The Definite Article

Wow, Nae, have some empathy with the human side of it. These people have rent to pay - plus other expenses. Yes, they most likely can find other work, but that does take time - which they have been given precious little of. If they haven't planned on losing their job this week they could be experiencing some major panic and money crunchage.

Oddly enough, these people work in an industry that could be closed tomorrow if the world decided that potato chips aren't healthy. But that would probably constitute mass hysteria and, in an effort to save the potato chip industry governments would begin instituting mass drugging policies in order to get people's heads around the ball. Certainly, most people work for an industry that is unnecessary or a system that is irrelevant. If your job is gone tomorrow, one is only sad because they perceived themselves as somehow relevant. But, sigh, people are not capable of accepting the movement of the world as being independent of their existence and, thus, losing one's job is very challenging.

I see this as a conflict between macro econ and micro econ. In the macro world, it is a good thing that the world of potato chips is becoming more efficient; in the micro world, the impact on the individual can be devastating. You see the same thing in nature with catastrophic floods, earthquakes, fires, etc. The environment may come back stronger and healthier than ever, but if you were there at the time, you would be dead.

Thanks, Ma. I'm certainly not saying I care whether potato chips continue to be made, nor am I making any statement about the productivity of the plant or even whether these people thought they were relevant (?!). The individuals who lost their jobs know one thing: tomorrow they no longer have a paycheck. (Mendon, mass hysteria? drugging? did you just finish reading Fahrenheit 451?)

I was agreeing with you, Mara. And with Nathan, too, sort of. I was trying to bring the two viewpoints in to relationship with one another.

I really did know that. I got what you were saying - but I guess Mendon's comment sort of came out of left field to me - I was responding to that.

Hi guys!

Losing your job does suck, but what sucks worse, in my opinion, is an entire firm going under because the firm couldn't fire some people when it needed to.

GM is going through something similar right now; the unions protect jobs, but they protect jobs in the short term rather than the long term. Labor flexibility contributes to the long term health of individual companies and the economy as a whole; inflexibility from union agreements, whether in the form of wage stickiness or quotas, weakens companies and hinders growth.

I feel sorry for the people who have lost their jobs, but don't have any sympathy for the union at all.

I'm a little miffed that anyone would suggest that I'm coming from left field. Here's the argument again, a little more drawn out.
1.) People wake up and decide, as a whole planet, I'm not going to eat potato chips ever again.
2.)People actually stop buying or eating potato chips.
3.) Baffled economists, accountants, marketers, executives, etc wonder what the hell has gone wrong with the obese American public, teenagers, and male bachelors older than 32.
4.) The potato chip lobby begins to ask for subsidies to restructure because they are facing massive losses as grocery stores and gas stations across the nation refuse to carry their products.
5.) Philip Morris, who has their hands deep in the potato chip industry, mobilizes the money of the tobacco lobby to motivate congress to investigate in the sudden and rapid cessation of potato chip consumption. (This also begins to happen in other nations).
6.) The popular media like newsweek and Time begin spouting some crap from some intern who works at the Economist about how the failing chip market is an ill omen of another black Monday.
7.) Ely Lilly, in an attempt to further elongate their control of the toxic chemical Prozac suggests that the reason that people aren't consuming potato chips is because there has been an airborn avian virus that passed to humans that causes a degeneration in the area of the brain that causes "potato chip munchies"
8.) Ted Turner, who has a fist full of dollars in Ely Lilly and MERCK manipulates FOX such that it repeatedly runs commentary on how scientists think that Prozac and Zoloft will cure people of this dearth of potato chip munchies.
9.) Congress considers mass doping measures to keep the Western economy (the primary consumer of potato chips) ahead of the rest of the world. In an effort to rectify the situation children are given prozac along with chocolate milk and a bag of potato chips at school everyday.
10.) X-box releases a first person shooter game, a doctor wandering the streets of New York giving people shots so that they will stop killing one another and peacefully begin eating potato chips again
11.) Somehow, Steve Jobs comes out of the whole thing shining and moving the American GDP up a few notches by releasing the iSnack and accesories iMunch and iCrunch simultaneously.

Ummm. Or I was merely suggesting that the whole industry is erroneous. Why are these people surprised that they've lost their jobs? In theory, they should go to work every day knowing that the possibility of people making smart decisions could rule out their very profession.

Yes, it is sad to lose one's job and can be very challenging to bounce back from that. Most people care less about their work than they do the paycheck at the end of the month. How often do you hear, "I'm just doing this until better options come along."

Oh, yeah, shame on me for thinking you were coming out of left field.

Mensch, I think that the fantastical nature of some of your suppositions that is misleading.

I mean, bachelors over the age of 32 don't eat crisps. I just don't believe it.

On the other hand, I can't wait to get my hands on the iSnack! Have you seen the new MacBook? Where's the Altivec?

There are no pan-asain supermakets
down in hell.
So you can't buy golden boy peanuts there;
but the streets of heaven are lined with shells,
and there's billboards of the golden boy
everywhere!