ljplicease | Entries tagged with economist

“Simcha Felder, a Brooklyn city councillor, wants to ban the feeding of pigeons. Mr Felder, a Democrat, would like to slap a $1,000 fine on every transgressor, and hopes to introduce pigeon-terrifying hawks, avian birth-control and a “pigeon tsar” to control the bird population. He argues that pigeon droppings damage buildings and other infrastructure and can carry disease, and cites as a success the experience of Ken Livingstone, London’s mayor—who uses hawks to scare pigeons from Trafalgar Square. Pro-pigeon advocates plan to stage a protest on the steps of City Hall on November 30th.”

—The Economist

I want the job of pigeon tsar. I think it would look awesome on my resumé.

In Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, Stephenson presents a world in which churches are a franchise operation. (The book in general makes all the logical conclusion of the application of rampant free market principals as they might occur sometime in the near future; for example, the CIA of this future buys and sells information to the highest bidder, and the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) is sold off and becomes a personal yacht). The Economist has an article (“A marriage made in heaven?”) about the possible merger of Catholicism and Anglicanism [sic] from a business perspective. It’s amusing, but I am not sure which disturbs me more, the ease at which big religion fits into the language of big corporations, or the fact that capitalists find it so easy to talk about nearly anything using their dogmatic vocabulary.

On Oregon’s attempt to replace the word “suicide” from the debate over their Death With Dignity Act:

“It would have George Orwell rotating longitudinally in his subterranean post-life enclosure.”

—The Economist 17 February 2007

The Economist has no bylines, but it does have three titles for every article. With great interest, I read one article in the last issue of the year, which arrived in my mailbox yesterday, was variously titled 1. "The Servant Problem" 2. "A Modest Proposal" and 3. "How to solve the biggest issue in modern politics." The second title "A Modest proposal" is of course a reference to Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal, the de facto standard in satire, so naturally I was prepared for some good satire about the downfall of politicians for employing "illegal" immigrants, but the setting up of the piece was long and winding so when it got to the satire bit

Parents are not the only people who have difficulty getting visas for workers. All employers face restrictive immigration policies which raise labour costs. Some may respond by trying to fiddle the immigration system, but most deal with the matter by exporting jobs. In the age of the global economy, the solution to the servant problem is simple: rather than importing the nanny, offshore the children.

The Economist 16 December 2004

I had forgotten to expect it. They can't be serious I thought to myself, and then I remembered that they aren't. I love to read The Economist in the Laundromat. It makes me feel so snobbish and elitist... and I am not talking 3L33T.

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Entries tagged with economist

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