A Capitalistic Christmas

Well it is finally over I am glad to say. The holiday marts around the city have closed, all that is left is the after-Christmas madness where all the stores try to dump their left-over merchandise. I'll be avoiding Midtown Manhattan at all costs for a few days, though if I do have to trek through it I'll walk fast and be sure not to trip over the gawking tourists that haven't gone home yet.

It will be interesting to see the reports from the retail world on how the season went for them all. Our economy runs on service and retail now and a good report on Wall Street will prop up the well-to-do's earnings and keep the hollow American economy going for now. Of course the manufacturing sector has been wiped out and globalized off to China and developing countries so many of the former employees of those sectors are left out on their arse.

Plenty of economists protest that globalization is the way and this is part of the change that will make America great and blah blah blah. Yet the way it is happening helps no one but the rich. Free trade isn't the answer, fair trade is. We need real change that helps everyone, so cut the trickle-down economics shit and start looking to help all boats rise and not just your own.

Ok, enough ranting for now, I hope everyone had a nice, quiet day-off yesterday, whether you celebrated Christmas, Hanukkah the week before, Kwanzaa, Boxing Day (today) and any holiday you might observe.