Tag Archives: economy

WWJD (What would a journalist do)?

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CC/Al Bar

Illustration: CC/Al Bar

A New York social worker tells a tall tale, and NPR gives him a pass. (To deny this unlikely Good Samaritan bit would be a crime, apparently.)

The story (an oldie, from last spring), about a robbery victim exchanging his coat and a hot meal for his would-be mugger’s knife, sounds preposterous enough. It might also be true. But nowhere have I seen any indication that a reporter talked to a waitress, or a third party to the story.

I’ll be heading back into the classroom in a few weeks. This is the kind of feel-good story I hope my students will learn to treat skeptically.

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.

But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

via A Victim Treats His Mugger Right : NPR.

Depression 2.0 upside: Fur goes out of season

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Better times ahead. CC/Ron Dunnington

Better times ahead. CC/Ron Dunnington

It’s hard to say whether next year’s Massachusetts Trappers Association fur sale will be a bust, but things have already turned ugly for Renfro, deep in the heart of Texas.

Renfro is a pest control guy who eats his kills, and sells the pelts. Nothing goes to waste. makes shows him to be a real hunter, at least.

Renfro, 46, is the first cog in the many-layered, $15 billion global fur industry, one that is caught in the steel jaws of the global economic downturn.

via Luxury downturn hits U.S. beaver trappers | Reuters.

Those Nazi bastards, again?

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CC/Stephen Punter

The Archbishop of Canterbury. Photo: CC/Stephen Punter

The head  of the Anglican church warns many economies are going the way of Nazi Germany.

(Hitler boasted that his form of socialism was superior to that of the Soviets.)

Cue the “shocked” and “disappointed” pols, who will decry the mention of the Nazis in the same breath as the mega-rich.

LONDON (AFP) — Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams warned Monday that governments should not pursue dogmatic solutions to the financial crisis at the risk of the most vulnerable, saying that is what the Nazis did.

via AFP: Archbishop warns of dangers of economic dogma.

Great Depression 2.0: Not so bad for everybody

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CC/Matthew Targarona

Photo: CC/Matthew Targarona

With the country on the brink of a depression, U.S. congressmen are giving themselves a raise:

“As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” said Daniel O’Connell, chairman of The Senior Citizens League (TSCL), a non-partisan group. “This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter.”

via TheHill.com.

Not likely: Engineers "Doing Well by Doing Good"

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CC Ed Schipul

(Do-gooders? Rice University Bioengineering Lab. Photo: CC Ed Schipul)

The engineering professional association IEEE reports that engineers are fairing well.

Good for them.

But to say they are “doing well by doing good” is laughable, generally speaking.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers cites technologists working on “solar energy and search engines, cellphones and fuel cells, DNA sequencing and Hollywood blockbusters,” as fairly pathetic examples of do-gooding.

The IEEE goes on in this bit (below) to admit that aerospace and defense, and consumer electronics, are actually the industries keeping engineers in good stead.

IEEE Spectrum: Engineers Are Doing Well by Doing Good
This rise in starting salaries would be even higher were companies not able to get young talent from such places as India, China, and Romania. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that over the next decade, EE ­employment will grow much more slowly than other ­engineering areas, because of the job outflux to other ­countries.

I did not know that…

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The U.S. is closing in on $10 trillion in debt. It is painful to contemplate what being in hock like this will do to our liberties. The latest FUD flick, in the Inconvenient Truth vein, is IOUSA…

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.1500171&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26]

more about “I did not know that…“, posted with vodpod

Why just help a neighbor…

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…when you can take his money, too?

Zilok.com, a new service launched today, is not only a stupid idea for anyone who owns a home (granted, it might help apartment dwellers in a pinch), it is a depressing sign of hard economic times.

The service suggests that — instead of sharing your lightly-used weed whacker with a neighbor, for example — you can charge him for it.

The car safety seat pictured here, for example, is available for rent in the San Francisco State University area for eight bucks per day, which makes no economic sense whatsoever.

Zilok also says (natch) that you will be doing right by the environment, because your customers will be buying less stuff. (One reason: By renting everything, and never owning anything, they will stay poor.)

No Boston-area items were available for rent as of noon today. — mb

Zilok Official USA Launch!
Keep it local and be a green hero
By simply renting things you aren’t using to people in your area, you cut down on conspicuous consumption and encourage the reuse of everyday household items and electronics. With Zilok you help save on the natural resources needed to produce more stuff.

“Inspired by conservation and green movements in Europe, Zilok is the fun way to tackle over-consumption while expanding everyone’s access to the things they want and need—whether that is a scooter or Wii, a ratchet set or a tuxedo” offered Gary Cige, Cofounder and CEO of Zilok.