China

Here's the real reason China has struggled to make meaningful advancements in the past several decades...

Read this article on our economic relationship with China.

1) We took advantage.
2) What goes around does come around.
3) Who was foolish enough to allow China to hold so much of our debt?? Seems like little Jess Thornton, completely untrained in the business of economics, can even tell this was a bad move.

NeoLiberalism- Food for Thought

Have you heard of neoliberalism?  Apparantly, there are two kinds- political and economic.  I've looked at several articles on the economic kind.  It's an extremely interesting view.  Although I wholeheartedly disagree with the fundamentals of this viewpoint, I have to applaud that, at least, those who believe these fundamentals have a certain amount of integrity, in that they carry these ideals to their logical ends.

These "logical ends" may seem, at first, to benefit society, but in the long run, as Christians, we will have to rise above the pressure to conform to these ideals, because they focus on creation of wealth, at the expense of living ethically.

I'll cite a few things from this article, and this article. (Although I'm not concerned with the effect on higher education, as this point- just trying to get my mind around the long-term implications of this line of thinking.)

"Neoliberalism, in theory, is essentially about making trade between nations easier. It is about freer movement of goods, resources and enterprises in a bid to always find cheaper resources, to maximize profits and efficiency."

It's all about free markets, and allowing the economy to regulate itself, etc, with which I don't necessarily disagree.  What they fail to mention, is how they came to these conclusions.

Neoliberalism is based on the idea that what's best for the economy and the people is the solution that offers the most profit or payoff.   Stanley Fish gives a very good example in his blog post, to which I linked earlier:

"In a neoliberal world, for example, tort questions — questions of negligence law — are thought of not as ethical questions of blame and restitution (who did the injury and how can the injured party be made whole?), but as economic questions about the value to someone of an injury-producing action relative to the cost to someone else adversely affected by that same action. It may be the case that run-off from my factory kills the fish in your stream; but rather than asking the government to stop my polluting activity (which would involve the loss of jobs and the diminishing of the number of market transactions), why don’t you and I sit down and figure out if more wealth is created by my factory’s operations than is lost as a consequence of their effects?"

So, basically, it boils down to a very familiar phrase, which doesn't seem to be supported in the Bible, "The ends justify the means."  If there's a higher payoff to what you're doing, it doesn't matter who you step on.  As I said above, as these ideas begin to infiltrate our society, as Christians, we must rise above, and continue to do the right thing!  No doubt, they will try to convince us that the most "wealth-creating" solution is, in fact, the "right" solution, but we know what our morals are, and we are practiced at living ethically (even though we sometimes screw up).

In our hearts, I think we know the ends do not justify the means.

What do you think?

UPS- The Brown

Hey, guess what?? Matthew was the UPS TOP bagger in the building for the month of February!

Yay!

And I know this faulty logic (and don't burst my bubble), but the UPS branch at which he works is ranked #1 in the US, so by my faulty logic, he was the TOP bagger in the country last month!

Congratulations Matthew! <3

Another Cat Post- Orange Cats

I took Julius to the vet yesterday (has a cold or something), and as soon as I walked in, the vet tech said, "Oh! He's orange! Is he special? You know he's special!" And I said..."Yes, he is special...how did you know??" All orange cats are special, apparently!! That's why Julius acts more like a dog!

He went on to throw an absolute, complete hissy fit in the vet, and wouldn't let anyone, including me, touch him. So they couldn't get his temp, couldn't feel his belly, couldn't listen to his heart rate. He scratched a couple of peoplem, including me...they had to get the ::oh so embarrassing:: elbow-length-industrial-strength-gloves-plus-a-towel to handle him.

They sent me home with a sedative, and said to try giving him that, and then coming back.

So, as a prudent cat mother, I was totally embarrassed by kitty's behavior, and was extremely apologetic with the vet and techs, to which the vet replied, "Oh, all orange cats do this. They like to have things their way, and they throw fits. My cat is an 11 year old orange male, and he goes straight into anesthesia when he gets here!"

So anyway, who knew? He was a total brat, but we still think he's special :)

(As soon as I find my phone USB, I'll post a couple of pics of special kitty on his leash)