Thomas Cave's Tattoo: Sales, Facts and Greed

"Thomas Cave's Tattoo"

I've started a blog that discusses what I call the New Great Depression - the idea that the next few years will constitute a Depression era, and not simple recession. I believe that to understand it in that way will enrich it, and encourage everyone in this country to make this era a creative period, a positive time, an act of construction, and not a cause for panic, chaos and fear. This is a chance for renaissance.

If the New Great Depression produces art, literature, theater, film, community, and a discovery of human value, as the first one did, who wouldn't want to be a part of it.

I am here to barter, trade, share, talk, listen, discuss, argue, understand, make fun, and make peace with the lack of the old prosperity. It was corrupt, and corroded, and it's gone. The dead weight of spoils has been lifted.

Thank you for listening, ma'am.

"About Thomas Cave"

Mr. Cave is the gentleman in the photograph that graces this home page. The photograph was taken by the American photographer Dorothea Lange, who so powerfully documented the country and its citizens during the Great Depression. I found this photograph at www.shorpy.com, a website with a specialty in Depression images. According to Shorpy's site, the Lange photograph, titled "535-07-5248 and Wife," was taken in Oregon in August of 1939. The gentleman is described as an unemployed lumber worker. His tattoo is his Social Security number, by which he is referred to in the title of the photograph. A public records search conducted by Shorpy's revealed that the number belonged to Thomas Cave, who was born in 1912 and died in 1980 in Portland. His wife's name, Ann Kathryn, who died in 2000, appears on their tombstone, a photograph of which is appended under Shorpy's readers' comments.

Mr. Cave is 27 years old in Lange's picture.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Sales, Facts and Greed

Good morning and welcome. I'm posting a piece written, impromptu, by a Swedish artist of my acquaintance. Please pay attention in particular to the last line.

Sales, Facts and Greed

Not long ago I got a sales position at an insurance company. My first goal was to learn about the products. It did not take many days until my manager told me that this was not what I needed to do. Sales are emotions you do not need facts.

The other day I called my credit card company. I was told my card was enrolled in an extra cash-back program and I had so far accumulated 1200 dollar, a reasonable amount. I went to the web site to learn how they could be used. I called costumer service to ask a few questions. I was excited to learn I could among other things fly internationally. I arranged a trip with friends and went back onto the web site to purchase the ticket, 510 dollars. Neither the web site nor customer service told me that the extra cash-back program is a discount program. Buying the ticket would add another 51 dollars to my cash-back amount but I could only use 12. It is a trap; the more I try to reduce, the more it will grow.
I called customer service this time to inquire about a new card and different benefit programs. I got all the information on how to acquire cash-back or points however there were no information on how to use them. The woman I was talking to let me know that she was only allowed to say what was posted on her screen. She might have known the answer but she was not allowed to tell me.

Well, if sales are about emotions. Madoff used just this. His costumer did not ask for facts they were satisfied with emotions.
A capitalistic system relies on the market/customers. We consumer need to be well informed to do healthy and accurate decisions for our own benefit or the system will in the long term deteriorate.
America would look very different if sales were to serve people to get what they want in a long-term perspective. As long as greed rules we need regulations. What about using bailout money to build new institutions with other goals than greed?

By Ragna Berlin, Brooklyn, April 18, 2009

Thank you for listening, ma'am.

Thomas Cave's Tattoo