The ship is sinking; you figure out why
I would like to suggest to the readers of Plastic News: Spend about $75 and buy three books. Read them and then realize that the world is at the beginning of the end of the Industrial Age.
You must read the facts and the conclusions of these great people. I am 63 years old and have followed the course of business and our changing world. I have seen the predictions in these books come true. One of these books is 40 years old and was an international best seller. Its sequel expands on and corrects the first book. The third book is written for the layman. All are based on facts and accumulated knowledge to the year 2003.
Once you read these books you can reflect on the impact to the present day and what you can expect. You can make intelligent business decisions once you understand where we were, where we are and where we will be 50 years.
The books are, in order of publication: The Limits of Growth, by Meadows, Meadows, and Randers; Beyond the Limits of Growth, by Meadows, Meadows, and Randers; and The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies, by Richard Heinberg.
One other note: The Chinese are experiencing the effects of rapid expansion on their health as they dump toxic waste on the land, in the rivers and in the air. They are poisoning themselves.
Don't blame Mexico or China for your problems. You caused your own problems by not being informed about the future. All humans cause their own hardships by being out of sync with the world. Do not expect the United States to ever be the industrial giant it once was. All ships rise and fall with the tides. It is also true that all ships sink in time. It is for you to find out what is causing the sinking of ships.
Walter Bobruk
Agency Fibers Ltd.
Huntsville, Texas
Benefits cost the same for gay, straight spouse
The action of Creative Pultrusions Inc. joining the suit against homosexual unions in Pennsylvania, based upon benefits which might have to be made available to the same-sex spouse of an employee, seems ill-advised [``Executive joins suit against gay marriages,'' May 31, Page 4].
If an employee's spouse is entitled to certain benefits, what difference does it make to the company if the spouse is straight, gay or otherwise? The cost to the company is the same, perhaps even less if maternity benefits are part of the equation.
Mr. [Bob] Sweet prefers that his employees enter a heterosexual union. Accordingly, he would have no problem paying marital benefits to the straight spouse of a gay employee - a marriage of convenience to be sure - the difference being that the marriage would involve two individuals of different sex and therefore be blessed by Mr. Sweet.
Is this really something we should be reading about in Plastics News?
Louis H. Nevell
Los Angeles
