A Human Dilemma

Technically, it’s late autumn and the weather is very much like it’s been for the past eight months or so. It’s wet this afternoon, and there’s a bit of a wind too, but apart from this, it’s really not too bad. Ribbit!!!

The garden still has a number of flowers in bloom, thanks to the green fingered skills of Bob, and this means that I can still find a lot of my food wandering amongst the shrubbery. As for my battle against those ’orrible furbags, I think I’m winning. Ribbit!!!

I was hoping to spread a little cheer this week, but alas it simply isn’t going to be the case. A closer study of you humans has shown me that most of you simply do not understand how your economy works for you, and believe me, you really should be doing more to understand it. How can you make it work if you can’t see the wood for the trees? (An old froggy saying.)

I want to help you to understand how your economy is supposed to work. Imagine, if you will, a great big wheel with many spokes radiating out from the central hub. Got it? Well, I do hope so.

Now, imagine that all of you are somewhere along the rim of this wheel, and for the sake of simplicity, you are facing to the right on a wheel that will be travelling clockwise. The first thing you all come across are your places of work. Eventually, you are all paid for what you do. Now that you’ve earned some money, you then decide to spend a little of it. Further along this wheel you come to a shop, supermarket, garage, or whatever it is. Let us say that some of you are buying a television, some your weekly shopping, while others purchase a new car, or a pair of shoes. Okay so far?

You hand your money across to the sales person, and they give you what you came in for. With time, knowledge of your purchase goes to their head office, the next space on that wheel. Here your goods are reordered so that the sales outlet can restock and sell even more goods to replace those you just purchased.

Let’s say that the next spoke of the wheel has the wholesaler, they order these goods from the manufacturer, the person at the next spoke of the wheel. Can you see the connection? Without that you purchase goods in the first place, others around the wheel will suffer as a result. The manufacturer finds that there is no sense in making new goods, if the sales outlet cannot sell them to you lot. People are laid off their jobs simply because you lot aren’t buying them. Croak!!!

This situation applies to all walks of life. You humans will only have a successful economy so long as it’s well oiled and it keeps going as I have explained to you. Stop making your purchases, services or whatever, and the economic wheel stops dead in its tracks resulting in a crisis. This is what is happening to you all right now. Of course, it doesn’t help matters when the media in your society starts spreading half truths and downright lies just so they have some juicy titbit of news to print or pass on to you just to make you feel more sorry for yourself than before. Croak!!!

You‘ve heard of people power haven‘t you? Well, this is the position you‘re all in at the moment. Yes, each and every single one of you. Only you, as human beings, have the power to end this economic crisis and bring some stability back into your lives and society in general. Ribbit!!!

Yes, I know that many of you are fearing for your jobs, but without you and all your members of society doing something positive about this situation, nothing will get better. I understand that big companies like BT and Virgin are said to be sacking thousand of people from their jobs, but did you realise that they would have done so regardless of the current economic crisis? They aren‘t sacking key workers, but rather those who are hired from agency.staff. These companies are taking advantage of a situation that has dropped into their laps. Yes, it still looks bad, but this is what the media wants you to believe. For them, this is news and they’re not interested in anything positive at a time when apathy and an economic crisis is flooding across the world. Ribbit!!!

You know very well that the economy will return to its former strength sooner or later. Even now, there are people out there making a killing at your expense. They don’t see an economic downturn, they see only opportunity coming their way. Come along, get that great big wheel going again, you can see that this truly makes a huge amount of sense. Ribbit!!!

Don’t let me hear anymore of your whining nor your apathy. Be positive and I’ll see you all again real soon… Take care of yourselves,

Froggy

Pulling the Wool

The wind is howling around the garden at the moment and it has just started raining too, oh what a day. Croak!!! Bob informs me that following a rather chilly night tonight, the forecast for tomorrow is a bright sunny and possibly warm day in sheltered areas. Now this is something to look forward to having. Ribbit!!!

I see once again, that despite my own exciting week in the garden, you humans are up to your proverbial necks in problems. Bob says that all British party political leaders are now coming up with their own half-baked plans on how the current economic climate should be tackled.

On their side, and this is usual for members of the Tory party, mister Cameron has gone for a typical Thatcherite stance. This is one where the unemployed get the blame for everything, as usual. He suggests that the money spent on paying the unemployed, should instead be used to get about three-hundred and fifty thousand back into work. This is all well and good, but would you mind telling us, mister Cameron, what about the other one million three-hundred thousand, or are these just going to suffer as they have always done under future Tory party plans? Croak!!!

If you lot were to round up all the unemployed, about four million, and then sort out all the useless ministers and their over-the-top pay, which group costs the most for the British economy and the tax payer? Ribbit!!! Enlightening isn’t it?

