December 10, 2008

Black Market Depression rises again maybe

Perhaps Saudi Arabia should start courting rich businessmen who have been through Alcoholics Anonymous . Live here for it is alcohol free I imagine it would say. I just tried looking up the years of the great depression in regards to prohibitions which was somewhat the dynamite in helping explode the power of organized crime, which as it looks like now goes all the way up to governors of Illinois. Are they committing crimes because they are just criminals or is their job satisfaction just really low? Maybe they are unhappy, that should be looked into the happiness of world leaders, they way they rate occupation happiness. I think perhaps the governor was concered about the drop in his 401K and needed to pad his bank account a little. Thing like that just happen in a depression I guess.

The Happiness of Politicians scale. Looked at a countries specific happiness of government officials. I imagine they would find the country of Elbonia very high on the scale, I mean who doesn't love to work for a country where the Frisbee is the national bird.

A better question for CNN.com should be does it matter if a country has happy politicians, for look at FDR or Lincoln, were they at all happy people in those years? Was Nixon happy when he was knowingly lied to the people who voted him into office.

Anyways, the black market will perhaps rise again as I imagine that in suffering economies black markets do very well. The civil war I imagine had a large black market, some people say today that undocumented workers are the new black market instead of Cuban contraband.
My recent fascination with the Civil War area stumbled me onto civil war prisons which I found out were horrendous in their conditions. The picture above is of a man from Andersonville prison where many union troops were held. Goes to show no matter what nationality that when at war prisoners are treated bad.


This picture makes me think of several things, on a more light hearted note, I think about David Blaine and his starvation stunt, which was supposedly the first time where doctors could test the effects of starvation legally, without war. But I was scrounging around online a while back and found out that some concientuos objectors during WWII were stationed at the U of M in Minneapolis and put through a starvation diet while being tested in the name of science. The minnesota experiment it was called, there is an interview with one of the participants here. The most chilling tale he told is how they could smell the general mills flour factory up river, and that would make them even more hungry.
I suppose hunger is the surest way for humans to know what it means to be alive, to break us down to our essential life needs. I may have to try and read The Hunger Artist just to satiate this intrest.
I know in my life that hunger and the black market have crossed paths. The underground operation through food establishments across the country. The "Food Trade" as we called it, would arise when someone at the sub shopped I worked at downtown would get hungry and was tired of eating the same sandwiches we always had. We would then call nearby restaurants and proposition them for a "Food Trade" or sometimes they would call us. My roomate also had a similar experience in a Food Court job at the mall. This black market openness amoung underpaid food workers must be thriving during these tough times. If only the profits of such a food trade could be as altruistic as these Canadians who started selling junk food out of thier locker.

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