Gloria Gaynor Performs Hit single for Auto Companies and Congress

I was thinking about the Auto Companies, wondering if there is precedent for the lack of sales in another similar company. I'd like to think the lack of sales is less about credit availability, more about people realizing they don't need new cars, and people spending money on important stuff like a mortgage. I thought it would interesting to look at wagon and carriage makers, to see if any of them survived the switch to horse-less carriages we call automobiles. It turns out one of the only ones I could find was Studebaker, which could turn out a hundred carriages a day or one every six minutes. Many might realize that this company also made automobiles, they somehow were able to make the switch, and probably without the help of the government.

I know people would say that it took less capital to make a carriage then an automobile and that the tool usage has more crossover in the early days. But I think it is important to realize that the largest producer of Wagon/Carriage was able to survive the fact that people stopped wanting the product they produced. The automobile companies might need to take a look see. General Motors are not so general, they should be called Specific Motors, yuck yuck.

Just to realized how many companies started making cars when the business first started take a look at coachbuilt.com where many companies are displayed with their history. I doubt a lot of them whined to the govt. when they went under. Perhaps the company from my hometown Pan Motor Company would be a good comparison to the automakers of today, a swindler who lost money for his stockholders. Something similar to what Madoff did, the former Nasdaq Stock market chairman is crooked. Funny how you would think that people at that level would be rich enough not to feel the need to steal.

The most interesting thing I have found from that story is the history of "Ponzi" a man who will have his namesake live on forever because of his skill at duping others.

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.

you put your sit it, put your sit out, thats what its all about

Workers in Chicago are 'sitting in' at the factory that just laid them off. I wonder if this trend will continue especially if factories close. The need for people to work is not only to help the income but people are lost without their job. Why people get up in the morning is to go to work, humans are creatures of habit. Now calling work a habit might not seem the most appropriate but it sits ok with me. Without this habit people are lost, their drive and mental health is effected.

Fear not for other countries have gone through the same thing on a bigger scale and much closer in history that our 'Great Depression'. I personally am inspired by Argentina, whose cartoneros have cut the waste of Buenos Aires by over a quarter in the past decade. Humans are inventive survivers. In Argentina there was a factory that opened up with the sole work of formers employees getting together to produce. This was documented in a movie called The Take this is what should inspire the workers of americ who get laid off. If there is demand for the product that they produce then they should keep producing it regardless if there is a CEO at the top who is able to manage and make money off of it.

This has happened throughout history and food has been one of the sources of desire for those living off the left overs. The picture at the top is called The Gleaners, it is also the title of a movie about people who still do that in europe. People who comb the fields and eat the products thought not fit for market. The movie should be inspiration, along with the story of The Take for those people who feel despair and fear in the oncoming economic doom.