and after over 20 years and enough hard work to cause a lot of damage to my body, the job fell apart and I was out. I discovered that my long term loyalty was not appreciated as time and time again prospective employers said that having only one job they could call for reference was no good. I pointed out that it showed stability and hard work, but, no.

I then drifted from little job to little job finally settling in a terrible job that had one advantage, stability, so I stayed. We all got a twenty-five cent a year raise and each raise brought more and more demands. I finally broke down physically and was forced to take early retirement Social Security. But, this isn't sbout me.

I have seen young folks in minimum wage, dead end jobs and they refuse to take them as any more than that. They show up, do a reasonable amount of work, with a reasonably decent attitude and when the boss gets too demanding, which they always seem to do, they just leave. No emotions, no attachment and no stress, and that is a realistic approach.

But, when you talk to them, you find that many of them, many, are studying, working on projects and thinking of new ideas for businesses and, when they feel ready, they have no qualms about giving it a go. Do they all succeed? Of course not, but even when these ventures fail, they cheerfully walk away ready to revise the plan and start over or to try a new plan. And, they do sometimes succeed, always because they thought up a new product, service, or approach to business that works.

Of course this does not apply to all young people, some truly are just dull clods, just as many older workers are, but it seems that more and more, behind that face saying, "you want fries with that?" there is a mind that is planning and scheming. To those, I have two bits of advice. First, stay fearless and keep at it. Two, be careful at that little stop gap job you have; those bruises and sprains you get when you're twenty come back and bite you in later years. Whatever happens, don't give up and don't give in to the pressure to take the easy way.

American Television - A Wasteland the size of the Gobi Desert

 

Like many of you, I watch a lot of TV, too much, way too much. I am of the first generation to grow up with TV. My folks enjoyed it, but watched very little. Actually, I watched very little, but not by my choice. As I grew, I watched more and more, until, with the exception of my wild days in the '60s, I just seemed to automatically turn the set on when I entered the house. I still do that and recently have begun to ask just what is wrong with me.                                    

I get up in the morning to the news and usually within 20 minutes I have absorbed the days doings, at least all they are going to explain. For reasons I do not understand, I leave it on for hours of analysis that explains nothing. The rest of the day is spent turning from one ancient rerun to another. Blessedly, I get the Golf Channel and four days a week I can watch a tournament or two.                                                                                                                                                              

Now I execpt full responsibilty for my addiction and I am going to work on that, but I sometimes wonder what the various networks are thinking. For example, the USA network shows Law and Order SVU, NCIS, Modern Family, and occasionally CSI. That, plus a few movies, is their lineup. And when I say a few movies, I mean a few. They have a handful of second rate movies they show repeatedly. TNT shows Charmed, Supernatural, Bones and Castle, day in, day out, again broken by a scattering of movies.  

 At one time, i could count on Discover, National Geographic, and the History Channel for some decent programming, but no more. Now, Discover is dominated by shows about commercial fisherman, Nat Geo is obsessed with Alaskan Law enforcement and History is a blend of Pawn Stars, American Pickers, and Ancient Aliens. Yes, sometimes those things are interesting and they do, here and there, throw in a few other features, but they do not vary things a lot.  There used to be The Learning Channel, TLC, that did a lot of fascinating, educational programs, but last time I checked, they seemed to show little but wedding and party planning. Bravo used to have some great cutting edge programs about the Arts, now all they show is Real Housewives. Anyway, you get my point.     

Again, this idiotic addiction is my fault and I am writing this because I imagine that many others out there are suffering the same hang up. There is more, however. All of the networks make huge money by selling advertising on these shows. If we do not watch them, their revenue would drop, and they would either go broke or get better programs to regain their viewers, that is how our economic system works, supposedly. I would be curious to see if that really would happen. I suspect not. I think that many businesses are not concerned with making money. If you own a huge conglomerate of businesses, it is often uselful to set one or two up to lose money. This allows you to manipulate your corporate taxes. It also may be a sign of something even shadier, something very sinister. That will be the topic of my next post. In the meantime, just say no to Pawn Stars.