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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

News Good Morning News!

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 9:12 AM

Abuse of Power: Portland pays $27,500 to woman who had sex with an on-duty cop.

No More Pencils, No More Books: Thousands of fresh-faced Oregon teachers can't find jobs.

Keep Yer Charity! Some Pakistanis tell the US to take its $1.5 billion aid dollars and shove 'em.

The Bible: Now With Less Women! A conservative group is rewriting the Bible to be less liberal and effeminate.

Spoiled Milk: European dairy farmers protest milk prices by spraying cops with milk, creating the best activist photo ever taken in world history:

500x_cow.jpg

Comic Book Bigamy: If Archie marries two ladies will people start reading his comic again? What about if he marries Jughead...?

Hipster Debuts on Law and Order: The long-awaited L&O "hipster episode" airs.

Refusing to Have Phone Books Delivered Hurts Oregonians! An emailed response to my Yellowbook rant:

Before I begin, let me state that I have no phone books in my house and every time I get one, I immediately recycle it.

I get what you're trying to do with your anti-Yellow Pages posts and I don't completely disagree. I just want you to be aware of some information that you may not know — a company in Portland Oregon, RR Donnelley and Sons, prints all of the phone books for the entire United States. In the last 5 years, this facility which used to run 5 of the largest printers in the world has atrophied down to 3 printers, thus reducing its staff by approximately 30-some percent. These are people that are now out of work and unable to provide for their families as a result of people like you opting out of receiving a phone book at their homes. The decrease in demand for phone books has also decreased the demand for delivering phone books and a similar percentage of drivers are also out of work.

I know phone books are not convenient for everyone and are often viewed as waste, but I want you to consider the bigger picture in this situation and think of those lives that are impacted directly when you choose not to receive a phone book.

Just another one of those that choose to recycle their phone books and ride a bicycle in Portland,
—
Michael

 

Comments (21) RSS

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1
so we should consider cutting down those trees for recycling to save a few jobs, good idea!
Posted by charlie on October 6, 2009 at 9:24 AM · Report
2
You know, when they shut down coal fired power plants, some people are going to be out of work too. Does that mean we should keep them running?

What about wars? Wars are a great way to keep people employed. Why don't we invade Poland in the name of full employment? It worked pretty well the last time there was a world wide Depression, we went from 20% unemployment to a labor shortage overnight. Never mind all the people that died, what really matters is that people had jobs!

(Seriously: I expect that online phone books employ more people than paper ones, and pay them better too.)
Posted by Matthew D on October 6, 2009 at 9:30 AM · Report
3
Michael - those jobs are building an incredibly wasteful product that no one wants!
Posted by Reymont on October 6, 2009 at 9:42 AM · Report
4
How silly. Michael must have been psyched about the auto industry bailout - gotta keep all those workers employed, after all, so go buy a freakin Explorer already!

Really. Spend the money on retraining the workforce for more relevant jobs instead of subsidizing a dying industry.
Posted by TWSS on October 6, 2009 at 9:55 AM · Report
5
You know who else is in trouble these days? Proprietors of opera hat factories and horse shoe fitters. Get with the times, man.
Posted by GLV on October 6, 2009 at 9:58 AM · Report
6
don't forget newspaper employees.


ooops.
Posted by Chunty McHutchence on October 6, 2009 at 10:01 AM · Report
7
Don't forget the milkman and the guy that delivers a block of ice to your icebox every week. Gotta keep them around forever, as well!
Posted by prestonChuckles on October 6, 2009 at 10:03 AM · Report
8
The Bible: Now With Less Women!

Does this mean they're going to replace Eve with Steve?
Posted by penthesilea on October 6, 2009 at 10:06 AM · Report
9
Just like English Luddites that destroyed the mechanized looms that 'took their jobs,' so this yellowbook supporter only sees that positive large-scale change must be a bad thing. The Solution: Adapt! Survival of the fittest, maybe if your job wasn't reliant on an outdated, self-destructive model, then this perspective wouldn't be so pervasive.
Posted by mhunterak on October 6, 2009 at 10:15 AM · Report
10
Wow, the city pays more for sex than Elliot Spitzer!
Posted by Demondog on October 6, 2009 at 10:38 AM · Report
11
Have to agree with most of the previous posts but it does raise an interesting question. Should jobs be preserved or created even if there is no need for them. If you include the underemployed and those that have just given up, real unemployment is at 25%+ and yet productivity is up. The bulk of the stimulus jobs are short term make work projects that don't affect most of us directly. Lots of union jobs have built in super redundancy. In Portland right now 1 out of 4 of the folks riding on the MAX with you are unemployed. The schools are crowded, but the doors are open and kids are attending but 2400 newly minted teachers can't find work. Should these folks have jobs or are we comfortable with a significant percentage of the population being unemployed because the economy doesn't need them, regardless of the reason. I don't have an answer and I sure as hell don't want the stinking Yellow pages, but its clearly not that simple.
Posted by alainb1 on October 6, 2009 at 10:50 AM · Report
12
As my brother wrote to me yesterday, "Capitalism, in proper, doesn't prop things up, but lets them die because, as in many mythologies, Death is also Rebirth. Unfortunately, there is a great American tradition (bipartisan here) of continuing unnecessary and should-be-extinct institutions simply because they've been around for so long."

And if your job truly is not worthwhile, couldn't and shouldn't you find something more productive to do?
Posted by tk. on October 6, 2009 at 11:07 AM · Report
13
100 years ago, people were bemoaning the end of the buggy whip industry too. Times change...I loathe phone books and haven't opened one for a decade or better.
Posted by nuovorecord on October 6, 2009 at 11:08 AM · Report
14
you know, I see so much of the merc's print content in online form throughout the week that it's barely worth picking up every thursday.

I used to look forward to sitting down with it at lunch. but now it seems like I've read everything already. but at least you guys don't leave a soggy one on my porch every other week like the fucking oregonian.
Posted by Chunty McHutchence on October 6, 2009 at 11:19 AM · Report
15
The Internet put the Nintendo Tip Line out of business.

Shame on you GameFAQs.
Posted by I Like Your New Haircut on October 6, 2009 at 11:47 AM · Report
16
Haha that whole cop thing is- OH JESUS CAN COWS REALLY SHOOT MILK THAT FAR!? I hope it is, in fact, milk.
Posted by Will Radik on October 6, 2009 at 12:40 PM · Report
17
Dale Earnhart Jr. is a European dairy farmer? Who knew!
Posted by CH on October 6, 2009 at 1:19 PM · Report
18
Would it be out of the question for the US to shorten the work week? Wouldn't this create more jobs for others? If you cut it down to 35 hours then that would be an additional 5 hours a week that someone else could work. My phone book goes directly into the recycling bin every single time. I don't even know anyone who owns a phone book longer than 2 minutes.
Posted by chomp on October 6, 2009 at 1:26 PM · Report
19
Come on! It's perfectly clear to me that phone books are another conspiracy perpetrated by The Timber Companies to get their hands on that tasty old growth.
Posted by pork chop on October 6, 2009 at 3:35 PM · Report
20
Where did you read that Junior is a milk farmer?
Posted by ujfoyt on October 6, 2009 at 5:01 PM · Report
21
Dont forget the gass pumping guy. I really could do with out those assholes. I just wanna pump my own gas and get the hell out of the station.
Posted by Punky on October 7, 2009 at 10:37 AM · Report

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