A FRAGILE ECONOMY

This move by Warren Buffet reminds me of the individuals and investors who foolishly tried to resuscitate boutique piano brands such as Mason and Hamlin in the 80s and 90s and failed.

Newspapers are going electronic and people will want to pay for the local news that most affects their lives. National news is “nice to have” but is already almost free, gratis or for-nothing.

Music pianos require tremendous manpower effort to both manufacture and maintain, which is why they went first to the Japanese and will inevitably shove off to China.

Let’s not let naive notions about manpower costs warp our notion of the Terms-of-Trade that determine our ability to “protect” and create new jobs. A more mature attitude will explain (to those intelligent enough to understand) that we are on uphill skills track in a race with other nations that we cannot afford to lose.

Because to lose that race puts our nation into permanent economic decline - with all the consequences of Social Disharmony (meaning Watts Riots, 1965) that could/would incur on a national scale.

MY POINT?

It is unsure that Americans understand well-enough how fragile their economy has become. Largely due to the fixation of the past three decades upon corporate profits and the exaggerated accumulation of capital at the top of the Social Totem Pole.

And how much new jobs depend upon the quality of skills/talents of the American workforce - which, to date, have been insufficient to staunch the bleeding of jobs to lower-cost climates.

Could have a liberalizing effect on the South, I hope.