Vegan morality

I just listened to some Propagandhi for old times sake last night. For those who don't know them they're veganarchists (vegan anarchists). I have no problem with anarchism. It usually has quite a bit of truth to it but I just can't understand how people can be moral about being vegetarian or vegan.

I have no problem with vegetarianism or veganism as a health or personal taste choice but Propagandhi frames veganism as an animal rights issue. If someone is going to take that stance then they better start arresting all members of the animal kingdom who kill and eat other animals because it happens all the time. It's usually for food but...that makes sense. If you're a meat eating animal, killing another animal makes sense if you want to eat.

And before anyone says "Yeah, well humans don't have all sharp fangs so we can't be carnivores." That's right, we have a lot of flat, grindy teeth and a few pointed ones on the top and the bottom. Do you know what that means? OMNIVORE.

This, to me, is the problem with being too self righteous about your causes (and I am very guilty of this too) is that you often look just as crazy as the extremist on the other side.

Blast you fast food chains!

I crab about these all the time but it's about time I just rant it out.

I used to be a huge fast food consumer and I still grab it every now and again when I'm traveling. When I first saw the display screens in drive-thrus years ago (you know the ones that let you confirm they are entering what you are ordering) I was ecstatic. This improves my life because it improves the quality of my orders and gets the employees less grief. I would assume it gets them less grief because people can politely correct them at order time as opposed to being pissed when they return. I would at least assume they wouldn't be getting more grief and they'd be getting happier customers.

But here comes the anger part: NO ONE USES THEM ANYMORE! Why do they bother spending the money to basically buy tvs they are going to put outside to improve their service if they're not going to use them?! This, to me, doesn't even seem like a case by case lack of use. It just seems like everyone stopped using them at once and it irritates the living crap out of me. I'm back to getting the same crappy service with no ability to check if they're actually hearing me or not and now I also have a wonderful piece of unused technology in front of me just mocking me.

On a related note I also feel like fast food employees are getting less good at their jobs. This could also just me getting older and crankier or spending time in areas with crappy service. Here's what I mean by worse service though: when I used to place an order I would get this pleasant "that will be $X at your first drive thru window" or something like that. It lets me know how much money it's costing me so I don't have to look at the useless receipt (and if it's way off that's also another check on poor order taking) and it lets me know that we're good to go and telling me which window to stop at. These may seem like minor things but it just seems like common sense. Most places have at least two windows and I want the person at the other end to know we're all set. GRRRRR! Damn you fast food chain!

Progressives vs. Free Trade

I must say that I am saddened that it seems that progressives are adamantly against the idea of free trade entirely. As a self proclaimed progressive this doesn't sit well with me.

Free trade may be a misnomer in either what we're referring to or what we actually have but the idea of markets and trade is a very good idea that helps society progress. I take my opinions from a lot of different sources (Stiglitz, Krugman, Rodrik, Charles Derber) and I think we all have similar desires and share common threats.

Here's what I see, competition (honest and fair competition, that is) spurs innovation and lowers cost. That's a great thing. It also evolves our economy and pushes us out of certain labor markets. When a country develops and becomes more technologically advanced it usually prices itself out of the low income labor market. This is bad for unskilled laborers but good in the sense that we are "getting better" and becoming more profitable as a nation.

Here are the problems that I see:
1. LARGE corporations (not business in general) tend to dominate markets which may seem good if they are the best but it means competition isn't good enough. These corporations form effective monopolies (become "too big to fail") or share in an oligopoly. This stifles innovation and defeats the purpose of competition and markets offering lower prices. Not all large corporations do this but enough do that it's hurting our economy

2. Our shifting economy either creates large unemployment or protectionism. Neither of these are good for the economy or businesses in general. Businesses want the unemployment (cheaper labor for them) but don't realize that without any sort of unemployment job retraining they are getting less useful employees.

3. Politicians don't understand this problem, are unwilling to take a stand, or are summarily voted down so they match patchwork half ass accomplishments that are usually a mix of protectionism and bailouts.

We need a massive restructuring and maybe this economic crisis is the time to do it.

What are the auto industry's doing?

Ok, so we have a bailout loan for 2 of the 3 big American auto companies which is supposed to essentially be an eased in version of bankruptcy unless their genius turnaround plans work.

What exactly are their genius turnaround plans? I ask because I was watching football on FOX (a dangerous meeting of often willfully ignorant Americans but I do enjoy football) and the two most prevalent commercials were for Dodge and Ford trucks and trucks with hemis in them with "improved efficiency" of 20 mpg.

