And in This Corner...
Good ideas are wonderful things. Thomas Edison had a good idea that morphed into a great idea and somewhere in the excess of five thousand experiments that good idea became the electric light bulb. Everybody has good ideas and sometimes someone says, "That's a really great good idea, let's do something about it!" The problem arises when that someone is a politician or someone who wants to do good. Either one of those two groups should cause the good idea person to go hide in a dark closet with a bottle of scotch until the good idea goes away.
An outstanding example of a good idea that fell into the wrong hands is Political Correctness. I first encountered Political Correctness when I was very young and made a comment to another young man who was of a different color. He discussed it with me in the schoolyard during recess and I experienced my first bloody nose. You might say the concept of Political Correctness was hammered home. It has nothing to do with Political Correctness but my next memorable bloody nose came one day when another young man implied that my mother and father indulged in "the dirty". I was offended at the concept and besides they were far too old for such disgraceful behavior, they were in their early thirties at the time. Looking back on it I really don't think they did such a thing anyway. My father was very aware of my existence and I truly believe that he didn't want to take the chance of producing another one.
One example of Political Correctness getting out of hand is a tendency for a certain segment of the female population to insure their identity by using the hyphen when they get married. Susan Smith marries John Jones and assumes the new name of Susan Smith-Jones. She does this because she wants to maintain her identity as a person, not just John's wife. Somehow she has neglected to realize that she had assumed her father's identity in the first place. Her mother was Mary Williams when she married Tom Smith, shouldn't Susan acknowledge her birthright and her mother by being Susan-Smith-Williams-Jones? What about the grandparents? Susan has two sets of grandparents and there are four names there that should be acknowledged. If Susan carries her mission of identity to a logical conclusion the act of addressing a letter to her would cause my computer to go into permanent brain lockup.
Then there is the problem of addressing a letter to someone named Susan Smith, I don't know if Susan is a Ms. or a Mrs. I have a 50-50 option of getting it wrong. In the real world it is a fact that if you are faced with a 50-50 option you have a 90% chance of getting it wrong. I don't want to call her Susan because I don't know her and this is a formal business letter. I don't want to start the letter off with "Dear Susan" which implies an assumption that we are old and dear friends. Chances are that is not the case since most business letters I write fall into the category of asking for something, begging for something, complaining about something, or just in general having a problem. I am not looking for a pen pal, I am not seeking friendship, I just need some help in a problem area and am not seeking a lifelong relationship. Besides my wife wants to know why I'm having correspondence with someone named Susan. I normally resolve the quandary by not writing the letter and letting the problem seek its own solution.
Political Correctness has produced generations that are spending their time being offended. I have forced myself to stop holding doors open for women since I have had unpleasant encounters with members of the opposite sex who feel that I have assumed they cannot open a door themselves. I have had doors held open for me no doubt because the holdee has assumed that I'm an old phart. I know I'm an old phart and I thank the person for holding the door, I don't feel offended, although I have probably offended a nearby lawyer who has just witnessed a sound case of offensive behavior in the Political Correctness arena that could enrich both of us.
March 29, 2009
March 28, 2009
And In This Corner
I find the current crisis running rampant through the American automobile industry fascinating. In the 1960’s I was a youthful foreign sports car salesman in California. I choose that profession because I loved sports cars and wasn’t in a position to buy one. But I found out that if you were a salesman you got a demonstrator. Sounded great to me, I got one to drive, hung around sports car people, and got paid for it.
There was a national trade newspaper called Automotive News that came out ever so often, I have forgotten the frequency, which reported the nation’s automotive news. Rather a clever name for an automotive newspaper, don’t you think? It’s important to keep that type of thinking prominent when you consider the American automobile manufacturer.
I remember one particular news item of the time that discussed the impact of foreign automobiles on the domestic market. At that time Detroit considered itself the center of the automotive world and pooh-poohed a possible threat by the foreign import on domestic production and sales. The article claimed that nationwide foreign sales only amounted to three to four percent of the total automobile sales in this country.
The reason that article has stuck with me is that I clearly remember that where I was located, Los Angeles County, foreign auto sales ran in the thirty percent range. No one in Detroit had noticed that California had become the mecca for the automobile nut. Cars were a way of life in California and cars that provided what the buying public wanted were selling like Levi’s priced at $1.98.
I was working at a small sports car agency when the owner got a wild hair and decided to pick up the then unknown line of Japanese cars called the Datsun. Rebellion in the ranks! We were “sports car” salesmen; we weren’t going to demean ourselves selling those Japanese rice burners made of surplus Campbell soup cans. Unfortunately, we would get trapped by a customer who would shove us into a corner and force us to take their money so they could drive away in one of those rice burners.
To understand the next point you have to know that we were selling English sports cars. Time passed and one day we realized that we were selling these Japanese tinker toys and they never came back! That was unheard of in the sports car world, especially in the English sports car world. We found out, to our surprise, that Datsun was a very good automobile. It started, it ran, it kept on running, it got good gas mileage, and went down the road without parts falling off.
Time passed again and one day Detroit noticed that a Japanese tsunami had swept across the country and anti-Detroit waves were battering their sacred premises. People were drifting away from the lumbering Detroit hulks and actually buying those ridiculous little gas powered baby buggies. Detroit immediately took action, called in focus groups, consulted designers, conducted market surveys and said, “Very well, if the American public wants small cars we’ll give them the biggest small car in the world, and the most luxurious!”
The rest of the story is American automotive history.
