Sippican Cottage muses on the difference between working and making:
Unlike most of the world, I am not allowed to have the Process be the Product. At the end of the day there has to be something tangibly different with the world or we don't eat. Sometimes we don't eat anyway. Most of the world we inhabit now is all Process and no Product. What is Twitter, or Tumblr, or Facebook, or a million other things you could name that consist solely of: This is how I go, when I go like this.
The federal government thinks the process is the entire product. The public school system can produce only public school teachers. The EPA is now supposed to protect the air from humans. The Department of Energy doesn't make any, and would prefer you didn't as well --or else. Cities like Detroit are trying to exist with no population now. Search your mind. You'll have to search hard to find exceptions, not examples.
As I have complained more than once, talking about jobs and creating jobs misses the point. What matters is creating value. Not just something you value, or that has an abstract value, but something that has tradable value. Something you can exchange for food and shelter.
The speedometer doesn't make the car go faster. Showing up to a job is no guarantee that the effort is genuinely adding to the global wealth. Process is a cost, an expense. It may be necessary, but keeping busy isn’t a sustainable strategy. The process must lead to a product. Otherwise, after all the effort, somebody ends up more hungry than if we didn’t go through the process at all.
cHenry Herbert LIFA filters, Abe Cohen's Exchange Inventory Clearance Sale 1937
cKalart Synchornized Rangefinder, Leica Manual, Modern Photography annual 1937
cLeica, camera insurance 1937
cThalhammer "Midget" Tripod, DuPont film 1937![Tue, 2024-09-17 08:22 - The Kuppenheimer Clothing Company is known for having commissioned American illustrator J.C. Leyendecker to create hundreds of paintings to be used in their print ads.
[Note: By the mid-1990s, Kuppenheimer sales were lagging, many of its stores were closing, and it entered into bankruptcy. Kuppenheimer was purchased in 1997 by the Men's Warehouse suit retailer, who closed many more Kuppenheimer stores and eventually folded the Kuppenheimer business into its own.]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54001145677_bfb87bac93_q.jpg "Tue, 2024-09-17 08:22 - The Kuppenheimer Clothing Company is known for having commissioned American illustrator J.C. Leyendecker to create hundreds of paintings to be used in their print ads.
[Note: By the mid-1990s, Kuppenheimer sales were lagging, many of its stores were closing, and it entered into bankruptcy. Kuppenheimer was purchased in 1997 by the Men's Warehouse suit retailer, who closed many more Kuppenheimer stores and eventually folded the Kuppenheimer business into its own.]")
©Illustration by J. C. Leyendecker for the Kuppenheimer Clothing Co. ad in “The Saturday Evening Post,” April 1, 1916.![Tue, 2024-09-17 08:54 - “Any car owner (regardless of make of tire used) may have his tires inspected, air tested, inflated, dismounted and assembled, spare wheel mounted, etc., absolutely free of charge. This service – always free – always uniform, is rendered by representatives whose courtesy and skilled attention are enjoyed alike by the man or woman driver. This is the Most Complete, Most Widespread Tire Service in the Country.” [From the ad copy]](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54002366924_a2e9647aeb_q.jpg "Tue, 2024-09-17 08:54 - “Any car owner (regardless of make of tire used) may have his tires inspected, air tested, inflated, dismounted and assembled, spare wheel mounted, etc., absolutely free of charge. This service – always free – always uniform, is rendered by representatives whose courtesy and skilled attention are enjoyed alike by the man or woman driver. This is the Most Complete, Most Widespread Tire Service in the Country.” [From the ad copy]")
©Two-page ad for “Fisk – A New Kind of Tire Service” in “The Saturday Evening Post,” April 1, 1916. Illustrated by Will Foster.
