5-30-15 Hodgepodge

Our "Recovering" Economy: A Snapshot

From a report on Walmart having to increase staff on nights that food assistance money shows up in bank accounts:

"Two years ago, we were at just over 2 percent unemployment," said Kathy Gardner, director of Idaho Hunger Relief Task Force. "Our food stamp participation rate was one of the lowest in the nation ... because only 55 percent, a little over half of the Idahoans that were eligible and needed food stamps were participating."

Now, Idaho's unemployment rate is 9.1 percent and its food stamp participation has increased by 15 percent. Gardner said that it's not the chronically poor turning increasingly to food stamps, but professionals down on their luck.

Until we stop calling depressions "recoveries" and equating government looting with actual charity, expect things to get worse. Jobs and the money for short term relief come from somewhere, and that isn't the government.

Weekend Reading

"I refer to dreams as 'day residue' where the mind seizes onto a particular trigger event encountered during our waking hours." -- Michael Hurd, in "The Captivating World of Dreams" at The Delaware Wave

"Flying comes with a psychological cost." -- Michael Hurd, in "Let Your Fears Fly Away" at The Delaware Coast Press

Opening the Lid on the Open Office Plan

From, "Let's Take This Open Floor Plan to the Next Level", a great parody of a business fad:

You can now dial into a designated phone line to listen in on any calls taking place within the office and add your opinion.

Although parodies can backfire, when audience members think something like, "That never really happens," they can illustrate the essential problem with what they mock. In this case, it's the implicit idea that thinking is somehow a collective endeavor.

-- CAV