Thursday, January 7, 2010

January 7, 2010

The New York Times' masthead logo, "All The News That's Fit to Print," is something that has been there forever. We are all used to it even if it is not always true.

My logo, not on my masthead actually, is: "If you are not the lead dog the view never changes".

This was there in my everyday life for a very long time now.

When I worked and the company or companies went through management or ownership changes people asked me what I thought of the new presidents or the new owners.

Well, from where I stood the view didn't change much. My workload remained the same, I didn't make any more money and life did not become suddenly very glamorous.

Last year the economy went to the dogs. All kinds of infusions were made by the government to rescue giant corporations from bankruptcy. The President and his financial people are non stop self adulation on how successful they were pulling the country out of the financial pothole.

From where I stand nothing changed.

Actually some things did change!

There is no Social Security COLA this year even though everything cost more than before. And our credit card interest rate was raised shamelessly by Citibank. They snuck it in just before the rules change in February. But the President is very proud of his legislature to protect the consumers.

When you are the lead dog the view is fascinating and cheerful but at the back things are just not the same.

It is nice when one deals with statistics only. One percent one way or the other and suddenly we are on the Yellow Brick Road to a better life.

But for the common folk nothing ever changes. Income, may that be SS or pension, stay the same or actually decreases. However, people who are up front are getting the six-seven figure bonuses for a successful performance.

Thinking back I should have gone into finance instead of engineering. In engineering if one does a bad job the building/road/bridge collapses and the person who was responsible gets punished.

In finance if some one does a bad job and the country's economy collapses he gets rewarded by a humongous bonus.

Knowing this now I could have saved all my efforts for doing good work. No wonder all these financial people are relaxed and calm. They don't get overstressed by their efforts to do good job. Why bother when they get rewarded for the bad work also.

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Today the New Jersey State Legislature voted down a proposal for same sex marriage.

I wholeheartedly agree with them. I am totally against this farce.

If God wanted same sex marriage there would have been Adam and Brian in Eden. And they would have been the only two occupants even since. Kind of old but for obvious reasons they could not multiply.

Look at what we would have missed in the world.

The Mormon males would have to marry each other, the Muslims could not have a harem full of women, and there would have been no point in creating eunuchs.

The Mayans could not sacrifice virgins because just like today there would be none.

And the golfer would live a very lonely existence.

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