Bedrock

We have numerous reminders to indicate that we live in an imperfect world , starting with expressions like, “Nobody's perfect.” Thinking about half full or half empty glasses certainly suggests that we must deal with glasses that are often less than full; in other words, too often in life something is missing . The often uttered words, “I'm bored,” is another hint that things are less than pleasing, somehow, far too much of the time. If such ordinary reminders weren't enough, one need only to recall the news headline to know that this world is messed up, not just the United States but everywhere. The reality is troubling to many youth, who are idealists by nature. Unless their sense of rightness has already been disturbed by tragedy, injury, illness, or abuse, it is natural for the young to expect things to be good, right, or at least pleasant. No one intends to mislead them; adults just try to save the ugliness for a later moment. We use euphemisms for death: ...

So, they say, Mitt Romney laid off workers while at Bain Capital, and this is supposed to be a bad thing. Why exactly is that a negative for the candidate?  By the way, many of these charges, especially some of the more extreme campaign ads, are actually untrue, but I'm not making that point here.  Yes, I know we have high unemployment. The logic then, I guess, is that it's always wrong to cut jobs, right? What nonsense!  Nobody wants to lose their job, but sometimes it simply becomes necessary. No one, except possibly the government, hires people simply to give them jobs. Jobs are not the goal of job creators. Profit is the goal. Employers hire people to do things in order to make money. These workers make things, provide services, or manage others who make or serve. The employer's challenge is to have enough workers to get the work done well so that clients and customers spend money for the products or services provided, in the end leaving a net gain in...