I finally got around to seeing Supersize Me, the documentary film where the filmmaker ate three meals a day at McDonald's for 30 days to see what would happen.

This is old, but still true, and Labor Day is a great day to explore the topic of The Overworked American. The trend has not reversed since it was written.

Basically, what Juliet B. Schor says is that productivity has soared since the 1940s, and when productivity soars, you can choose to do one of two things: work more, or work less. Europe by and large has chosen to work less. The United States hasn't.

I am a fiscal conservative. That should surprise no one. I'm extremely careful with how I spend my money, and I get frustrated when I see corporations and governments do otherwise.

So it's hard for me to stand back and keep my mouth shut while Washington talks about oil companies.

I saw a story on Slashdot today about Snapper pulling out of Wal-Mart. While Snapper's competitors were angling to be the brand of choice at various big-box stores, Snapper decided they couldn't do things the Wal-Mart way and pulled out.

This St. Louis Post-Dispatch article talks about a new type of homeless: A family, in most cases, where both parents work, but neither makes enough to be able to afford both a home and transportation.

This is where salary deflation and the end of inexpensive housing meet, and it's not pretty.

Hmm. Companies hire H1Bs to pay them less.

And in other news, George W. Bush listens to country music.

OK, do I really need to tell you why you need The Complete Calvin and Hobbes?

I didn't think so.

Here's a recycled idea: outsource to small towns instead of overseas.

It made sense in the 1930s and it makes sense now.

Technophilosopher Paul Graham (whose essay on Bayesian filtering spurred the development of one of the more popular methods for blocking spam) has some thoughts on what companies ought to learn from open source and blogging.

I really liked this quote: [Those who] run Windows on servers ought to be prepared to explain what they know about servers that Google and Yahoo don't know. I know Google and Yahoo are a whole lot smarter than anyone I've worked for who runs on Windows.

But the most poignant bit for me was this: People work a lot harder on things they like.

His Billness claims he can't find enough IT workers. I think this is more posturing so he can get more visas--it's cheaper to import labor from the Far East than to outsource, I guess.