Kimmel Center in Philadelphia

 Went to Philadelphia this weekend and hear an amazing French cellist play along with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center.  Concert was great and the hall was wonderful - like being inside a guitar.  And most amazing of all was the soaring lobby ceiling.

Occupy Wall Street

I had lunch with a friend, an old friend, who I knew leaned rightward, but I was surprised at his stance.  He'd risen up the corporate ladder to heights very high.  So high, I guess it's hard to see the ground.  Obama, he said, won't be re-elected, for sure. Because, he said,  everyone knows it's his fault.  The Occupy-wall-streeters, he said,  could all get jobs if they wanted.  They don't want, he said, to work.

That can't be right.
The movement lacks a voice, that's clear.....
The movement lacks a voice that's clear.

But isn't the gist that it should not be so hard.  I am reminded of how cruel commerce can be by the nineteenth century factories.  We need regulation for a reason.  The excesses.  But maybe we don't need so much excess regulation.  There has to be a middle ground.

Is the movement is looking for the middle ground?

Great telephone pole on Martha's Vineyard

Do you think I can go for the Nobel Prize for Economics?

So here's what I figure.....DO THE MATH.....(would if I could).

1) We can replace most manual labor with big machines (farming), and robots (manufacturing). and computers.

2) We can replace much clerical labor with computers.

3) We can replace much of middle management and management with better management information, controls, processes, telecommunications and computers.

4) That leaves most businesses targeting highly leveraged models, with as few employees as possible, as few high-paid middle management jobs as possible.

5) Communications and computers enable most word to be done close to where there are raw-materials and cheap labor.

6) Cheap labor includes low-price PhD's from the abundant global supply.  Also low-price service employees for phone-support, aided by remote computing.  Also low price analysis.

7) Now, DO THE MATH. (would if I could).

8) There are 6 or 7 or 8 or 9 billion people in the world - - and growing rapidly.  There will not be enough good paying jobs - - unless:

a) We build roads and buildings like we did in the 19th century.  Using a lot of people.
b) We manufacture things like we did in the 19th century. Using lots of people.

Note:  We built highways and railroads and sky-scrapers faster in 1880--1940 than we do now.

c) We farm using lots of people.

9) What is a service economy - where you don't need people to make things or run companies.  You only need young people to look after old people with a continuous transfer of wealth from the aging population to the younger generation and so on, and so on.

10) Do the math.  Would if I could.

The Global Economy: Pumpkins in New England, imported from Mexico, not-for-profit

Growing up, we bought our annual pumpkin at Rippy's Farm Stand on the Post Road in Westport.  It wasn't until my children were in grade-school that I actually saw a pumpkin patch - - with pumpkins growing in a field to be picked.  The next year when we returned to the farm in Redding, the field was there, the pumpkins were there, but they had been placed there - as if they had grown there. We went, yesterday, to Ridgefield, where there is an annual fund raiser at the local church, raising money by selling pumpkins, imported from Mexico.  The air was clear, the pumpkins were beautiful, we 'picked' a few.  Global.