Sunday, January 22, 2006

Is there an Economist in Audience? Pay, Wages, the Economy [posted by Troy] Craig left any interesting comment on this post about wages, which pretty much states that when costs rose, so did the labor market. So, here's the question for all of the economists in the audience, can the US labor market continue to add spending power in the current WalMart-driven economy? Will the aggregate labor power be driven to China? 6:59:54 PM  permanent link  Reader Comments []  Google It! West Wing Canceled [posted by Troy] NBC has announced that it will cancel the West Wing after 7 years. I wish we could cancel the real west wing. 5:27:18 PM  permanent link  Reader Comments []  Google It! Google and Privacy The Big Chill [posted by ZelderBar] As you can imagine, those of us here at "When and Where..." do not really support the idea of Google turning their search results over to the US government. It is a bit disturbing that Yahoo! and MSN have already turned results over, and it is great that Google has stood its ground. The thing with the privacy debate is that even if the government intends to use the information gained for good reasons, you have to ask how it effects liberty and the feeling of society. If people always feel that they are always being watched, are they truly free to act? Do we fear being wrongly accused, manipulated, or misunderstood? For instance, do we feel free to use our names when we post to the Internet? Think about the following government actions and how their effect accumulate: *PATRIOT Act--government can get company, bookstore, & library info about you without a warrant and without telling anyone. Asking Google for search records (how can they really remove people's names from the information? They can't.) Domestic wire tapping since 2001 without warrants. The government's Total Information Awareness project under John Poindexter (of Iran-Contra fame) that seeks to collect financial info. (see this Wired article). Video cameras on every block (See this page). The government's secret "no-fly" list for air travel. And the list grows. When we reach the point when we are afraid to act or we change our actions because we are always being watched, then we can not say that we are free. That's when the "freedom hating" terrorists will have won. Liberty is the soul's right to breath, and when it cannot take a long breath, laws are girdled too tight.—Henry Ward Beecher 9:19:41 AM  permanent link  Reader Comments []  Google It!

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