Obama, NASA and the Slippery Slope.

Normally this blog is English centric, but Obama's cuts to the US space programme have prompted me to worry about where they, and we, are all heading.

America (like us) is broke and needs to cut back. As a result, large sections of the space program have been axed. It must be remembered that NASA is one of the main driving forces behind American technical innovation.

Obama and the Americans need to tread very carefully. They are on the edge of a very slippery slope that eventually leads to the purgatory of technical dependency.

Going down the slope is easy. Getting back up it again is murderously hard. Even just stopping the descent is awesomely difficult. Just look at us in the UK.

We have all got in this position because of the overblown banking sector. The banks should be a support player to industry. Today they have become the tail that wags the dog.

It was encouraging to see Obama recently lay down the law to the US banks. But he needs to make sure that Wall Street stops selling out American industry. The traders and the various ruling elites around the world all worship at the feet of Globalisation and would sell their mothers (let alone their country) to turn a profit or maintain their position.

A bit of good old protectionism against unfair competition for some strategic American industries would really set the cat among the pigeons. Maybe then we could also protect some of ours. That is after we get rid of the arch globalisation fetishist, Gordon "The Abyss" Brown.

Export/Import should be there to fill in the gaps and add the extras. It should never be allowed to destroy native industries wholesale.

Unfettered and dogmatic Globalisation has wreaked havoc across the world and led to untold misery and suffering, both in the West and in developing countries.

Now is the time to reign it in.

Globalisation, rotten nails and rubbish tools

BillotheWisp can hardly be called a fan of globalisation.

Basically he finds the concept of keeping the worldwide contigent of rich, powerful and extremely well fed in the manner they have become accustomed to, rather distasteful.

This all leads to Bad Doors.

For his sins (which are many) Billothewisp builds latch and brace doors. A nice simple design made from good quality French Pine floorboard. Glued using a fine English PVA glue. Hammer and saws are by Stanley. Made in England.

So why, on occasion, do we get a bad door?

The answer?
Bad Nails
and a Bad Router.

The nails are made from very poor steel. (one recently literally shattered when hit by the hammer), but now it is difficult to get anything else.

Then the is (was) the cheap router. This was great to start with, then it fell apart. It became unpredictable and dangerous.

Even Old Neanderthals do not want to accidently lop off assorted body parts with lethal tools so, with much regret ( and cost) it was binned.

Both nails and Router were made in foreign fields (China). They were made down to a minimum quality to maximise the profit for the posh, powerful and exceptionally well fed. No doubt the actual makers earned next to nothing.

The router lasted barely one year. The nails will be binned immediately I find a good quality replacement (price immaterial).

In the end only the social layer consisting of the very well fed would consider this a good deal. I won't even consider the environmental friendliness or economic practicality of it all.

The router has now been replaced by a German router. ( Deutschland uber alles Englander!! )

I have yet to find a decent nail.

The evil of Globalisation is that it chases down the price irrespective of the damage done to native industries or peoples. If there was a cheaper place to make crap nails or routers then thats where the manufacturing would migrate to, irrespective of the consequences for the original manufacturer. Product quality will always come a poor second.

Luckily there are still a few places left in Europe ( even in England)that treat their workforce reasonably well and still make good tools, but they are diminishing.

However BillotheWisp has learnt a very important though expensive lesson.

You only get what you pay for.

One day, I hope we see that Chinese workers need to make stuff for China (currently they end up exporting it all) and English workers return to make stuff for England rather than working in banks and insurance companies. This may well end up with the Great, Good and exceptionally well fed getting slightly smaller portions, but hey, they have a great deal of fat to spare.