On Grant McCracken’s blog, which “sits at the intersection of anthropology and economics,” this post argues that the American corporation is out of touch with much of the country’s population.

The John-Boy Problem (Boomer managers out of touch)

Let’s say we are a luxury car company. We’re doing a year-end review of marketing. We’re looking at everything, including person who supplies the “voice over” for our ads.

The room is filled with around 25 people. This room is mostly Boomers with 8 Gen Xers and 4 Gen Yers (aka Millennials).

“I say we stay with John-Boy,” says the most powerful person in the room. There is a pause as other Boomers nod their heads sagely. Richard Thomas has been the voice of the brand for many years.

But Generations X and Y are thinking, “Who the hell is John-Boy?” They don’t say anything. Then the penny drops. “Oh, they must mean that guy Richard Thomas.”

Their confusion is forgivable. Richard Thomas starred in a TV series called The Waltons, a show that ended in 1981. That’s almost thirty years ago. The oldest Generation Xer was 20 in 1981, the youngest was born that year. No member of Generation Y was watching TV in 1981. For Generation Z, Richard Thomas might as well be a Martian.

For half the room, Richard Thomas is just “some guy.” Actually, he’s just “some guy” for half the country. Certainly, it’s true that Boomers buy most of the luxury cars in this country, but this will not last. And in the meantime, we have 3 generations listening to a voice that means nothing to them.

And this is just odd. As these markets mature towards the age and income, the corporation insists in addressing them in a voice they do not recognize.

I believe this problem plays out in the corporate world several times a day. Boomers make choice that work for their culture, for the world they know. And the other half of the room (and the market) is left to wonder, “Who is the hell is John-Boy?”

The John-Boy problem is bigger than it seems. The American corporation is not just bad at youth culture, it’s out of touch with a good deal of the American world. It doesn’t have any real feeling for the ethnic variety of America, the alternative and indie movements, the constant ebb and flow of lifestyle, the churn in the sports world. What is happening in the world of music, film, sports (post arena), art, and social media? For that matter, what is happening in the kitchens of the American heartland? Even this is changing. Even this is mysterious.

The corporation needs to know. It’s not enough to bring in the cool hunters and trend consultants. These people have no vested interests. Frankly, they disdain the corporation for being clueless. No, the corporation need its own internal brain trust, stock of knowledge, and enduring mastery of American culture. Anything else is just guessing. And guessing is something the corporation is not allowed to do.

The inverse of this is that it took me months to figure out that Lady Gaga wasn’t some aristocratic infant with a great press agent…

It was only a matter of time, I guess. This Saturday, dozens of “coffee parties” took place around the country. The Coffee Party was formed in response to the seemingly omnipresent and highly vocal Tea Party movement, which seeks a more limited form of government, to say the least. While Coffee Partiers also have a beef with government, it’s for a different reason entirely: They think it’s beholden to corporate interests.

From the Coffee Party web site’s About page:

Here’s a video by the Coffee Party founder, documentary filmmaker Annabel Park.

The organization’s Facebook page has attracted a rapidly expanding number of fans– over 161,000 so far, and if you hit refresh on your browser, you can see that number tick upward. And, natch, the nascent movement has a presence on Twitter, and Flickr, too. Here’s a blog post about one of the events from an attendee.

The Tea Party movement has had a fairly profound effect on the Republican Party. Whether a Coffee Party can have the same impact on Democrats remains to be seen.

One thing is clear: Coffee or tea, the entire country needs to drink decaf…

In this final episode of “Laid-Off,” we find our hero Odd Todd trekking out to Hollywood to try his hand at creating a TV show.

Laid-Off: Hollywood Bound

From the blog Layoff Moveon, this post on Top Ten Things That Enrage.

So you’re cruising through life at a comfortable speed. Wham, bam. your pink slip is served. Suddenly there are things in life which you never thought would piss you off.

#1 PEOPLE WHO ASK HOW I’M DOING
in case you’re wondering, “not well” is the real answer to “how’s your job search?”

#2 TOILETRY ITEMS
how do I use these so quickly? not giving up deodorant. I’d hate to be smelly AND broke.

#3 THE PERMA-SEARCH
endless 10 hour cycles of chasing online needles within a jobless haystack. rinse. repeat.

#4 MACARONI & CHEESE
used to feel nostalgic eating this childhood staple, now a definite case of blue box blues.

#5 MY COMPUTER
it’s now much closer to me than any of my friends, it even has lunch & dinner with me.

#6 BEER
it makes me angry because i love it so much. even my love, PBR, gives me guilt pangs.

#7 THE MAIL
must resist fantasies about drowning my bills in a puddle. comcast can eat my a*s.

#8 PRETENDING I WANT TO BE A NANNY OR ASSISTANT
no really, i am great with kids, typing, errands, and any other job you might PAY me for.

#9 BIG GIRL DREAMS
grow up, get a job, and move out. why do i get the feeling i may have to start over again?

#10 OBJECTIVE ON RESUME
call me an aimless brown-noser, this changes 75 times a day to fit YOU mr. job description

From the blog of You Walk Away, a company that helps homeowners “strategically default” and walk away from their property (and mortgages) when they have negative equity.

Click on an image to see it full size.

