The theme is “jobs, jobs, jobs.”

… They’re discussing growth strategies and so far we’re hearing the same notions we hear elsewhere in Davos, the complete trick bag: spend money on infrastructure, be nice to business, regulate less, reform taxes, reform immigration. OK and OK.

“The problems of job creation are more complicated than that. …

Buzz Machine – Efficiency over growth (and jobs)

For example, Apple and Google are two of the wealthiest companies in 2011, but they don’t have many employees. Some jobs have been eliminated by technology. Others are gone overseas because people just as competent as you are willing to do it cheaper.

Obama’s State of the Union again chastised the American rich for not doing enough. That might be good politics, but it’s not going to do anything to create many American jobs nor reduce the “wealth gap“. I appreciate that he’s trying. … It’s better than nothing.

Is there any solution?

I don’t think so after listening to a new BBC audiocast documentary: The Wealth Gap: The View from London.

The future looks grim for most wealthy nations. The “occupy” protesters, most jobless, will continue being frustrated. And the rich will get richer. If you try to tax them, they’ll relocate abroad.

source – BBC – The Wealth Gap – Inequality in Numbers

If you have a job, I’d recommend you keep it. And start putting away emergency resources. (I’ll not be following my own advice, as you might guess.)

… One of the few bright spots is philanthropy – Davos 2012: Bill Gates commits $750m to fight AIDS

1. Iowa … why (since 1972) has the first major electoral event of the nominating process for President of the United States been held here?

Though only about 1% of the nation’s delegates are chosen by the Iowa State Convention, the Iowa caucuses have served as an early indication of which candidates for president might win. It’s by far the most important State. Unfairly.

If you want to be nominated you try to win Iowa. And how do you win Iowa? You buy Iowa …

2. Super PACs (new since 2010):

… which can raise unlimited sums from corporations, unions and other groups, as well as individuals. …

Supposedly independent, both Romney and Gingrich have Super Pacs … run by former employees. They are a joke and a lie.

To mock Super PACs, Colbert legally formed his own — Americans for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow (also known as the Colbert Super PAC)

Here’s one of Colbert’s real TV ads. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Parliamentary Democracy of Canada is not perfect. But I like it far better than the system in the USA.

… Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are. Almost all of the 70 million iPhones, 30 million iPads and 59 million other products Apple sold last year were manufactured overseas.

Why can’t that work come home? Mr. Obama asked.

Mr. Jobs’s reply was unambiguous. “Those jobs aren’t coming back,” he said …

How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work

That article has been getting wide circulation. Not even an embargo of Chinese goods by President Newt is going to bring back manufacturing. Read the article to see why.

applying to work at Foxconn

Foxconn City has 230,000 employees, many working six days a week, often spending up to 12 hours a day at the plant. … many workers earn less than $17 a day. …

related – why you shouldn’t use the new Apple iBooks Author software

I don’t blame you for jumping to conclusions.

You’re probably right.

Yet some of these couples are in Boracay to be married. Many men of European ancestry, past their prime, look for younger Asian brides.

It’s not always the case that the rich dirty old man is taking advantage of the young, naïve woman from a developing country, more interested in the bulge of his wallet than anything else.

There’s a perfectly innocent story behind some of these photos.

I’ve seen some good ones. Especially in India.

My philosophy on how to deal with beggars is posted here.

On the world famous resort of Boracay, Philippines you’ll meet many kids like this.
They wear torn, dirty and hilariously over-sized t-shirts. It works for me.

See more of Dennis Lee’s photos and find out what happened when he gave a mother enough money for food for a week.

These cute, tiny ragamuffins are the best beggars I’ve seen since the Chicklet girls (PHOTO) of Mexico.

A Chicklet girl, going restaurant to restaurant, might earn more than a Mexican police officer.

Randor has a Boracay blog. On one post he mentions that a beggar can easily earn more than a chambermaid at your resort ($.18/hr).

Before you hand that little guy a dollar, think on how that makes YOUR personal employees feel. Instead leave that dollar for your hotel staff (under your pillow) when you check-out. Give the little guy an orange.

Don’t reflexively go all Holier than thou, like this guy — Boracay Native Child Turned Beggar due to Island Invasion — ask the locals what’s really happening with the beggars in front of their shops. They know.

It’s more complicated than it first appears.

In Manila I stayed at a 5 Star hotel for a week. On Saturdays a vehicle pulls up and delivers a row of pitiful looking mothers with tiny babies. It’s business. You have to wonder how much of the money they collect the ladies get to keep.

I saw the same exact same mothers & babies on Sudder street, Calcutta.

The baby is not necessarily the child of the mothers. They mix and match to get the best donations.

Nothing ever improves unless people get passionate.

On the other hand, both those movements have been mostly irrational and incoherent. Especially Occupy.

Occupy what?

Here’s the first list of complaints I can understand:

• a failure to price public goods (clean air, water, etc.) effectively
• high levels of inequality
• “the provision and distribution of medical care”
• undervaluing of “the welfare of unborn generations”
• financial crises

Those are from Economist Kenneth Rogoff.

Rogoff, not surprisingly, feels that free market Capitalism is the best solution for each:

… I am often asked if the recent global financial crisis marks the beginning of the end of modern capitalism. It is a curious question, because it seems to presume that there is a viable replacement waiting in the wings. The truth of the matter is that, for now at least, the only serious alternatives to today’s dominant Anglo-American paradigm are other forms of capitalism. …

Is Modern Capitalism Sustainable?

Government regulatory reform is needed, not any experiment with Communism.

Why are the USA, Iceland, Ireland, Greece and Italy — to name a few — so much worse off than their economic neighbours?

That’s the question.

(via Freakonomics)

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I agree with the outspoken Rex.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

What percentage of delegates in Durban would I call hypocrites? … More than half, I reckon.

(via CBC)

The endless cycles of Earth’s warming and cooling.

Has man or cow accelerated the rate of warming? … I’m not sure.

But I am sure that man nor cow will be doing much to reverse that damage any time soon.

An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal explains why not much is going to be decided in Durban, South Africa next week:

The Great Global Warming Fizzle

… On Sunday, 2,232 days will have elapsed since a category 3 hurricane made landfall in the U.S., the longest period in more than a century that the U.S. has been spared a devastating storm. …

I’d avoided the usual Japanese tourist “attractions” — fish markets … until Hokodate.

At that seaport it’s near impossible for a passerby to avoid the cruelty zoo.

Crabs and squid seem to object more strenuously than the rest.

The shark tried to make a run for it.

_____

Let’s say you believe in trying to reduce global warming. Like this guy:

… There’s not a single person who’s done more to fight climate change than Bill McKibben. Through thoughtful books, ubiquitous magazine contributions, and, most notably, the founding of 350.org (an international non-profit dedicated to fighting global warming), McKibben has committed his life to saving the planet. For all the passion fueling his efforts, though, there’s something weirdly amiss in his approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions: neither he nor 350.org will actively promote a vegan diet. …

… as a recent report from the World Preservation Foundation confirms, ignoring veganism in the fight against climate change is sort of like ignoring fast food in the fight against obesity. Forget ending dirty coal or natural gas pipelines. As the WPF report shows, veganism offers the single most effective path to reducing global climate change. …

read more on Freakonomics – Agnostic Carnivores and Global Warming: Why Enviros Go After Coal and Not Cows