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I read a very interesting article over the weekend about why the USA has such a hard time competing in the new global economy. The story began with President Obama asking Steve Jobs (this conversation was in February, 2011) what it would take to get Apple to bring their production back to America? Jobs replied, "Sir, those jobs aren't coming back." Then it goes on to describe in layman's terms why. (It describes one electronics assembly factory, Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China, where 230,000 employees work 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, many living on-site in company dormitories. If they get a new client they can hire 3,000 new employees overnight and begin work immediately.) It was a real eye opener. It's a long, but worthwhile read. You can read it here if you're interested.
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Over the weekend Mr. & Ms. "W" moved in to the new home we just finished building for them. Their big crisis was that the movers stole Ms. W's purse. Besides the obvious money and credit cards inside, her purse also contained ALL the keys to their new home. They had a locksmith come out and re-key all the locks, paying him the emergency / weekend price of $800. I'm thinking it should have cost a fraction of that, but the guy pulled up out front and saw their $1.3M house and had an instant price increase. (I think they got robbed twice this weekend!) Then to rub salt into the wound, when the cops got there, they found the original keys! The crooks tossed 'em.
Looks like I'm playing Suzy Homemaker today. I need to make an appearance at work, but I should still be home by early afternoon. To give K a break I'm going to wash clothes and clean out the refrig. I can't imagine doing that full-time, like my mom and most mom's of the 1950's did. I'm afraid my brain would atrophy.
Gotta go. Fabric softener awaits. ;)
S