I find the current crisis running rampant through the American automobile industry fascinating. In the 1960’s I was a youthful foreign sports car salesman in California. I choose that profession because I loved sports cars and wasn’t in a position to buy one. But I found out that if you were a salesman you got a demonstrator. Sounded great to me, I got one to drive, hung around sports car people, and got paid for it.
There was a national trade newspaper called Automotive News that came out ever so often, I have forgotten the frequency, which reported the nation’s automotive news. Rather a clever name for an automotive newspaper, don’t you think? It’s important to keep that type of thinking prominent when you consider the American automobile manufacturer.
I remember one particular news item of the time that discussed the impact of foreign automobiles on the domestic market. At that time Detroit considered itself the center of the automotive world and pooh-poohed a possible threat by the foreign import on domestic production and sales. The article claimed that nationwide foreign sales only amounted to three to four percent of the total automobile sales in this country.
The reason that article has stuck with me is that I clearly remember that where I was located, Los Angeles County, foreign auto sales ran in the thirty percent range. No one in Detroit had noticed that California had become the mecca for the automobile nut. Cars were a way of life in California and cars that provided what the buying public wanted were selling like Levi’s priced at $1.98.
I was working at a small sports car agency when the owner got a wild hair and decided to pick up the then unknown line of Japanese cars called the Datsun. Rebellion in the ranks! We were “sports car” salesmen; we weren’t going to demean ourselves selling those Japanese rice burners made of surplus Campbell soup cans. Unfortunately, we would get trapped by a customer who would shove us into a corner and force us to take their money so they could drive away in one of those rice burners.
To understand the next point you have to know that we were selling English sports cars. Time passed and one day we realized that we were selling these Japanese tinker toys and they never came back! That was unheard of in the sports car world, especially in the English sports car world. We found out, to our surprise, that Datsun was a very good automobile. It started, it ran, it kept on running, it got good gas mileage, and went down the road without parts falling off.
Time passed again and one day Detroit noticed that a Japanese tsunami had swept across the country and anti-Detroit waves were battering their sacred premises. People were drifting away from the lumbering Detroit hulks and actually buying those ridiculous little gas powered baby buggies. Detroit immediately took action, called in focus groups, consulted designers, conducted market surveys and said, “Very well, if the American public wants small cars we’ll give them the biggest small car in the world, and the most luxurious!”
The rest of the story is American automotive history.
March 19, 2009
And In This Corner...
The State of Washington, like many different states today, has found itself in a very difficult financial position. The members of the govern ring party of this state all claim that they had nothing to do with an out of control budget, it seems to fall into the category of “the dog ate my homework”. Governor Chris Gregoire has promised to bring the current budget into line with a series of taxes that give new meaning to the word usury.
One of her budget cuts was to increase tuition cost up to seven percent at the state universities. After that increase and several other state wide increased taxes and fees she found that the budget was still out of hand. The Governor then cut the budget thirteen percent for the state’s four year universities. She then made very vocal political promises that she was not going to further increase the fees or taxes on the students of the universities in the state.
In the first week of March she proposed that students pay a temporary surcharge during the next two years to help make up for higher education budget cuts. Sen. Joe Zarelli, the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said that sounds like a tax or fee to him, but the governor’s office disagrees. “We don’t view it as a fee. We view it as a temporary charge in lieu of greater tuition increases,” said Pearse Edwards, the governor’s spokesman. “It’s supplemental and temporary.”
It would appear that we have revisited that famous phrase “it depends on what your definition of is is”. In the state capitol of Olympia a surcharge doesn’t seem to be the same as a tax or a fee. Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language looks at Olympia’s definition differently: TAX-a burdensome charge, obligation, duty, or demand, FEE-a charge in payment for professional services, SURCHARGE-an additional charge, tax, or cost.
The blame can only be placed where it belongs, over two centuries as a country and we still believe what politicians choose to tell us. It is our fault, we elected them. In the immortal words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”
The State of Washington, like many different states today, has found itself in a very difficult financial position. The members of the govern ring party of this state all claim that they had nothing to do with an out of control budget, it seems to fall into the category of “the dog ate my homework”. Governor Chris Gregoire has promised to bring the current budget into line with a series of taxes that give new meaning to the word usury.
One of her budget cuts was to increase tuition cost up to seven percent at the state universities. After that increase and several other state wide increased taxes and fees she found that the budget was still out of hand. The Governor then cut the budget thirteen percent for the state’s four year universities. She then made very vocal political promises that she was not going to further increase the fees or taxes on the students of the universities in the state.
In the first week of March she proposed that students pay a temporary surcharge during the next two years to help make up for higher education budget cuts. Sen. Joe Zarelli, the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, said that sounds like a tax or fee to him, but the governor’s office disagrees. “We don’t view it as a fee. We view it as a temporary charge in lieu of greater tuition increases,” said Pearse Edwards, the governor’s spokesman. “It’s supplemental and temporary.”
It would appear that we have revisited that famous phrase “it depends on what your definition of is is”. In the state capitol of Olympia a surcharge doesn’t seem to be the same as a tax or a fee. Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language looks at Olympia’s definition differently: TAX-a burdensome charge, obligation, duty, or demand, FEE-a charge in payment for professional services, SURCHARGE-an additional charge, tax, or cost.
The blame can only be placed where it belongs, over two centuries as a country and we still believe what politicians choose to tell us. It is our fault, we elected them. In the immortal words of Pogo, “We have met the enemy and he is us!”
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