More photos here

Some of you have no doubt seen the “Fear the Boom and Bust” video featuring the rap stylings of economists John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich von Hayek, two economic theorists with diametrically opposed views. To put the dispute in its most simplistic terms, Keynes thought government intervention was the only way out of economic downturns, and Hayek…not so much. (Think Paul Krugman vs. Ron Paul to get a picture of two contemporary acolytes of these schools of thought.)

In Wikipedia’s entry on Keynes, the section “Economics: out of favour 1979–2007” is followed by “Economics: the Keynesian resurgence of 2008–2009.”

So, with governments desperately trying to manage the fall-out from the recent capitalist implosion with courses of action anathema to free-market types, what’s a libertarian to do?

Well, for one, the dream still lives on at the EconTalk podcast, which hosts discussions on all types of economic, business, and financial topics, from a libertarian perspective. A sampling:

• Barry Ritzholtz on Bailouts, the Fed, and the Crisis – The CEO, author, and blogger discusses the history of bailouts in recent times, beginning with Lockheed and Chrysler in the 1970s. What is the role of the Fed in discouraging prudence through its efforts to keep asset prices and the stock market at high levels?
• Larry White on Hayek – The George Mason economics professor discusses the business cycle theory of Friedrich von Hayek of the Austrian School of economics and his intellectual battle with economist John Maynard Keynes.
• Clifford Winston on Market Failure and Government Failure -The Brookings Institution scholar posits that government regulation often fails to meet its objectives and that “idealized theories of government intervention based on textbook theories of market failure are not the way regulation turns out in practice.”
• Michael Belongia on the Fed – The former St. Louis Federal Reserve economist discusses the inner workings, politics, and economics of the Fed, how “power and politics play in Federal Reserve decision-making,” and how “various Fed chairs used their power to suppress dissent.”

All you Ron Paul renegades and von Mises votaries — check out the archive here.

No, that’s not a confession at a 12-step meeting for pariahs.

It’s the title of a long thread on Reddit, part of the social bookmarking site’s “IAmA AMA” feature, which stands for “I am a X, ask me anything.” The concept is simple: “Post what you are, have people ask you about yourself.”

Here’s the beginning of the thread:

First question: How do you live with yourself?

Lobbyist: I work for a non-profit company. We cover very many people for the lowest cost we can. That’s how. You would be surprised at home many “evil” insurance companies are actually non-profit companies. And the funny thing is that in my professional opinion, most of individual policies pieces in the House or Senate bills are going to be disastrous to the end consumer/user

Response: Yeah, non-profits where the executives make out like bandits.

Lobbyist: These are large, complex organizations that must be run in a certain way or they will fail. If you have an insurance company that insures 1.5 million people with over $750 million in revenue, what is appropriate?

Response: Do you believe the individual that can be found at 750,000 dollars a year is that much inferior to the one making 7.5 million dollars a year? Are they worth 7 heart transplants , including post-op care? (That was the cost I saw for a prisoner who got a heart transplant.)

Lobbyist: I don’t understand the “Do you believe the individual that can be found at 750,000 dollars a year is that much inferior to the one making 7.5 million dollars a year?” Can you clarify? Like I said in another post, I would rather have competing private bureaucracies to choose from rather than the monopolistic government bureaucracy that will make the decision for me.

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Living With Le$ is an online comic strip about a Wall Street money manager who loses his job and has to move back in with his parents.

Start here then read all 36 episodes to date.

Here’s a post we dug out from late 2008 from a blog called “Life after my Layoff” and sub-titled “The economy stole my journalism job, but not my love of writing.”

I watch “Avenue Q”…and nearly cry in my seat

Last weekend, my boyfriend treated me to a showing of Avenue Q, a raunchy Broadway musical featuring rampant puppet sex and a rainbow of expletives.

Needless to say, I loved it.

The show is plenty edgy – despite the kid-friendly Muppets, I wouldn’t take anyone without a driver’s license — and features songs with titles like “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist.”

But it’s also a riveting tale about being unemployed during your 20s.

“How can I get laid off if I haven’t even started?” a recent college grad wonders.

Nearly all the characters are either fired or quit their jobs. Everyone’s broke and down on their luck – even resorting to homelessness to control costs. Periodically, I glanced at my boyfriend and murmured, “Is this supposed to be so autobiographical?”

In between songs about Internet porn and Gary Coleman, the main character is searching for his life’s purpose. It doesn’t come easy. Instead, he wanders around aimlessly, dating his neighbor and cooking up hare-brained schemes for cash.

During some exchanges, I nearly cried at the honesty.

For me, the most poignant song was “I Wish I Could Go Back to College.” I’ve posted some sample lyrics (the rest had some profanity).

KATE MONSTER:
I wish I could go back to college.
Life was so simple back then.

NICKY:
What would I give to go back and live in a dorm with a meal plan again!

PRINCETON:
I wish I could go back to college.
In college you know who you are.
You sit in the quad, and think, “Oh my God!
I am totally gonna go far!”

ALL:
How do I go back to college?
I don’t know who I am anymore!

Immediately after my layoff, I contemplated signing up for GRE courses and going back to grad school. The cozy college womb is still an alluring option, but I think it’s just delaying the inevitable: finding another job in a lousy economic climate.

It doesn’t help that I want to study the least profitable niche since journalism and underwater basket weaving: creative writing.