Starling Serendipity and Coffee-Table Politics Concerning Trade
Yeah, it's a cute fortunate shot of a threesome of what some feel is a nuisance bird. (The wife and I don't believe in nuisance birds.) And the fixed focal length of the NovaBird remote camera supplied the "shutter karma". But there's something else in the photo that is quite special. Take a close look at the plumage and beaks... The plumage is absolutely brilliant. (Check out a close up of a like bird here.) That radiance is indicative of full grown starlings. However, the beaks speak volumes, (pun intended). Seriously, an adult, non-breeding starling's beak remains dark through much of the winter. It only changes color with the onset of spring-like conditions. The three mugs in the pic above are close to announcing spring in full bloom! So who needs a rodent like Punxsutawney Phil?
Now, as for the "coffee-table politics"... How about the current hot-button, presidential topic of lost American jobs and trade agreements. People are running amuck blaming the President, Congress, NAFTA, China, Mexico, India, and for all I know, Bigfoot. And of course each politician has "The Answer". (Funny how no two politicians have the same "Answer". You'd think that given all the problems our nation faces, statistically two politicians would have to agree on something... Gee, it's almost like they've each got a self-serving agenda going...) Well here's what the politicians won't tell you...
- With the advent of the Internet and cheap shipping/freight, we truly do live in a global village complete with its own global marketplace. And the members of that marketplace are hopelessly intertwined.
- Every single worker in that global marketplace faces a tough decision... "How hard and how many hours per day am I willing to work to reach a certain standard of living?" People in places like India, China, and Mexico have answered that question very clearly - they're willing to work very long hours for very short money for what Americans would call an extremely modest or even unacceptable lifestyle.
- End result of the above? Well, here's a glaring example using China... We buy far more from China than we sell to them because the Chinese are willing to work longer and harder for a lower standard of living. The Chinese government then uses a portion of this vast influx of cash to buy American securities (like chunks of the Treasury debt and the U.S. corporate debt). Sure... Keep the ball rolling... (Besides, China is still number two in the "American Securities Game" at $699 billion... Japan is clinging to number one bringing the total to $1.4 trillion.) They bail us out; we buy more cheap Chinese goods on cheap credit, and get deeper in debt. And so the cycle goes. But the problem is that the average American household owes over $8,000 on its credit cards. Guess where this is going...
- And what do the politicians do in this oh-so-important election year? Why they quickly pass a $150 billion "Economic Stimulus" bill. Gee is it possible that we'll just go out and buy Chinese goods as always and make the situation worse?
Even given serendipity, disheartened by the feeders,
CapeCodAlan
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