u235

Humans still have pack-instincts. If you have ever been around a gaggle of babies you may have experienced a chilling event: one baby in distress will set off the entire group in a hair-raising howl. There have been stampedes at stadiums, and jokers who will look and point just to make everyone else do the same. Even a yawn, or laughter can zap like lightening from person to person.

So when the economy tanks why shouldn't everyone be a little jumpy?

I'm getting my ducks in line for the holidays and with every thing I purchase I have a little nag in the back of my mind that tallies the spending and shakes its head. Honestly the whole feeling makes me a little ill and the season a lot less fun.

And it's not just from worrying about my own job but from the sympathy I have for those getting (or have gotten) the short end. Detroit is going down the crapper, institutions large and small are laying off. I read the news and I wonder about those people and their holidays, how they're getting along. Even more I wonder how those automotive executives, especially the ones that took their private jets to Washington to beg for money, can get away without Jacob Marley nightmares.

I hope they can't.

Some years ago Malden Mills - a manufacturer of Polartec burned down right around the holidays. The owner kept paying the employees for months, even though they had no jobs to do. I'm sure they all had a crappy holiday - but at least they *had* a holiday.

You think the Big Three manufacturers will do the same if they don't get their loans? Somehow I'm just not optimistic.