I'm sorry but that's shitty gas mileage. Don't try and say "well, it's good for a vehicle of that size" cause I don't care. How many people need a vehicle with 390 hp? Maybe 5% of the people who but them. But we still market them in America as if they are what Jesus himself would drive. Americans don't need these behemoths that are peddled to us and anyone who doesn't know that is an idiot. Stop marketing these gas guzzling pieces of shit to us as a status symbol and maybe people would stop buying them. Anyone who really needs to tow or haul something can look hard enough to find a vehicle to suit their needs but these are not leisure vehicles or everyday vehicles.

As conditions of the loan I would've executed all of the executive leadership, pulled all advertising for SUVs and trucks and discontinued immediately all production of those vehicles and convert the factories into hybrid manufacturers and electric/plug in hybrid research centers. If you have a large family get a goddamn station wagon.

Our current goal is to have a minimum fuel economy of 35mpg by 2020. The rest of the developed world AND CHINA will be there or beyond that by 2012. I just don't understand this boneheaded asshole mentality of the American public sometimes.

Etiquette and reinforcing the class structure

I've been meaning to write about this for a while (a couple of weeks ago my office went through etiquette training) but never got around to it but I would really like to address it.

I hate the idea of formalized etiquette, especially when it comes to table manners and how to eat "properly." I am all for being considerate and polite at a dinner table but once you formalize a set of nearly arbitrary rules that you judge people by I think that solely for the purpose of reinforcing the class structure. Someone from a lower class can make money but if they don't learn your precious set of rules they can't join the club.

Well, anyone who judges me, or anyone else, by such rules isn't someone I want to be spending much time with because they are probably a useless piece of shit getting by in life on tradition and legacy instead of talent and skill.

And anyone who thinks "I wish people didn't judge people that way either, but they do so you better learn the rules" can eat my shit because you're just propagating the corrupt, unfair system. Change starts with each individual so stop sucking up to those who have the power and start standing up against corrupt uses of power and obstacles to others to keep them out of power.

Counting the bailout votes

Another way I view the auto bailout is by going to economists I respect and trust. Here is a list of the ones who are my current go-to guys:
Joseph Stiglitz
Paul Krugman
Dani Rodrik
Dean Baker

So far Baker and Krugman are for the bailout, Stiglitz is against, and I haven't been able to ascertain where Rodrik falls although he's been very thoughtful about the financial crisis in general. Check out his blog

My dilemma with the auto bailout

Ok, so I haven't been happy with Democrats, Republicans, or really bloggers on the issue of the auto bailout and I agree with all of them on some of their points. Let me elaborate.

1. I tend to agree with Democrats and bloggers that we need to do something. Bankruptcy may be a market solution that would serve the corporation right but it would be brutal to the work forces of the Detroit area (not like it hasn't screwed them already)

2. I agree with Republicans that Democrats are pushing too fast with a no, or very few, strings attached BS bailout that doesn't adequately change their business model. Unfortunately Republicans also think the only problem is union salaries. The two major problems are (in order) the Big 3's business plan and strategy, Executive pay.

3. I agree with the bloggers that the workers are the most important thing to protect in the situation but I disagree that we need to save the industry at all costs (essentially in its current form) to do that. That's exactly how those corporate snakes want you to think. They keep enough Americans employed so that if something like this happens they scream "but you don't want to hurt the autoworkers do you? so you need to bail us out"

Here are my thoughts on the subject. Centralizing an industry may seem like a good idea at first but it's pretty much the worst idea ever because if that industry needs to move or go away because of competition or technological advances it will destroy an area of the country (read: Michigan). If this industry were spread out better across the country any one area wouldn't be hit as hard and could absorb the shock. So any bailout that doesn't help move A LOT of the American auto industry away from Detroit is a terrible idea.

And as far as unions go, I love unions, I wish we had more of them and I wish they were stronger and more intelligently run but I don't think that something like the UAW should be fighting to make sure that the auto industry always exists in Detroit and always pays high wages. I think their goal should be that AS LONG AS the auto industry exists it should be paying its workers good wages with good benefits (hell, that should be true for every job and every american). But industries have to move and progress. We lost a lot of textile jobs over our history when we became so developed it didn't make sense for us to be producing them on a large scale. We employ less workers in many factories because we can automate the jobs and make them more efficient and use our human resources in other areas. Here's what the auto industry bailout (and larger economic policies) should be based on:
1. Protect the workers (not their current jobs): Social protections, safety nets, education, job retraining, relocation assistance should all be used (in this situation and our society in general) but flat out protectionism of their jobs is BS
2. Make the executives of the Big 3 suffer as much as possible. Offer them no protection, take their money, sue them for negligence to get more, take their positions, and even execute them if you need to (this applies to financial executives too). They created this problem and they should pay for it
3. Encourage the diversification of ALL regions. One industry towns and regions are dangerous. Even if you make Detroits Big 3 manufacture Hyrbrids, Plug in Hybrids, and Electric (which we should) they should not be so centralized.

I'll rant more on this later but I just had to get that off my chest.