On right now.

Special Barack Obama webcast address : http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/oct20watch

He’s destroying.

Update : it’s over, but you’ll hear all about it tomorrow.  It was big time.

Plastic.

A great material in almost all ways, except degradation obviously.  Juuust a reminder.

Eat it, Richard Florida.

That was harsh.  Often his theories are like panacea for people like me.  But for those who aren’t in the white urban know how circle, Richard Florida (American U of T professor in urban studies and author) is the centrepiece podium of the “Creative Class” movement.  I want to believe what he says almost all of the time, but here is more proof that Richard Florida’s theory that “livable cities” bringing jobs is not that scientifically robust.

[via the Portland Tribune] :

“The city and region have long assumed that investments in quality of life would result in job growth in the city. These investments have succeeded in generating an unprecedented influx of creative talent to the city, but that alone has not created new jobs”.

Read the article here.  I still think a lot of his thoughts on North America’s service/creative economy are correct, but some of his theories on neighbourhoods appear to be falling short.

Capitalism : A Love Story.

C and I went to nearly empty Monday night showing of Michael Moore’s new movie, Capitalism : A Love Story.  Going to see a Michael Moore movie seems almost as automatic to Liberals as buying Radiohead records – good or bad, you still buy them. Part of the code.   I don’t always love the man, but always appreciate his message.

Some say this is his best movie.  I don’t know movies.  I learned a few things and went through the standard cycle of angry laughcry emotions when watching a Moore film.  So here are some nuggets in point form for easy digestion:

• About 10 Goldman Sachs employees have had direct influence on the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve (resulting in their multi billion dollar profits while other banks are failing)
• Dead Peasant’s Insurance (how companies can take life insurance policies on non-key employees and be the sole beneficiary from their death, at times leaving their families with hundreds of thousands of dollars in hospital/funeral bills)
• How Senator Dodd in the US is completely corrupt, accepting impossible deals through Countrywide mortgage company
• That now, the richest 1% have more than the lowest 95% COMBINED in our “capitalist” system.

More or less, Moore tries to prove the (North) American dream is futile – we have been duped to believe that if we work hard we will be rewarded as much as the upper class.  Evidence shows that this dream is exactly that – not reality in the slightest.  The classic perpetual cycle of not being able to break out of whatever socio-economic status you originated from.  The classic pyramid scheme – there’s only room for a small few at the top and people trying to move up need to be kept down.  CEO wages going up 600%, worker wages going up 1%.  Billion dollar bonuses in the time of deep recession.  Labour productivity increasing, jobs being cut in the effort for positive angles on a chart.  How the word “enough” is the dirtiest word in capitalism – it must be “more”.

So we want solutions right?  Moore proposes we need to exclusively replace common practice with more democratic principles in business – empower your workers through voting in business decisions and actually share in profits.  Something barely resembling conventional profit sharing in today’s workplace.  He shows his examples – the archetypal co-op, the progressive bottom-up organizational style, empowered labour classes.  Success of this solution depends on one of two options – taxing the rich more, or forcing businesses to eliminate corporate greed and share more of their insane profits with their employees.  I think most of us would prefer the 2nd option, and it would work.  A perfect example of corporate greed can even be seen in the airline industry – airline pilots have been so squeezed that they are now making less than people that bake bread in a Cleveland co-op.  Some pilots are making just 20-30K a year and airline execs are getting away with it because they know most pilots have a true passion for aviation and want to stay in the job.

I’m almost done I swear.   So, what do we know?   Humans are inherently greedy, and people need things to live.  Curtains, shoes, computers, coffee.  So if we let free enterprise reign, can we all agree a central body (ie. something resembling government) needs to strictly enforce rules that help counteract our inherent greed as a species?  It’s intellectual, feels unnatural, goes against our very human nature.  It will feel weird and that’s why it hasn’t happened, so we turn to working towards a false and delusional dream that has been promised to us.   The role of this body would be to encourage responsible business, discourage greed and exploitation by enforcing strict rules and ensure have-not employees get their fair share and have a democratic voice in their workplace.   Wow… I just realized that sounds a lot like unions.  And we don’t even do unions that well.  We may need to buy a new drawing board, hope they’re cheap.