Have you lot noticed, and this most likely applies to countries around the world, how the media always harps on about how the high street shops are not doing so well lately? This, as I see it, is just a way of adding fuel to the idea that the British economy is going downhill. Well this is not quite the truth. Far from it in fact. The real truth is that people are fed up with being cheated by the highly inflated prices that high street shops charge you for your goods. People have long since chosen to shop in comfort from their homes, where they can explore the excitement of online shopping without having to actually go outside to do it, and get tons of bargains at realistic prices and quite frequently, have it sent to them post free at the same time. To indicate just how true this is, online shopping has risen by 16.6 % to date, and this is from around six percent or so that was recorded last April. What our high street shops don’t realise is this, the internet has opened a whole new world of shopping and it’s here to stay. Get used to it. Ribbit!!!

I must congratulate that nice mister Obama for winning the US Presidency. Good for you… Ribbit!!! Now perhaps he’ll bring about the changes the people of the US deserve. If only the same thing could happen here in Britain…

I understand that your housing is now being described by some as being cheap and affordable (?), but not from the way I see it. Bob says that some houses and flats are being offered at half their original price, just so the speculators can sell them. Well, they are still greatly over-priced, since the asking price is still way above their true economic value. These people will still make big profits on their properties, even sold at the current price. What they don’t want to see, it’s being landed with a load of unsold property when the prices drop a lot lower than they are at present. As sure as day turns into night and vice-versa, property prices will eventually return to the level it was about seven or eight years ago. I know that a lot of you won’t like this, but I’m not the one who thought that a house could be worth up to ten times its original value, am I? Ribbit!!!

Bob explained to me that many councils throughout this fair land are turning off street lighting at night, no doubt in the hope to save money. Even so, I doubt that these savings will be given to those who have to support this barmy plan. I can understand that those in office would like all humans to conserve energy and reduce their carbon footprint. But on the other hand, what about all those high rise office blocks in cities like, London, Liverpool, Manchester, Southampton, Birmingham, Newcastle etc, etc, the ones which everyone can see are lit up like Christmas trees 24/7. What about their carbon footprint?

The way I see this it’s as plain as the day is long. Everyone, except those responsible for such a waste of energy, are being asked to lower their own in order to justify what the energy wasters are doing. What the councils are doing is just utter nonsense when put into context of what goes on around the country in general. Street lighting helps prevent crime, or didn’t they realise this? Thieves love the darkness, so forget your stupid ideas and throw some light on what is really going on. Perhaps if a few councillor’s homes were to get broken into, they’d have a sudden change of heart? Croak!!!

Well, that’s another week done with. Take care of yourselves and go safe in your business…

Froggy

New Dawn

Can you feel it? There’s a freshness in the air today and it’s all due to the democrats winning the Presidential elections in the US of A. Bob tells me that he reckons that Britain will be able to act as allies once again with the states, standing shoulder to shoulder with them instead of following them around like some timid puppy dog, one that‘s lost the will to even take a bite at the postman it confronts on the front path. Ribbit!!!

Bob also says that eight years of Republican rule in the US helped them to get where they are today, in the crapper just like the rest of the world in fact. Of course, none of this is to say that this country, Britain, needs the Tories back in office, after all, the Tories are just as uncaring as the Republicans were for their country folk. Croak!!!

No, it just needs a fresh outlook on the British economy, and this means taxing the rich at a level that is in keeping with the levels that the majority of workers in this country are being taxed at. You cannot have a fair and equal society if the economy is based upon taxing the people unfairly. Anything other than this will nurture a society that’s going to fall apart, one where greed will be taken to the extreme. If you look at your human history, you will notice that your society has changed so very little since the French conquered Britain in 1066 nearly a thousand years ago. The rich remain filthy rich and in their greed to grab at even more wealth, they rob the ordinary hardworking people it governs blind. This is the kind of society that creates an underclass, one that nobody cares about in the slightest. Croak!!!

That nice mister Obama, he’ll consider the US as being a single nation of people, and this is quite unlike the former wealthy leaders like the Bush dynasty and how they treated their society. I’d truly like to understand how anyone could have supported McCain, when the Republicans had already let their country down. Not only this, but how could they trust someone who didn’t even know how many houses he owned and in a country where tens of thousands are losing theirs? Is the US of A full of people with countless homes to live in that they have perhaps forgotten about? What made them think that wealthy people like McCain would give a damn about jobs being lost? If the Republicans couldn’t fix their economy when they were in office, what makes their supporters think that they could do it if offered yet another chance to put things right? Indeed, to me this sounds like a case where McCain’s supporters are as well off as he is, in which case nothing would have been solved if they had won the elections. Croak!!!

All this talk brings me firmly back down to ground level once again. Why? Well you see, in the garden which is gradually becoming full to the brim with the frog population, I’ve been chosen… not willingly I might add here, to deal with the growing population of mangy furbags that haunts the garden. Hey! It can get pretty hairy around here during the sunny periods of the year. We had a vote, I lost and that is that. Croak!!!

Being a frog, I‘m small, cute and the local kids love to try and catch me, if they can that is. But honestly, I draw the line at being told that I have to confront several kilos of spitting fur, when all the other frogs are acting like chickens. I‘m all for an easy life and in any case, it‘s really a whole lot safer living that way.

I don’t know what on earth you humans are up to tonight, but I’d appreciate it if you’d let me get some peace and quiet. Ribbit!!!

So, until next time, take care and mind how you go…. Bye!

Froggy