Soufflé

America was a wonderful recipe for success. There was abundant natural resources, isolated by an ocean from the major European powers, and no powerful rivals in its sphere. This mixture was placed in a warm place and allowed to rise. The first rise was at the end of the 19^th century. America was recognized as a world power among nations.

The second rise was after World War II and the collapse of the Soviet Union. America took center stage in the world. American enterprises where embraced the world over. The American view of things became orthodoxy.

In the last decade the risen concoction was placed in the oven to bake. The crucible was absolute world domination. The heat was demonstrated power. The loaf was the scramble for control of Iraq and its oil, Afghanistan as a political gambit to placate 911, and financial exuberance. The soufflé rose.

The soufflé eventually fell, as is usually the case. Both Iraq and Afghanistan have proved to be beyond our ability to achieve the original aims of absolute control and new capitalistic markets. The financial crisis highlighted greed resulting in irrational economic behavior. The contraction occurring is relegating future generations to the second world and acerbating the disparity in wealth. The people like lemmings, rush to and fro with every wind of doctrine, embracing the means of their demise.

Who will enjoy this wonderful dish served? Those that have so carefully orchestrated a return of the Gilead Age.

Monumental failure

I guess everyone of age looks back on some monumental failure in expectation.  Periodically I go back to the same lament.

I remember going to see a new movie that was causing a quandary for reviewers. The movie was “2001: A Space Odyssey”. It was in essence a space manifest destiny. In 1968, when the movie appeared, there was no controversy over rather the future technological advancements envisioned in the movie will have occurred by the year 2001. Achievement was a universal article of faith. 

I remember my chagrin when the year 2001 actually arrived. America had abandoned manned moon missions in 1972. There was no initiative for any new manned missions. The international space station was really a Russian vehicle. Space was a place we remotely viewed and not the path tread in our expanding steps. Worst, we were still a world hopelessly fragmented by nationalities.  

It seemed we had progressed very little from 1968. As a nation we had atrophied. Our eyes were no longer filled with wonder and we were increasingly a nation drawn to religiosity. Greed griped our hearts and guided our leaders. We had become an empire with thousands of military bases around the world. We dictated, cajoled and threatened to get our way in the world. We look in the mirror and our narcissism looks back.

How could I have been so wrong about man’s progress? We opted for banal pursuits. We did not keep to a linear soaring toward apogee. We steeped our selves in the age old sin; war and rumors of war. We feasted on the here and now of economic largess. We are the pig that might be proved to have built a house of straw. Inequalities abound and our abuse of the environment. It is an evil torrent of wind that will come gushing forth plunging mankind backward.  

Maybe we have gone as far as we can toward the bright vision portrayed in the movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”.

Collateral Damage

There was a book review in the newspaper today. The book was looking at American’s blind side. It pointed out an oversight with our war memorials, such those for the Korean and Viet Nam War. They only honor our soldiers. Absent was any acknowledgement of the collateral damage our wars inflict on the civilian populous. Our manner of warfare generates a lot of casualties. This is particularly true when warfare is not conducted at the “nation state” level of amassed troops.

It is estimated the casualties from our actions in Iraq exceed 200,000. Yet this death toll is not an issue with Americans. The book blames it on our frontier culture of “righteous justice”. It is really a euphemism for vengeance.

There is no mention of our non-combatant causality counts in Viet Nam or Korea. The closest America has come to being held accountable is in World War II and the fire bombing of Dresden or the continuing question over the use of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

I look at historical accounts, and no matter how powerful the nation, they eventually are “sacked”. The sacking expunges their excesses and a justice finally achieved. Despite what the politicians say about our greatness, one day America will be sacked. It is an axiomatic constant in the human history of empires. One day there will be a coalition of foreign troops on our streets inflicting wanton destruction. They will have immunity for their acts. They will garner the wealth of the nation and cart off what they can. What they can not move they will completely bring under their control. People problems will be dealt with through interment and death. Our cities will be rubble, our infra structure destroyed. Clean water, sewage management and electricity will be an imperfect memory. Social disorder will reign. People will scavenge and prey upon one another to survive.

We will lament our state of affairs. We will cry why? In our eyes we were magnanimous. We were the most virtuous. We will believe this in not right and ask has god abandoned us, his chosen?

It will be a point in time we can only beg mercy, as others begged it of us.

Financial morsel

I was at the car dealership today for work to be performed. It was a lot of work, maybe six hours or more. When I returned home, without my vehicle, a neighbor asked how could they get such unexpected work in their immediate schedule?  I said it looked like the majority of things the Dealership was doing in this economic climate were things under warranty. That meant they were simple, quick, and with a low profit margin. Therefore, they loved my kind of vehicle work, major repairs not under warranty, with much higher profit margins.

I started to think about Dealership business models. In the 1950s and 60s Dealership profit models were focused on sales of new vehicles. Significant numbers of people traded in for a new vehicle every few years. The bombardment of advertisements and the planned obsolesce contributed to the turn over. A vehicle that reached about 40 thousand miles had problems. The Dealerships did not make their money from repairs. Repairs on these vehicles could be accomplished by talented amateurs or most any garage.

In the 1970s and 80s the Japanese vehicles started to take America by a storm. They had better quality and less options, with more things included. They also lasted longer. The American automobile campaign to brand buying the vehicles as “un-American” did not work. The move to get the Reagan Administration and Congress to put prohibitive import tariffs did not work. They built assembly plants in America to get around the tariffs and “technically” be American. 

American car manufactures were forced to adapt. They were faced with a shrinking market share at the same time people were buying new vehicles less often. By the 1990s the American auto industry was trying to advertise their quality. Think of the Ford motor company slogan, “quality is job one”.  The financial models of Dealerships were reeling. They needed another profit stream. The manufactures started to build vehicles that were outside the purvey of none Dealerships to profitably repair. They made diagnosis and repair procedures proprietary. Hence Dealership repair people had to attend certified repair schools. 

We move up to today and we see the financial crisis and the economy has conspired again against Dealerships. People are avoiding Dealership repair, except under warranty, seeking lower costs alternatives. Many Dealerships have responded by lowering their repair rates and publishing costs for selected items. But they have also got back in the business of major profits from sales. Pickup trucks and SUVs are their big sellers that also have a high profit margin. 

It is apparent to me my Dealership repair department has been downsized and no longer a major player in the business profit model. Financial repair morsels like me are a god send.