This is big. Cambridge based Plastic Logic has raised $100 million to build a factory that will produce microchips out of plastic instead of silicon. I think the BBC World News broadcast was dead on in describing this as the start of the next industrial revolution. The things that are possible with these materials truly look like science fiction.

I found yet another example of somthing that makes me a bit uneasy with Wal-Mart. They are now pushing to increase sales of compact fluorescent lightbulbs to 100 million a year which is more than twice what they sell now. CFL’s are more expensive, but use 1/4 or less energy than a traditional lightbulb and don’t waste all that extra energy as heat. The bulbs last for years. The savings from the bulb is enough to prevent the otherwise necessary building of several new electric plants in the near future if Americans switched to them. The article I linked is a good discussion of the bulbs and many of the issues at play. What it doesn’t talk about are some of the social issues around bringing that wal-mart muscle to an otherwise good cause. Does it offset the good paying jobs lost in this country to slave wage level manufacturers in Asia? Does it offset the horrible pay, benefits, and conditions that Wal-Mart lays on its workers? I pondered these same questions when I read a long story last year stating that Wal-Mart was going to start pushing organics foods in its stores. I’m still not sure I have the answer. Don’t get me wrong, I have no illusion that Wal-Mart is doing this for any reasons other than its own bottom line. This is good PR and it helps to bring in consumers like me who otherwise have qualms about shopping at Wal-Mart.

I’ll admit that, since moving to California, I’ve made one trip to Wal-Mart for the express purpose of buying compact fluorescent lightbulbs. They’re about 30% cheaper there than at the local Safeway.

Wall Street has had such a great year that some firms are warning their employees not to be too lavish in their spending of Bonus money. This is bonus money that ranges from a million dollars to sixty million or more. There are not enough Ferraris and $20 million properties in New York to meet the demand. The poor suckers who are only raking in a million bucks or a little more in bonus money are putting it in savings. The poor bastards could lose their jobs and be virtually destitute next year. My god, they might have to drive American cars.

I didn’t like, but could live with, this stuff in the late 90s. Our government was on track to run surplusses. It looked like we might have the money to start reinvesting in our own people and infrastructure. Real wages were going up and it wasn’t just college educated white people that were benefitting. I can’t stand this kind of shit when the rest of us are losing ground again. This really makes me think that the rich have permanently circumvented any kind of democratic accountability via their control of the media and massive funding of right wing think tanks, etc over the last generation. There’s no mass movement to curtail this stuff. The average worker seems to be so afraid of the mobility of capital across international boundaries that the idea of doing something about the rich isn’t even legitimate in most people’s eyes anymore.

A few years ago, there was much ado about the fact that women were starting to outnumber men at many large universities and that they had much higher high school graduation rates. On the optimistic side were those who said this might finally bring about something closer to pay and opportunity equity in the workforce. The logic there being that it’s hard to discriminate against the majority for too long. On the more regressive side were those who cried about how the educational system was failing boys. Well, it looks like the good ol’ boys have little to fear. According to this article in the International Herald Tribune, the gender pay gap is firmly in place. It may actually be growing among men and women with four year degrees, in spite of the increasing percentage of women in the college educated workforce. Among the highest paying jobs such as medical specialists, executive management, and others, the opportunity and pay gap is growing with no signs that it’s going to narrow for decades.

Hey, you remember that stuff from a couple of years ago about how working women opting out of the workforce for a more fulfilling life at home, being a mom? Yeah, that kind of turned out to be crap. It turns out that the combination of workplace inflexibility and crappy job prospects were and are behind a lot of professional women leaving their high powered jobs for some other kind of life.

In other job related news, it looks as if one upside to national policies that dismantled our auto industry does exist. We all know that things are bad in the auto sector. It looks like they’re on their way to get worse in the next few quarters. Automakers who can’t sell their stockpiled inventory are in the process of re-introducing cash back incentives and zero interest financing. This means that reduced production will continue, dragging down other sectors with it. However, since the domestic auto market is now such a relatively small part of our economy, it’ll only be a drag on us rather than pulling us back into full blown recession like it did in the early 80s.

But don’t fret, blue collar workers! You can always move to Wyoming

Thanks to Kristine for passing along this article which gives a nice, introductory level overview of how the US’s lower and middle class are among the biggest losers of globalization. The general theme ought to be somewhat apparent to anyone who knows me, reads me elsewhere online or reads this blog closely.

I watched part of the presidential news conference this morning. I’m really freaking tired of watching the media let this fucker get away with talking about the U.S. needing a guest worker program so that Mexicans can come and do the jobs “Americans won’t do”. I’ve never yet seen a reporter ask him why we shouldn’t just let the market decide on a fair wage for that work rather than importing low wage workers. Isn’t his party the party that talks about free markets solving everything? Aren’t they the ones who constantly say that the government shouldn’t solve this or that problem because the market will work it out? Why won’t one single reporter ask him why we can’t let the market work out a wage that’s high enough to convince Americans to break their backs in those fields?