I don't buy this paranoia regarding the destruction of our free market principles. It is typical right-wing (notice I didn't write Republican) hand-wringing and crops up every time Dems take power or gain the upper hand in committees or wherever.
I know that cartoons are meant to lampoon and hyperbolize situations to make a point. I just don't get the concern that drives this.
Well, if the government is controlling any fraction of the free market, it is by definition not a fully free market. Since the government is firing CEOs and dictating the type of cars to be made, the type of loans to be made by banks, and the type of insurance that can be sold, free market principles are indeed being eroded. I don't see us ending up as an old-style eastern Europe type of socialist country, but I can envision the US ending up in the miserable state the UK is in.
Next up: Now Translating: Method and Device for Manufacturing Electro-optical Device Translated: Hydrodynamic Bearing Device, Spindle Motor, and Information Device (a fancy name for a hard disk drive) Motorcycle Film Formation Method, Method for Manufacturing Electro-optical Device, Electro-optical Device, and Electronic Apparatus (worth about 23,000 words) Fluid Discharge Method and Fluid Discharge Device (worth about 23,000 words) Method for Manufacturing Printed-circuit Board Source Driver of Display Panel and Drive Control Method Method for Manufacturing Molded Article, and Membrane Element Device for Removal of Intermaxillary Fixation (Something about unbinding a jaw that has been wired shut) Semiconductor Device, Method for Manufacturing Semiconductor Device, and Method for Manufacturing Semiconductor Package (A method for making semiconductor chips even smaller) Engine Generator (yet a different job, same title) Method for Manufacturing Film Formation Member
Mini Diary
8/12/2009 Final testing today at BYU. I will be glad to finish this annual intensive course that I teach. It's stressful for teacher and students alike. I have a hard time dieting during such courses and I have come to the conclusion that I eat more when under stress. Now that the course is essentially done, I can rededicate myself to losing weight (I think I have rededicated myself several times already this summer!).
8/5/2009 Swamped is not the word for it. I have work coming out of my ears. In the fall semester beginning in September, I have been assigned a new class, Japanese 321 Readings in Modern Document Styles. It is right up my alley. We will read various newspaper articles, magazine articles, technical documents, and so forth. I probably won't be able to keep the class permanently because so much shuffling of faculty assignments goes on every semester.
Notable Picture of the Day, Week, Month, Year (or whenever I update it)
I am a teacher and a translator. I enjoy the former most, but I do the latter the most. In fact, if I am not sleeping or teaching, I am translating. I mostly live a sedentary life at my desk typing into the wee hours of the morning. I am trying to exercise more, but alas, the next project is due and ...
2 comments:
I don't buy this paranoia regarding the destruction of our free market principles. It is typical right-wing (notice I didn't write Republican) hand-wringing and crops up every time Dems take power or gain the upper hand in committees or wherever.
I know that cartoons are meant to lampoon and hyperbolize situations to make a point. I just don't get the concern that drives this.
I feel much the same about the NRA wackos.
Well, if the government is controlling any fraction of the free market, it is by definition not a fully free market. Since the government is firing CEOs and dictating the type of cars to be made, the type of loans to be made by banks, and the type of insurance that can be sold, free market principles are indeed being eroded. I don't see us ending up as an old-style eastern Europe type of socialist country, but I can envision the US ending up in the miserable state the UK is in.
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