Its all about the money... the world of commerce exists to provide for the needs of the citizens that will buy their product - or to create that need if it is not overtly there. I had a pet rock. I bought brine shrimp because a comic book had an advertiser that convinced me (well I WAS only 10 at the time - fine it is true that I would buy them even today) that a royal underwater court of fabulous sea monkeys would appear in my glass bowl. I paid $50.00 for a pair of pants, for my teenagers, that were nothing more than elastic around the ankles and the waist and cheap cotton, but it had the SKIDZ emblem, and for some odd reason it caught on in the minds of its youthful demographic. That was the last time I bought in to the idiocy of cheap products with a pop culture value that definitely deflated after about 12 months. But, oh, how the children enjoyed those chintzy pants with the label that brought an ephemeral rise to their fashion savvy.
Who knows what will catch the fancy of people. Advertisers can make commercials that suggest if you take an erectile dysfunction drug you can finally throw the ball through the tire swing - errr... at least that is what I got out of it. Another commercial gives insidious suggestions that eating a nutritionally deficient salty snack will give you the ability to ignore common decency towards other people, no matter how annoying they may be, and rub your sticky orange fingers over their property. I really do dislike Chester Cheetos and his current message. Is it reflective of our values as a society that some advertiser somewhere decided that petty revenge is the best way to sell a product that is probably only going to make you even more grumpy if it is what you give your corporeal engine for fuel... I hope not. If so - its time to rise above.
Morgan Spurlock made a shockumentary about the effects of eating McDonalds all day, every day. It was interesting. To me it spoke more about the effects of making poor food decisions than it did about any liability McDonalds has for the choices our free citizens make in this country. McDonalds has made excellent strides since that individual perspective that caught the minds and money (congratulations Mr. Spurlock) of the nation. They now offer a menu that gives the opportunity to continue our fast paced life but with the proper fuel to keep us going. Its all back on the public - will you get the salad and fruit - you should.
I would like to see Mr. Spurlock do another DOCumentary - this one involving the good works that the McDonalds corporation provides for families in medical crisis. The Ronald McDonald Houses provide shelter, food, and emotional support for families that are caught in a storm and can only pray and hope to ride it out. Where is that gem of a movie... I hear so much about the greed of corporations - and some surely do seem to have forgotten the little people. Many have not, however, and they deserve to be recognized for what they give back to the public.
Small family owned businesses also give back - but their bottomline is still to make money. They just do not support any sort of system that would pay a huge bonus to somebody that is ruining the business. As far as I can see, with what little research I have done - that appears to be a flaw in corporations. If your company is failing, bypass the kudos - because they are supposed to be for excellence, not existing.
Be glad that corporations exist. Be glad that small family run businesses exist. Be glad that in America you can be a Tito Ortiz, a man that as a boy used to sleep in a car, homeless, but went to the gym everyday and built himself up and his skills at fighting so that he could become one of the first of a new sort of sport. He did not sit on the car fender and shake his fist at the sky and say WHY WHY WHY, he got up and he TRIED TRIED TRIED - and he won.
Hard work - whether it is as simple as the pounding of components for bread with a stick (as shown in the picture above), or whether it involves complex technological languages of the computer programming world, is what a winner does. Or maybe they just come up with a quirky idea that captures the imagination - like the pet rock. Either way, nobody will not do nothing, because waiting for somebody else to do it will get you nowhere.
For myself, I like to make bread by hand. I do not grind my own flour, but I do knead the dough. I will plant a garden. I will feed my family, and probably alot of unexpected diners. But I am blessed, and there is enough for all. I certainly do not have time to wonder what anybody else is doing, or gossip, or slander.
Good job America - we are amazing.
