My dear friend I offer my consolations for your angst at the moments your mother may have been denied in her youth by needing to tend to family priorities. Suddenly we realized that our recently dearly departed and much loved mother (having married at 16 in the heart of the depression) had not the opportunity either to spread her creative wings and fly as Icarus did boldly towards a shining orb – even if only for a brief flaring moment - or to seek out the holy grail of spiritual fulfillment, for she was a woman of great beauty and charm waylaid by the press gang of five children and three miscarriages, while toiling as a poor farmers wife.

For myself I reflect on having toted far too many barges and having lifted tens of thousands of bales in my rustic/rural youth and have covered that prospect of callow occupational therapy enough to say - as my father of blessed memory did say to me once in a moment I recall with startling clarity ”There is no such thing as a ’Good Days Work’ there is only Work”.

We have also laboured for hundreds of hours writing very bad poetry and producing mediocre art works so my artistic bent is satiated for the rest of my quickly dwindling spin on this mortal coil. I reflect on having now spent tens of thousands of hours on these infernal contraptions we call computers as a basic "Jack-of-all-words" outputting thousands of totally forgettable broadcast scripts …. and it hath brought me no emotional succour …. but it has provided the basics of food, clothing and shelter for me and mine.

So now I come to your weekly musings with expectation and hope of one who is still careworn (Retirement is still a dream) and I am seldom disappointed …. Today you have made by memory of the totes and lifts of yesteryear so much easier to place in context to other activities over the past six decades … Thank you kind sir!

The 'War' the author refers to is not solely against workers in America but is rather part of the continuing process by which those with the reins of power and influence can exploit the work of employees all over the world for maximum profit.

This is neither 'New' nor unfamiliar for those who observe the history of our species .... We are in desperate need of many stout hearted souls in the tradition of 'Joe Hill' .... These are the times when greater effort is called upon not solely from "The Giants Of Capitalism" as is urged by Congress and the Whitehouse .... but also a great effort must come from "The Leaders Of Humanism" found within the labour and rights movements ... who are needed to ensure that fair wages and decent working conditions for the powerless and defenseless are also given due diligence .... lest we slip back into the dark ages of that time when the "Robber Barons" of some malfeasance could exploit everyone -- right down to child labourers -- in order to maximize their profit ....

We, in order to preserve a just and a civil society, need a new crop of labour activists and 'union' leaders .... and they will have to come soon, or there will continue to be and increase in the ever exploitive carryings on of the worst aspects of globalization that is still in full bloom .... NUFF SAID!

Professor Krugman’s place in the pantheon of 21st century economics is established and secure by way of solid groundwork and an accurate, documented dichotomy that cannot be refuted with ease – hence the Nobel prize. One can question the relevancy of any particular media/political naysayer who would nit-pick in the extremis with what this superb economist has made plain for most thinking people to examine in the light of our current circumstances. To refute Krugman by way of a curt dismissive such as “15 minutes” is the equivalent to the tawdry deployment of an inherent bias just to make rational a shallow thesis of Luddite loquaciousness.

Inevitably Paul Krugman sees diminished end results as he questions the over arching trajectory that is being followed by the Obama fiscal appointees, a trajectory that carries us into not always uncharted waters for an astute economist. The using of different economic models and tools is a skill not to be demeaned by the pastiche of a clichéd retort and certainly is the core issue necessitating the refutation of those who would be so dismissive of Krugman’s measured critique’s and cautioning.

The current administration would be wise to draw this good economist ever closer to the inner circle of those upon whom has fallen the burden of rectification of the larger malaise that will be a long time in elucidation, diagnosis and treatment.