Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

See the news report of the below.

This is the wrong thing happening in the world. You get as much as you work. That is fine. But in reality only few people get most of what all of us have. Then most of us become poorer. That creates the problem.

There needs a system that redistributes the wealth. We need to change that way.

Why do we admire people who get so much? Those who get much more than what they need?

Change the value so that we do not have to treat such greedy people as role model.

"Uptown Girl" is my favorite song sung by famous U.S. pop star, Billy Joel.

I recently heard the song again and then came up with new novel idea.

The title is "Uptown Girl."

The story is a daughter of big auto maker owner got out of boring party and stopped by a small bar.

She met a young bartender in a bar. They were alone and talking each other. He was surprised with her outfit which was unusual in the atmosphere of the bar. She wore high-class dress and pearl neckless.

They made friends each other and heard Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" together. They felt kind of mutual with the song.

Next week the uptown girl met a bartender in the factory of her father's company. She worked as a regular worker in the company. But he was a a temporary worker dispatched from a greedy temporary help company. The temporary help company's main shareholder was in fact her father's auto maker. The aim of outsourcing was to avoid taking responsibility as employer so that the company didn't have to hire workers as regular worker. They never have to raise salaries and provide safe and secured environment and it is easy to lay off.

He worked under severe condition. He decided to form a union with his colleagues in the temporary help company.

She met him again and learnt what he was doing. She was shocked to hear how her father's company treated workers to boost profit. She found out how she had been spoiled and known nothing about what was happening in real world.

Then she decided to join his activity to better the condition of the factory workers.

The bartender had a dream of creating a great hybrid engine. He studied it but was never accepted because of lack of academic background.

The story is actually not only inspired by the song but real social issue of the world. How the rich people exploit working class people's labor.

I don't know how Billy Joel came up with the lyric of the song but it surely reflects class gap issue in the world, not only in the U.S and Japan but the rest of the world. It is recently getting serious as the economy went bad so a lot of corporations have to lay off so many workers.

But class gap is in fact the result of capitalist economy system as German economist Karl Marx described.

Maybe we can think about that by listening to the song. The song was created by Billy Joel but is also covered by British singers, Westlife.

Uptown Girl by Billy Joel

Uptown Girl by Westlife

This one is good covered version as well.

The film was more like documentary than drama. The story is fiction but it should be based on the facts.

A hamburger store chain manager goes to the meat processing factories to know why the poisonous bacteria were detected on beef for hamburger. The search reveals the harsh reality of fast food chain business and severe conditions of the workers in the factories.

This is something I, myself could more un-USA. But the film was of course produced by Americans. One of the characters was played by a famous actor, Bruce Willis.

The people involved in the story represent the problems of America and the world. Illegal immigrants from Mexico who seek much higher income than their homeland and end up working in meat processing factory where working condition is very, very dangerous.

Farmers who are fighting against corrupt food industry, liberal students who learn stupid system of their country but don't know how to change it.

Well, it just didn't happen in the U.S. Food industry is in fact scary sector. Very profitable but at the same time very competitive and people involved are very greedy.

But the bottom line is this phenomenon was caused by consumers' greed. We are always seeking cheaper products and more convenient way of life.

Then what we see in the end is McDonalds everywhere, people eating cheap but very poisonous beef.

What if we are more knowledgeable and considerate, things might be better.

I've heard that in Europe, there is a movement called "Slow Food. Slow Life."    

As Obama said in his inauguration speech, "we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works," good economical system does not mean capitalist economy.

As I recall my macro-economy course in U.S., definition of economy is "rational economy of wealth."

If only small number of people get most of the wealth, they would save most of what they earn, not using for consumption because they cannot do that even though they like jet-set life style. If the same amount of wealth was allocated to millions of workers, it will be all used up and circulated in the market and rejuvenate the whole economy.

Free economy, trickle down theory are old fashion ideas. Neo-liberalist economy resulted in today's financial crisis.

That doesn't mean socialist economy is better, it leads shortage of the goods like what happened in former Soviet Union.

Let's think about third way to create better system.