An open day to catch up, but I'd rather do nothing

Here I sit, in our house in Duluth during a blizzard.  I had planned to go skiing today, but even before the snow started, I decided that Spirit Mt. wouldn't be open because of the wind.  I thought of doing some shopping, but driving is not recommended.

I did go out for the papers this morning and that was a bit of a struggle – bare sidewalk and then shin-high drifts.  There was only one car at the restaurant where the paper boxes are, and I had breakfast there to give them a bit of business.  I had planned to go tomorrow.   A few more people came in, but the restaurant was short-staffed because of the blizzard and it closed at nine.

When I came back home it was into the wind.  To keep my hat on, I had to look at the ground in front of me.  To get up the steps from the sidewalk I had to pull myself up with the handrail because of the drifts.  And I had to struggle to get the front door open because of another drift.

I thought of going to the fitness center because the buses were running, but did I really want to battle my way to the corner again?

Some of the heroes today are those who put the papers in the boxes, the bus drivers, the restaurant staff, and our mail carrier.  She or her sub came by far earlier than I expected, and our box let in a lot of snow.  At least there were no soaking checks or blurred ink.  Another hero is the person who went down the block struggling with a snowblower.  Unless he has somewhere to go, I don't see the point; the continuing snow and the gusting wind will soon fill the path up again.

It was fortunate that my wife had chosen yesterday to go to Tokyo to visit our son and his family.  The same flight out of Duluth today was cancelled.  Even then, her flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul to Tokyo was delayed because of snow.

My lunch was rather makeshift because I was going to buy some of the stuff I had planned to eat.  So I had to pick and choose stuff out of the refrigerator that I wouldn't normally eat for lunch, like yogurt and peanut butter.

So, here I sit with a pile of stuff on my left to file or throw out and a similar pile on my right.  I could download Turbo Tax and get started on taxes.  I could clear up my backlog of email.  I could practice singing.  I could read any of the five, six, or seven books I've started.  I could even start a fire in the fireplace and sit all afternoon reading.  But I just flit from one little thing to another.  I read a bit of one newspaper or other online. I play a bit of SuDoKu.

Instead I stare at the screen or I try to look out the snow-covered window to see if the storm has abated.  I really can't see if it is still snowing without going right up to a window and looking out through a "clearer" spot.  I do know the wind is still blowing.

I do get in some of my physical therapy exercises for my sore shoulder, but that only takes five minutes or so.

I could drink our last bottle of wine, but I would only get woozy and sick.

Maybe I will light a fire and then finish "Il Compagno Don Camillo" and then reread "Comrade Don Camillo" to see how much of the Italian I understood.  I do get the larger picture, but I know I'm missing lots of nuance.  Well, maybe not lots.  I do know that compagno Don Camillo doesn't miss any chance to use Communist doctrine to point up inconsistencies in Soviet practice.

That's what I need.  A good chuckle!  Ciao!

Economy and wages are each cause and effect of the other

"The liberal reward of labour, therefore, as it is the necessary effect, so it is the natural symptom of increasing national wealth. The scanty maintenance of the labouring poor, on the other hand, is the natural symptom that things are at a stand, and their starving condition, that they are going fast backwards."
- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter VIII, Of the wages of labour

Let me decipher this a bit. If the national wealth is increasing, then labor will be paid well. If labor is paid well, then the national wealth is increasing. If labor is paid the same year after year or even less, then the national wealth is decreasing rapidly.

Consider that many have said that stagnant wages or massive layoffs make the economy worse, not better.

In other words, if the wealthy are hoarding the flour to bake cakes, the less wealthy won't have much bread. Or, in the case of the U.S. today, if the wealthy are hoarding their wealth to buy luxury goods, the less wealthy won't have much to buy groceries.

If you are a determined reader, or have a very inquiring mind, I highly recommend that you make the effort to read Adam Smith's "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations". For any edition that you are considering, be sure to check what the printed pages look like. Some editions have two-columns with small print.

I downloaded my copy from Project Gutenberg and then put it into Word so that I could add comments and bookmarks. Even then, reading it on a laptop screen tempts me to get an iPad. In any case, I hope I can finish reading it by spring. I'm sure I'll be posting many more blog entries on it. I just wish those who assume that it is a paean to the free market would spend more time with it.