The Way We Do Business Today

With the employment prospects being what it is these days, I have read repeatedly in the last couple of years that really enterprising individuals are tempted to turn indy and go free-lance. They look to establish a small enterprise, vending whatever talents and skills they possess as a so-called ‘independent contractor’ to the public at large, and earn a living thereby, rather than scrounge and maneuver and hope for a paying job on the bottom rung of the corporate and/or government establishment. Pardon the sarcasm – it seems that certain large and well-connected established corporations these days are almost indistinguishable from the government, at least to judge from the rapidity which which the well-connected move back and forth.

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Kotkin on Middle-Class Class Politics

Class Warfare for Republicans:

Who’s angry and ready to raise their raise their pitchforks? Try the self-employed, who are now, according to Gallup, the large constituency most alienated from the present regime. Even the hapless Romney picked up their support against Obama.
 
The new core constituency of the GOP can best be identified as the enterprise base. They include small property owners, mainly in the suburbs, those who are married or aspiring to be so. They are more suburban than urban, and likely to work for someone else or themselves as opposed to working for the state. Combine the top half of private employees, over 50 million people, add some 10 million self-employed and you get to a serious economic, and political, base.
 
This group also includes many immigrants, particularly Asians, a constituency that should be tilting GOP but still isn’t. They, too, increasingly live in the suburbs, own homes as well as business. And rarely do they benefit from the prevailing crony capitalism.

Sarah Palin represented Kotkin’s enterpriser constituency better than any other recent national Republican candidate, and look at what happened to her. Kotkin is right about the political interests of middle class businesspeople. The problem for the middle class is that the Left understands their interests better than they themselves do and goes all-out to fight them.

(Via Instapundit.)

Wells Street Bridge Replacement in Chicago

This weekend the Brown Line of the CTA is shut down as they replace the next section of the Wells Street bridge. It is a big deal when they shut down the Brown Line since thousands of passengers ride that line each workday. This is the second shutdown of the Brown Line as part of this project. Since it was a beautiful Saturday I walked to the construction site to take photos with my Pentax K-01 recommended by Jonathan (who has far better photographic skills).

This view is looking East – you can see the new section that they will weld onto the bridge on a barge and it has a lighter coloration.

This view is looking North from the south side of the river. They have the portion of the old bridge that they plan to cut away “on blocks” on a barge.

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Night Paddling

Last weekend we set out from the marina at a local park, shortly before sunset. The weather was good with a 2/3 moon that provided plenty of light. A breeze kept the bugs down.

We entered an upscale residential canal and stopped for a bite.
Canal 1

[More photos below the break.]

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