Yeah I hear the CEO is wearing a barrel and stuff these days.
I wonder what the reaction will be in about 15 years when PetroChina acquires ExxonMobil. It will be like Bethlehem Steel or GM, people declare war on them and beat them into the ground and then when they fail, it's "my goodness, how could this happen? Why did it happen? Look at all the well-paying American jobs that have disappeared. Look what Bush did."
I don't know what the average worker at ExxonMobil earns but I will safely assume it's well above minimum wage. It's also safe to assume that a fair number of their employees and probably more that half, own some part of the company through 401(k)'s or other retirement accounts. Any attempt to steal ExxonMobil's profits, like the Democrats want to do, will not harm the executives but rather the average employee and shareholder.
So, go ahead people, root for them to fail and you'll get what you wish for and when Chinese-owned companies start buying up once-mighty US companies on the cheap, we'll all just shake our heads wondering what hit us.
Frankly, we should be more concerned if they don't make a profit. GM can't make profits anymore and when they make their quarterly loss announcement, the markets get sent into a tizzy and people shake their heads and say "why?".
Companies like ExxonMobil should be admired as an exemplar of how a business should be run.
Exxon Mobil still turns huge profits. They are as far away from being in the dumper as a man waiting in a Port-o-potty line at Musikfest no matter how much they're taxed. Maybe they only reap merely obscene rather than pornographic profits now, but they're not doomed by any stretch of the imagination.
I don't think anyone waged war on Bethlehem Steel or GM.
And, regardless, there is no need to worry about America losing unilateral power if the DoD's current goals are carried out:
http://www.darpa.mil/ipto/
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 2339435723
I wonder whether China has these kinds of 'Allied Mastercomputer' plans, too. If so, I'm not sure whether I want to become a DARPA Program Manager or what. Working on the artificially intelligent US defense grid that they plan would be nothing less than 'awesome', but I can say pretty surely that being technologically capable, culturally aware and white-skinned in China open up a hell of a lot of doors.
The future is going to be really cool and stuff
http://www.umich.edu/~engb415/literatur ... Rplay2.jpg
but they're not doomed by any stretch of the imagination.
Many thought the same at Bethlehem Steel, GM, Bell Labs/Lucent, et al.
I don't think anyone waged war on Bethlehem Steel or GM.
Two pronged attack:
1. Disguise prong one of the assault as a "war on pollution."
2. Prong two was the "war on success." Believing that there was a limitless pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the unions and politicians who bemoaned 'low' wages and unsatisfactory benefits forced management, who thought they were invincible and also saw that same mirage, into promising what they couldn't provide. Now, not only are retirees getting short-changed but overseas labor supplies way too many critical goods today and, if the labor isn't overseas, the ownership frequently is.
As for DARPA, we can thank them for this Intarweb thing and GPS too; true altruism defined.
1. Disguise prong one of the assault as a "war on pollution."
Believe it or not, pollution is a real concern.
Prong two was the "war on success." Believing that there was a limitless pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the unions and politicians who bemoaned 'low' wages and unsatisfactory benefits forced management, who thought they were invincible and also saw that same mirage, into promising what they couldn't provide.
There are more likely explanations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem_ ... ompetition
As for DARPA, we can thank them for this Intarweb thing and GPS too; true altruism defined.
That's not altruism, and only a living ethnic stereotype like me would look at what the Defense Department is doing now and say "That might be pretty cool."
Believe it or not, pollution is a real concern.
Yes it is but, look, no more pall of smoke encompassing the city of Pittsburgh. No more burning river in Cleveland. No more big steel mill in S. Bethlehem. yippie. Now we'll have gen x-ers and others going to casinos and shops and restaurants where steel mills used to stand, using gasoline to get there, manufacturing trash, tossing their empty plastic Poland Spring water bottles in the street, gladly giving their money to a big gaming company, and buying clothes made by women in China who work 16 hour days at 15 cents an hour, all the while not contributing one solid exportable durable good.
We really have cut down on pollution in most of our big cities; unfortunately, mostly from factories closing and not people taking initiatives to treat the earth any better.
As for me I give a hoot, I don't pollute. And you won't see me in any S. Bethlehem casino any time soon.
There are more likely explanations. [foreign competition]
Yes, something that wasn't seen by management until it was too late. I already criticized management for not seeing the big picture.
Yes it is but, look, no more pall of smoke encompassing the city of Pittsburgh. No more burning river in Cleveland. No more big steel mill in S. Bethlehem. yippie.
That means the pollution is produced elsewhere, and comes over here anyway. Like in Cowl-ee-fawn-ee-yah.
Now we'll have gen x-ers and others going to casinos and shops and restaurants where steel mills used to stand, using gasoline to get there, manufacturing trash, tossing their empty plastic Poland Spring water bottles in the street, gladly giving their money to a big gaming company, and buying clothes made by women in China who work 16 hour days at 15 cents an hour, all the while not contributing one solid exportable durable good.
Now this is a bit of a straw man.
The US still has a lot of manufacturing. Check it out:
http://www.nam.org/s_nam/bin.asp?CID=20 ... C=FILE.PDF
Incidentally, why all the China hate? They're nowhere near as malevolent as they are commonly made out to be, at least not more malevolent than people in any other country, on average. (Reminder: we are still dealing with humans, of course.)
Anyway, you are right not to gamble. If you look at the numbers behind craps, then with fair dice the odds are very, very slightly in favor of the house. Ultimately, this leads to the continuing profitability of casinos.
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